# Which external Ethernet HDD should I buy?



## kebosma (Oct 19, 2007)

I want to buy an external Harddisk to backup all of my photo's music etc.

The quality of this harddisk should be very good, since otherwise it doesn't make sence to use it as a backup drive...

I also want to have it placed in my home network, so that I can use it with all my macs and guest computers, preferrably at the same time.

The capacity should be around 250GB.

Speed should be good of course, both for reading and writing.

What do people on this forum use and what can one recommend to buy? I don't have any experience with choosing an external ethernet HDD, and there are so may on the market...


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## g/re/p (Oct 20, 2007)

I don't use an ethernet external, but i have had excellent luck with the 250 GB external firewire drive i bought from macsales.com:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/usb/eliteclassic

my drive: http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/ME2FW7250GBJ/


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## g/re/p (Oct 20, 2007)

Question: i know you can boot to an OS X boot image on an external firewire drive, but can you do this with an ethernet external?


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## elander (Oct 20, 2007)

For backup, check this out instead:
http://www.jungledisk.com/

15¢/month for a GB, and automatic backup over Internet. I've installed it for a whole bunch of customers. I even use it myself...


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## SGilbert (Oct 20, 2007)

I've had, and recommended, quite a few externals over the years.  Only one that ever failed was Maxtor. (Never nuy that again!)  Be sure to get Firewire (in addition to USB)  Seems the "el cheapos" only use USB.  Most do not say who makes the actual HD; brand is the case maker


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## chevy (Oct 20, 2007)

I would wait for time machine before investing in any back-up system. In the mean time, I use DVD-R (lowest cost solution: 10x DVD-R = 50 GB for 10 CHF).


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## eric2006 (Oct 20, 2007)

You can share a Firewire drive attached to your iMac - this will likely be faster than a NAS drive. If you want really fast performance, install a gigabit network that you can plug your laptop into for backups, or a wireless N network.


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## aicul (Oct 20, 2007)

chevy said:


> I would wait for time machine before investing in any back-up system.



Fully agree, I have had echos (I believe reliable) that timemachine uses up backup hard disk very quickly. 

If you plan to use timemachine, wait and see what the requirements for the external drive are so that you buy the right size disk.

Only 6 days left.


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## fryke (Oct 20, 2007)

Actually, Time Machine simply uses what's there - and very well so. 

1.) It first backs up completely, so you have one full, complete backup.
2.) Now it adds, every hour, any changes.
3.) After 24h it deletes the hourly changes and keeps a daily change.
4.) After a week it forgets the daily changes and keeps a weekly change.


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## aicul (Oct 20, 2007)

Thanks fryke, you somewhat confirm what I was told. 

If you extensively use you machine, the timemachine backup can be bigger than the original (full+weekly+6*daily+23*hour).

I think attention should be given to choosing the right size for the backup disk.


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## eric2006 (Oct 20, 2007)

aicul said:


> Thanks fryke, you somewhat confirm what I was told.
> 
> If you extensively use you machine, the timemachine backup can be bigger than the original (full+weekly+6*daily+23*hour).
> 
> I think attention should be given to choosing the right size for the backup disk.



You can tell Time Machine to only backup certain files. For example, if you have tons of apps installed, but you can easily re-download them, you could set it up to only backup - for example, documents and library. You can also set how far back you want to save. However, if you want a complete backup, I would get a drive at least 2x your system size.


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