Hard drive back up options (looking for affordable drive options)

A

aluminum

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I'm notoriously lazy when it comes to making CD backups of my data.

So...I'm going to use HDs instead. Here's what I'd like to to do:

- Get a 120gig HD for the desktop G4. This will be backup drive for the G4's main drive (40gig) and the TiBook's drive (30gig) plus extra space as a file server.

- Get a 120gig external HD. This will then mirror the G4 drive on a regular basis and be stored off-site.

So, I was looking for some advice on the above drives. To brands make a big difference? For every brand I ask about, I seem to get equal 'they're great!' and 'stay away from them!' responses.

Sam's club has a 160gig Western Digital internal for $150, which seems like a decent deal.

The other option I was considering was to purchase a cheap PC (I need a windows box anyways) and have it built with a 120gig drive and a DVD burner. I can get that for baout $700. Then I'd swap the HD + DVD burner with the drives in my Mac, and then use the HD + DVD as a backup system.

Thoughts?
 
Of course, one drawback to swapping drives in the PC is that I'd use up a day installing XP on the old Mac drive. ;o)
 
You are going through an awful lot of work just to make a backup.

Just make a CD of your home folder and downloads.
 
Cheryl:

I have 80+ gigs to backup. I really don't want to burn 100+ CDs to backup my system. ;o)

A DVD burner would be marginally easier. But still, that requires time on a regular basis. I'd really prefer just having a large drive that I could mirror occasionaly (or better yet, sync) and store off site.
 
If you get a 120 GB drive to back up the G4's 40 GB and the PB's 30 GB, you should partition it into 80 GB and 40 GB, giving you 80 GB to back up the two drives and 40 GB to use as a file server. This way you don't introduce conflicts between your system backups and your shared files.

You can always get an external drive for your offsite idea with no real problems. Check out www.epinions.com for consumer reviews and www.pricewatch.com for dirt-cheap prices.

I don't know how well you'd be able to swap drives from a PC to your Mac. The drives have to use the exact same bus specs, like 100 Mhz IDE or something like that (I don't know the exact speed, but the idea's the same). I'd say get the hard drive and DVD burner specifically for your Mac, and just get something to use for your PC. I recommend using a Pioneer AV-105 (is this the specific designation? It's close to this) because that's the drive that Apple uses and officially supports in their computers.

WD, Seagate, Maxtor and IBM all make great drives. I'd steer clear of La Cie because we've had some flakes from their drives, but you can make your own decision when it comes time to buy.
 
arden:

I was under the impression that the drive speed (AIDE specs) didn't really matter unless you actually wanted to use it at the full speed. In otherwords, I've never had to buy a HD based on a specific speed.

Am I wrong?
 
Drive speed affects read/write time. You'll notice a difference between a 5400 RPM drive and a 15,000 RPM drive, to go extreme, when doing a number of tasks, including copying lots of little files, copying large files, and importing digital video, to name a few. I suggest you look for a drive at 7200 RPM or better.

What I meant above, though, was bus speed. You have to make sure that the interface for the drives is the same. You can't use an internal SCSI drive in any G3+, for example, because they all use internal IDE buses, unless specifically configured otherwise. Also, the speed of your drive bus may make a difference, but I'm not sure about compatibility/performance with regards to bus speed.
 
Ah, yes, I wasn't clean either. I will be getting a 7200 rpm drive.

As for bus speed, my understanding, at least with IDE is that faster is fine, but I just won't see the speed unless my machine can handle it (most G4s can't without a new card). So, it'll work fine, I just won't get the same advantages as a system with a faster bus speed.
 
Umm...I don't think we're very good at communicating with each other, arden. ;o)

Let me try this again. Here is my interpretation of things:

HDs come in different bus speeds. If you want to take advantage of the faster HD Bus speed, you need a machine that has the same Bus speed. If you don't, the drive will still work, just not at the top speed of the drive.

Can anyone tell me if my logic is correct?
 
I really don't know. I suggest you go for a drive with the same speed as your system's bus, because a faster speed will be wasted on a slower bus if it's even compatible.

Here is a comparison chart for hard drives.
 
You are correct aluminium. Almost all drives now (except old stock) are ATA133, SCSI or Serial ATA. My G4 only has ATA-100 on the motherboard. That doesnt mean i'm going to go and look for an ATA100 drive. Buy the drive with the best $/mb ratio, that you can afford. The price between 5400 and 7200rpm is negligable nowadays, and you may find that an extra $20 will get you 20Gb extra. As for buying "mac specific" hardware.. For everyday hardware, the only thing that is mac specific in most G4s is the motherboard/cpu, and video card (the firmware/nvram differs from pcs, plus the ADC). Hard drives are the same, as is ram, optical drives, etc. Normally you will pay a premium for getting stuff from a mac shop, largely because they think people are gullible. Find a good price/model on the net, search for articles/info about that model on relevant sites, (Apple.com/itunes or roxio.com/toast for CD-RW, DVD-RW) xlr8yourmac for anything, etc, and then buy it from wherever is cheapest.
 
Pengu:

Thanks. Today, I went and got a 160gig WD HD from best buy for $99 (AMIR). Not bad.

New question: It came with a Ultra ATA controller PCI card. What should I do with this? Can I install in my G4? The WD site doesn't mention any drivers for this card, so I'm not sure if I should bother.
 
Hmm, you didn't get a drive compatible with your computer, at least not initially. You'll need to install the card to use the drive.

Pull the latch on the side of your computer to expose the insides (the G4 should be off, BTW). Install the PCI card in a fitting slot, install the drive in a free bay, and connect the ATA cable from the card to the drive. I doubt you need any drivers to be able to use this drive.
 
arden...the drive will work fine as-is in my G4. I'm just wondering if using the PCI card will offer any advantages. I might as well plop it in there and give it a shot, I suppose.
 
Give it a go Alu.. The PCI bus may be a bottleneck though.

On a related, but different note, I'm thinking about getting another drive for my G4, (i have the orig. 20g and a 40g) but i obviously have no plugs left on the primary IDE ribbon. Does anyone know if a HDD will create too much heat to put it under the DVD, where the Zip drive goes (on the models that have it)??
 
Well, I'm placing the 160gig drive under the DVD burner. A MacTech told me that was fine. I don't think HDs really product that much heat, but I'm no expert, either.
 
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