Help choosing an Ex HD for 12" PB

[windsor_richard]

People on macosx.com, i need your advice.
I've had my Powerbook since September last year with no problems other than loseing the ] key after dropping a very heavy book on it (they are buggers to replace... i've found the keys for all other powerbook models other than the 12").
Anyway, i'm looking to get hold of an external HD to hold pretty much all of my data to speed up the machine. It has 768 MBRAM inside, is getting an external drive going to help? Can i put items such as applications and music there for general use?
What do i buy that will be compatible, where from and for how much?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Richard

 

[windsor_richard]

Bear in mind that i'm a student on a budget!! Not looking for anything massive either really! Thanks!

 

[ora]

Hi Richard,

On what you can move to an external hd - for music its fine (i keep my itunes library externally), for applications its not so easy, i believe a bunch of apps have to be in the Apps folder, or at least on the internal hd.

Adding an external HD won't necessarily speed your machine. In terms of keeping internal hd space free, you should leave around 10%, (sometimes i hear up to 15) for swapfiles, otherwise the machine does slow down, but other than that its not so crucial.

Since you are a student, you qualify for the Apple educational discount though sadly the prices seem the same as the normal stores for HD's but worth knowing about for other bits, To get there, go to http://store.apple.com/Catalog/uk/Images/routingpage.html and go for the "Applestore for Higher eduction" if you are on the college network, else the "Applestore for eduction" one and enter the name of your Uni.

Anyway, HDs

Lacie d2 160gb triple interface (USB2/fw400.fw800)- useful for dealing with pcs or if one of your ports fails.
£129 in vat and free shipping from apple store online
£116 from Cancom (www.cancomuk.com), but you'll probably pay shipping
£116 from Computer Warehouse (www.cwonline.co.uk)also prob plus shipping

Lacie d2 250gb triple interface
£169 from applestore
£155 from cancom
£157 from Computer Warehouse


There are slighly cheaper 'portable' drives, but they are not much cheaper and a lot smaller, eg there is a 40gb smart-disk one on the apple site, but its still £99, so you may as well pay the extra for a 160gb

Have fun!

 

[The Ghost]

Anyway, i'm looking to get hold of an external HD to hold pretty much all of my data to speed up the machine. It has 768 MBRAM inside, is getting an external drive going to help?

Puting your data on the external won't speed things up particularly unless your internal is too close to full. The only way an external would speed things up appreciably is if it is a higher RPM drive than your internal and you choose to start up to it. And, as far as I know, drives that are higher RPM than your pBook internal are low capacity and not inexpensive (e.g., Raptors). If your pBook is slowish, then you may need more RAM. Do you have many, or excessively long, SBBODs. And, do you have excessive pageouts. If yes to these questions, then you may have a RAM shortage. Also, speeding up a machine sometimes can be accomplished by doing basic maintenance/troubleshooting. Post back if you want suggestions.

Can i put items such as applications and music there for general use?
What do i buy that will be compatible, where from and for how much?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Richard

Yes, but I would not put applications on an external unless I intend to start up from it. In your shoes, if I wanted an external, then I would buy a LaCie Porsche design firewire 400 (even though you may have firewire 800) 250 GB (or smaller) external--about $200 for the 250 GB (much bang for the buck). I would clone my internal to it for disaster recovery, a natural backup medium, and to hold pBook overflow (which, if important, should be backed up elsewhere).