Ok so the 200 gb i got is 75% full of music/movies/tv shows so I'm ready to buy a terabyte drive. i dont know much about computers and their parts lol but from a first round of researching im leaning towards this one: Newegg.com - TOSHIBA 1TB USB 3.0 Black with Silver Accents Canvio 3.0 Plus Portable Hard Drive E05A100PBU3XS im looking for something simple that i could just drag and drop all of media to and then can hook right into my tv to watch. is this drive even compatible with my macbook?? im so overwhelmed lol help plz!!
In my experience with External drives, you can't really go to wrong unless you buy some weird off brand(i've never done so, but i would imagine some of those will be more likely to have problems). When i look for externals i generally just look at the size and price of it. I don't generally care too much about the transfer speeds etc on my externals because i generally just use it for storage with stuff i don't use to much, or as back up drives(it also won't matter too muchif you are just using it to watch movies or play music). I personally have always leaned towards Western Digital drives, i have a 500gb My Essentials WD Drive(its actually not functioning atm, but thats cause i dropped it ). The one hesitation i would say about that is my drive came with some software preloaded(which i didn't use and just used it as a drag and drop type drive) but i don't know if that will cause any issues of compatibility on a mac. After WD i also have an older 320gb Seagate external, and have never had any issues with that(also is only used by dragging in dropping in the Windows Explorer). The main thing that i really don't know about is what type of compatibility issues with a Mac, but almost everyone of the external harddrives i have used have been used just by dragging and dropping(i know i've used several WD drives, my seagate drive, a toshiba drive, and another one that im not sure what type it was). Here is a website that might also help: What You Should Consider Before You Buy an External Hard Drive Also just found this, but it looks like newegg has a specific category for Mac hard drives, as well as WD has a seperate line of mac compatible hard drives. Hope this helps, hopefully a Mac user will give their input/suggestions too. Cause I am a lifelong Windows user.
Things to keep in mind: 1) You can generally build your own external drive cheaper than you can buy a pre-built one. 2) Western Digital "green" drives are awesome for external enclosures... they're designed for external use and produce little heat, so they last forever... 3) USB 3.0 only works at 3.0 speeds in "pairs"... if you have a 3.0 drive and a 2.0 controller, it's not USB 3.0. Same with a 3.0 controller and 2.0 drive. If you have both a 3.0 drive and a 3.0 controller (as I have with my laptop and USB3 enclosure), shit is FUCKING FAST. 4) eSATA is the runner-up for connectivity if you have it on your PC. If you've got an eSATA port, grab an eSATA drive or enclosure. 5) USB 2.0 is limited to about 25MB/s, which is less than half what a modern drive can transfer at, so use that as a last resort. Now, some resources. Bing: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB Bang: FILEMATE 3.5" USB 2.0 eSATA External SATA HDD Enclosure or Element 3.5" USB3.0 to SATA HDD Enclosure Bong : SIL3132 Chipset 2 Port ExpressCard/34 ESATA/SATA or PCI Express Serial ATA (SATA II) Card 2 e-SATA Port or Express Card Expresscard 54 to USB 3.0 x 2 Port or KEYDEX 2-Port USB 3.0 PCI-E Express NEC Interface Card Filtered each of those product selections from personal experience... I personally own the 1tb WD drive, the Filemate USB2/eSATA enclosure, and a Keydex USB3.0 2.5" enclosure (so I trust their USB3 products). The rest look reputable based on their location and sales history. You might not need any adapter cards if you already have the ports on your PC, though, so be sure to "look before you leap" on those. I included adapter cards for both desktop and laptop, so choose ExpressCard or PCIe based on if you have a laptop or desktop. edit: Ohhhh, Macbook. Right. Bing: Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Green WD10EARS 1TB Bang: FILEMATE 3.5" USB 2.0 eSATA External SATA HDD Enclosure Bong : eSATA II ExpressCard/34 Converter for Laptop Mac Vista That should do it edit edit: Of course, this would also work for "bing" and "bang" to save some cash, but it's not WD... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145467
Just buy an enclosure and a drive secondary to the fact. This way you know that if the drive enclosure dies you dont lose the drive. The externals which are enclosure + drive encapsulated together break quicker and are not easily fixed, you want an external with seperate parts. Now that being said, Iomega has some great enclosures with seagate drives at 1tb for under $75 at most stores.