# Good External for Time Machine



## TuckerdogAVL (Nov 14, 2009)

Quick Question: I just purchased a 500gb Seagate External (the plastic one) at OfficeMax, and upon checking out, noticed that it is "compatible with Windows Vista, EP." Okay. But no mention of the Mac. The salesperson said, "oh, yeah, it will just ask you if you want to format for the Mac, blah blah blah," so I got home and googled the hard drive. Arrggh. 

So, here's the question: I want to get something that is 1)at least 500gb and 2) around $85-100 to use with Time Machine, soon to upgrade to Snow leopard. Is this okay...will it be okay...or should I just go for the 1TB Seagate Free-whatver for $109 (This was 85)....both are 7200 RPM. 

Is Hitachi worth looking at?

The whole reason for this is I have a LACIE 320GB that has died. What happens is that it will back up. Work fine...as long as the computer doesn't go to sleep. If it does, I can reformat the drive, then back up again....and it all appears to work fine...until we go to sleep again....then, I have to reformat because the drive won't mount. So, that sort of defeats the purpose. 

Any suggestions regarding the brand and price would be great. Office Max is sort of a req as I have $20 discount for it. 
Thanks again. 

Tuckerdog in Asheville


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## earthsaver (Nov 14, 2009)

I can't say about enclosures from hard disk manufacturers but there are good hard disk models from all the major brands: Hitachi, Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung. I recommend looking at them at Other World Computing, where they've been equally tested.

There should be nothing wrong with the one you bought, though it may be worth seeing if the model of hard disk inside that enclosure matches one of the ones OWC sells.


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## Satcomer (Nov 14, 2009)

My network advice is not to get Time Machine. Just get the Airport Extreme and then plug into the Extreme USB port and Time Machine will support it. It will be cheaper and you will get the same result! One advice that wholly agree with earthsaver is use the enclosure s from OWC. I had used their drives since the 10.4.x days and they are still going strong. since they included all the cables for whatever ports on the back makes them the no brainer (if you are in the USA or Canada).

The import advice I can give is when using Time Machine on a wireless network is do the initial first Time Machine back will wired to the device because the initial backup is so large.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Nov 14, 2009)

I highly recommend the Western Digital 1TB Elements drive.  It's 1TB of space in a nice, rugged, clean enclosure that's quiet and energy efficient.  It's not the fastest thing in the world, but it's cheap (just over $100) and spacious.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136321&Tpk=wd 1tb elements
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...EdpNo=4376839&sku=W10-9012&srkey=1tb elements

I have 5 of them hooked to my Mac mini, one of which serves as my Time Machine drive.  I think I'm addicted to collecting these... I'm feeling the urge to order just one more!


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## lbj (Nov 15, 2009)

If you can wait a week or so, do. Can't hurt to see what Black Friday brings.  My rule of thumb is no more than .10 (10 cents) per MB unless I need something today.  These things are on sale all the time.  Ditto EDCC's Elements comments. Great Drive and good price.  I'm addicted to FW myself and have begun the enclosure route with good WD drives inside.  Wait 2 weeks, OM always has great Black Friday offerings.


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## TuckerdogAVL (Nov 15, 2009)

Satcomer said:


> My network advice is not to get Time Machine. Just get the Airport Extreme and then plug into the Extreme USB port and Time Machine will support it. It will be cheaper and you will get the same result! One advice that wholly agree with earthsaver is use the enclosure s from OWC. I had used their drives since the 10.4.x days and they are still going strong. since they included all the cables for whatever ports on the back makes them the no brainer (if you are in the USA or Canada).
> 
> The import advice I can give is when using Time Machine on a wireless network is do the initial first Time Machine back will wired to the device because the initial backup is so large.



Time Machine is packaged with 10.5.8. I was using it because it seemed simple, but it does seem to want to constantly back up back up....like every hour!


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## earthsaver (Nov 15, 2009)

Yep, Time Machine is a simple backup tool that keeps your system backed up and archived regularly and ensures you can retrieve deleted files if necessary. Unless you are creating and changing very large files, this archiving doesn't actually take up that much disk space. I prefer Time Machine's ease of use to other solutions.


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## Satcomer (Nov 15, 2009)

TuckerdogAVL said:


> Time Machine is packaged with 10.5.8. I was using it because it seemed simple, but it does seem to want to constantly back up back up....like every hour!



You can fix that with freeware software. It is called Time Machine Editor, or you could do it manually if you are nerdy enough.


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## Mikuro (Nov 15, 2009)

Pretty much any HD should work. Don't worry too much if it says something like "Works with Vista" but doesn't mention Macs. It's just marketing. Some drives have buttons on them that are supposed to do things with your computer like initiate a backup. Maybe those buttons won't work on your Mac, but you probably won't care.


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## Zazizizou (Nov 15, 2009)

If you're willing to pay more than $50, I suggest you buy a recovery software or just go to an Apple store to change it (It may cost you some money) According to my experience, An external hard disc is the last thing I think about as a solution especially for laptops... Any way, a visit to an Apple will be useful, I think.
I hope you'll fix this soon.


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## TuckerdogAVL (Nov 16, 2009)

Well, I have to do something because the LACIE is not mountable after the system is put to sleep. It's very weird. It works fine backing up as long as the computer isn't put to sleep or shut down. If it is, the disk isn't "seen," and disk utility will not verify. So, if I erase everything - and start over - everything is fine, until the system goes to sleep again. Weird. 

I plan on taking the Seagate back, however, and getting either a Western Digital or the Seagate Passport, a smaller less obtrusive version. 

* * * *
On a different note: I don't know who is doing this, but I had nothing to do with the hot links to VENDING whatever that is peppered throughout this post. Someone apparently is hijacking the post and putting their advertisements throughout the replies.


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## fryke (Nov 16, 2009)

I don't recommend changing TimeMachine's schedule to wider intervals. If you *EVER* lose two hours of hard work, you'll thank me for it, because you'll find at least the work of an hour ago on your TimeMachine backup. Does it *really* bother you that it backs up every hour? If you haven't copied GBs of data in the past hour, it'll only take a moment to backup the changes.


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## earthsaver (Nov 16, 2009)

Is the Lacie a bus-powered drive?, that is, powered over USB or FireWire by your computer, or is it self-powered?, connected to an electrical outlet. If the former, then it's likely to power off when the system sleeps. The recommendation is to unmount these "portable" drives before sleeping whereas you can leave a "desktop" drive mounted through sleep because it's still powered. You just shouldn't leave a desktop drive mounted, sleep the computer, disconnect the drive, and wake the computer.


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## TuckerdogAVL (Nov 16, 2009)

Earthsaver: Interesting. Didn't know that. Yes, it has a power source. By unmounting, if you mean dragging to the trash, then turning off, I did try that the first time. The computer didn't recognize the disk upon restarting the external. So, I erased and reformatted. I guess I could try this one more time. 

If I erase the external it will be recognized. I am formatting as MAC Extended (journaled). First, is this setting okay? 

Second, if I do this, then, it will show up "untitled" on the computer's desktop. So, after I begin time machine (and TM worked fine for the day this last time...can't even begin to figure out how to restore yet....so many b/us from which to choose)....and it finishes, the sequence should be: 
1) unmount by dragging to the desktop? Or, launch disk utility and click "unmount." Or, is there a difference. 
2) turn off the external
3) put the computer to sleep. 
4) Then, wake the computer. 
5) turn on the external. 
6) see if it shows up on the desktop? 

Thanks.


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## earthsaver (Nov 16, 2009)

There are always a number of ways to accomplish the same thing. Your 1&#8211;6 series looks fine. Extended (Journaled) is correct. Time Machine restoration is simpler than you think: the intention when you enter Time Machine is to find the file or file version you want to restore and to restore it. Most people do this by searching for the item they want in the Finder and then using Time Machine to locate it.


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## Mikuro (Nov 16, 2009)

fryke said:


> I don't recommend changing TimeMachine's schedule to wider intervals. If you *EVER* lose two hours of hard work, you'll thank me for it, because you'll find at least the work of an hour ago on your TimeMachine backup. Does it *really* bother you that it backs up every hour? If you haven't copied GBs of data in the past hour, it'll only take a moment to backup the changes.



It's often a real performance killer for me. It usually takes several minutes just to prepare to copy files, all the while hitting the disk hard. Sometimes it can even take half an hour. I know it shouldn't and I can't explain why it does, but it does.

I've actually disabled Time Machine and only trigger it manually from the menu. When I take a break, I select "Back Up Now". Before that I just cancelled the backups frequently when they started, but that was annoying.

I'm pretty happy with Time Machine overall, but it's not perfect. I probably should change the interval and leave it on. That way if I forget to start my backups manually it won't get TOO bad. Letting it go every hour is just too much for me.

And now that I've reminded myself, let me choose "Back Up Now" and go grab a drink....

Edit: and 8 minutes later it's still only at 3.6 of 13.5 MB. And it's been there for a full 2 minutes.


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## TuckerdogAVL (Nov 17, 2009)

I took the Seagate External back and got the seagate FreeAgent because it is smaller. It has Auto BACKUP and SYNC SOFTWARE FOR PC printed all over the box. Are we cool as a Mac b/u before I open the box? I assume so. USB 2.0. No power apparently.

Also says "FreeAgent software pre-loaded on drive (Windows only). Am I going to run into trouble or can I reformat to "MAC Extended, journaled" with no problemos......
!
G


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## earthsaver (Nov 17, 2009)

Portable drives usually get enough power over USB. Should have no trouble formatting. Still, I would have gone for a multi-interface drive with all the necessary cables from OWC.


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## TuckerdogAVL (Nov 22, 2009)

so, how do I reformat the drive for the mac if it doesn't show up in disk utility?
(OOPS....never mind. I discovered it wasn't plugged in all the way on the drive end. Duh...we'll see what happens next!)>


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## g/re/p (Nov 22, 2009)

Satcomer said:


> My network advice is not to get Time Machine. Just get the Airport Extreme and then plug into the Extreme USB port and Time Machine will support it. It will be cheaper and you will get the same result! One advice that wholly agree with earthsaver is use the enclosure s from OWC. I had used their drives since the 10.4.x days and they are still going strong. since they included all the cables for whatever ports on the back makes them the no brainer (if you are in the USA or Canada).
> 
> The import advice I can give is when using Time Machine on a wireless network is do the initial first Time Machine back will wired to the device because the initial backup is so large.




I think someone has hacked Satcomers account^^^??


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