External Hard drive for Mac

euglycaemia

I bought a Mac recently which has come with 160GB hard drive.

http://store.apple.com/uk/configure/MB466B/A?mco=MTkzOTI5MQ
[This doesn't have firewall?]

I want to buy an external hard drive as I need more space...

Is there anything specific I should look for? like compatibility?

OR any external hard drive on the market will work?

Please suggest.....

hotkee

Anything should work (I think), its the format of the hard disk which counts but you can format it once you got it. I would get an external 2.5 inch SATA driver of whatever size you need with mini USB connector (assuming you have that connector on the mac) or standard USB connector if you aint.

And most likely you could get the drive cheaper from places like ebuyer and ebay (new).

Marty_J

Pretty much anything with a USB connection (or FireWire if your Mac has it) will work.

Some come formatted as NTFS, so you might have to reformat the drive once you get it. Choose Mac OS Extended if you're just going to be only using it on your Mac, or MS-DOS to format it as FAT32 which can then be used with Windows computers.

This is pretty good value:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-External-Desktop-Hard-Drive/dp/B001BG4QS4/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1242723708&sr=8-4

And from what I hear, an excellent drive.

It'll look good beside your Mac too, which as we all know, is the important thing.

timbim_2

Can Macs not read/write NTFS? Even Linux can.

Marty_J

timbim wrote: »

Can Macs not read/write NTFS? Even Linux can.

Mac OS X can read NTFS, but not write to it. Not natively anyway.

NTFS-3G can be used on a Mac, which is what Linux distros use for NTFS as far I know.

Best to stick with HFS+ unless Windows compatibility is required.

timbim_2

Linux uses NTFS-3g, automatically unless you are mounting the drive yourself from the terminal, and forget to put in the -3g bit. Is HFS+ anything like ext3?

Marty_J

They're both journaled file-systems, but aside from that I don't know how similar they are.

HFS+ was developed by Apple as a replacement for their HFS file-system, which had been around since the mid 80s and pre-dates ext.

M4RKM

i've got one of these shiny seagate 1.5tb drives, that works on fw800... it's a beauty... clicky here for play.com link


they also do a 500gb and 1tb versions.... mmmmm fw800

euglycaemia

Thanks very much for all your reply...

I know this is been on the market for some time now...any comments?
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-6510.aspx

vandanfc

Macworld rate this one. It's not the biggest, but seems good. We now have 2 of them.

SEAGATE Portable External Hard Drive 320GB Free Agent Go Mac

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/martprd/store/pcw_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0959575311.1242727794@@@@&BV_EngineID=cceladehfellfmicflgceggdhhmdgmk.0&page=Product&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null&sku=217078&category_oid=

vandanfc

euglycaemia wrote: »

Thanks very much for all your reply...

I know this is been on the market for some time now...any comments?
http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-6510.aspx

Have alook at this thread first:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1434789&highlight=iomega+1tb&page=2