Portable hard drives

[in2thegapagain85]

I'm looking to get a new usb hard drive so that I can easily transfer stuff between my Mac and my buddies PC. Any suggestions on quality brands that you haven't had problems going between platforms with?

[vxboogie]

I'm looking to get a new usb hard drive so that I can easily transfer stuff between my Mac and my buddies PC. Any suggestions on quality brands that you haven't had problems going between platforms with?

I've had fairly good luck with the LaCie drives.

[sessionsatstudiom]

I'm looking to get a new usb hard drive so that I can easily transfer stuff between my Mac and my buddies PC. Any suggestions on quality brands that you haven't had problems going between platforms with?

I have had lots of trouble with lacie. But my experience was a few years ago. I am working with western digital drives now. I have one that is FAT 32 so I can go between mac and pc easily.

Mike

[vvv]

Ha! I've had two WD IDE's and 2 USB's go bad in the last 3-4 years, me.

I am using Simple brand, and, eh, I recently bought another WD.

[JGriffin]

Seems like there are two kinds of hard drive manufacturers: those whose drives have a reputation for failing, and those whose drives are going to have a reputation for failing.

[Snarl 12/8]

It seems to me as if the reputation for failing circulates around the big (5 or 6?) drive manufacturers in about a 4 or 5 year cycle. A few years ago I never woulda bought a WD and now it kinda seems like the good brand.

[Bro Shark]

http://www.macsales.com/

[fossiltooth]

http://www.macsales.com/

Agreed. I've had a few of their OWC Mercury Elites forever. Solid stuff, good guys.

[mrc]

None of them have worked well after I dropped or kicked them over while they were turned on

[cavemusic]

I'm looking to get a new usb hard drive so that I can easily transfer stuff between my Mac and my buddies PC. Any suggestions on quality brands that you haven't had problems going between platforms with?

I've used several different brands: Seagate, Western Digital, Fujitsu, etc. and they've all worked fine. And I've moved between between Win, OSX and Linux with the drives. The drive has to be formatted with NTFS so that Win can understand it, and you need NTFS-3G installed on the Mac in order to read and write to it. You could use FAT-32, but there is a size limitation.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/s ... tfs3g.html

[ott0bot]

I'm looking to get a new usb hard drive so that I can easily transfer stuff between my Mac and my buddies PC. Any suggestions on quality brands that you haven't had problems going between platforms with?

I've used several different brands: Seagate, Western Digital, Fujitsu, etc. and they've all worked fine. And I've moved between between Win, OSX and Linux with the drives. The drive has to be formatted with NTFS so that Win can understand it, and you need NTFS-3G installed on the Mac in order to read and write to it. You could use FAT-32, but there is a size limitation.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/s ... tfs3g.html

Hey that's nifty I gotta download that! I usually use a smaller partition that is fat 23 and have the rest OSX formatted, since the size limitation only applies to single files that are over 4gb. Not usually a problem in PT's since the audio files are in a different folder, but maybe an issue in other DAW's.

Personally almost any HD brand can be good if you don't get a lemon. The key is how you take care of it. Properly disconnecting, turning off when not needed, allowing it to cool down before transport, being careful when inputing and removing cables, having a decent case to avoid damage, keeping it clean, avoiding extremely dusty areas, allowing it to have space for ventalation when operating...etc.

What I'd look for is a drive that is 7200rpm and has the newest Oxford chipset(934 now, I think). Connection wise...Firewire 800 and usb connections, and possibly fw 400 since so many interfaces still use that and you can daisy chain of the interface. You may want to look at eSata if you are using a PC or you have a PCI eSata card on a mac pro tower. that is. You may also want something that can be bus powered with firewire so it's even more portable.

I have a HD from Oyen Digital that has functioned properly for 3 years now. I use it for my itunes library now.
Check out there stuff: http://oyendigital.com/

I was looking at the minipro with fw 400/800 and USB:
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/stor ... 500-M.html

Those Mercury Elite Al-Pro units seem good too, and the mini version is bus powered.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/

Also had good luck with the Lacie Quadra, and they make a bus powered version called the Little Big disk. The LaCie Rugged series is also been reliable from my experience. Just make sure they are the 7200rpm models. The LaCie customer service isn't great though, and sometimes they can be sticklers about the warranty.

yep.

[radical recording]

I've had 4 Western Digital drives fail on me in the past two years. They were kind enough to send me free replacements, but 2 of those have failed since then. No problems (so far) with LaCie or Seagate.

[kslight]

I just bought a triple interface (FireWire 400/800/USB) LaCie "rugged" portable drive. A bit expensive @$115 for 500gb but I like it because my Mac has FireWire 800 and my drummer's has 400, and USB if I encounter a need for that... It's very fast for transfers and does not have a power supply!

[radical recording]

I have that same LaCie hard drive and I love it. Been using it for recording outside of the studio with the laptop.

[scollins149]

I use an OYEN digital with my PT 9 setup. It's very compact, so it's great with my traveling rig...HP laptop, MBox2. It all fits in a backpack with room to spare. No issues so far, and I've had it for 6 months. I have an Iomega in my permanent basement studio. No problems there, either.