External Hard Drive for iMac....1 or 2?

If your HD is only 500gb, then it would only seem logical to get one external drive, since it doesn't hold even close to 1tb. If you are thinking about the time capsule, which is both 1tb and 2tb, then that yould be a good way to go. It is a wireless base station and works as a time machine backup. It also can work as an external hard drive for your songs and such, but be aware that it would be kinda klunky to drag around. I have an exteral HD that is not a time capsule and works with Time Machine and as an exteranl HD. So, you only need one. But be sure to consider your options before buying because time capsule is kinda expensive (starts at $299).

I would break it down to two different drives having one for my media and one for my back ups. They are so cheap right now. Then if a drive goes out you only lose one thing and you have a back up of it anyway. I use 1 hard drive for my back up and use Super Duper to make a bootable back up and then I have another hard drive that my music and movies are on. I also have Carbonite to have an off site back up. Trust me a hard drive will fail sooner or later.

Hi,

You can go with 2Tb external since the Hard Drive space now is cheep and not that big difference in the price from 1Tb to 2TB. Hook it up to via FireWire so the transfer speed is good. If you get USB external then i guaranty you it will be slow... so you will have big performance issues... if you have Time Machine setup and other files for streaming.

Now your next question was do you need to partition it?
I would say it is good to have it partitioned, one for flat files like music and video and second partition for the Time Machine backups, but this is not necessary you can use it without partitioning it.

Like it was mentioned on the previous post/answer, you will see performance issues when the backup kicks in and you are also reading and writing other data files on the external Drive,like you mentioned it music and/or video. So if you have it both on one external drive I will recommend do not use the drive for data streaming while the backups are running, because you will see again performance issues.

Like i mentioned it in my post, you are good to go with the 2TB as you are mentioning it, no need for Time Capsule.

Read my other comment on the performance though its a good thing to have in mind.

Hi,

If you don't mind I'd like to offer a different point of view. I think moving your media to an external HD is a great idea, I also think having a Time Machine drive is a great idea however they _should not_ be on the same drive. The rationale is pretty simple, if that drive crashed you would not only lose your media you would also lose it's backup. I would recommend investing in a high quality external HD for your Time Machine drive. I would then recommend you get a less expensive 2nd HD for your media. That way if either drive crashes you have a backup to your media which for most people is the most difficult to recreate.

The reason I mentioned getting the largest HD you can afford for the TM drive is it will eventually fill up, so the larger you go the longer it will last. Your iMac has a 500 GB drive, the question though is including the media you are going to offload currently how full is it? Take that number and a good rule of thumb is you need something 2-3 times. I think anything in the 1 -1.5 TB size should be OK.

The strategy many on these forums use is something like this:

1. Internal HD on computer is used primarily for the OS and not critical files.

2. External HD #1 is for media (photos, music and video) and critical files.

3. External HD #2 is for backup using TM.

4. External HD #3 is for a bootable clone of the HD. *This is a backup to the backup and is also bootable, so if the internal HD crashes you can be up and running in minutes not days.*

There are many backup strategies out there, what is right for me isn't necessarily what's right for you. I'd recommend reading this article from MacWorld that discusses backup strategies so you can help find what will be right for you.

Roger

Hi Roger,

I could not said it better, but backup method you gave him I mean the solution is how it should be, I believe the user was just asking to go with something cheep and easy, is there a risk of single point of failure and data lost yes, is there potential performance issue yes, but what other way to go if you only want to use only one external HDD.

The solution you gave is the right one in my book too, but a bit more costly and at that point is up to the user to see what he wants and needs, cheap and easy or safe secure and a bit more costly...
Like you said this backup solution may work for most of us but not everyone.

Goran

Use 2 external hard drives.....1 for Time Machine and Bootable drive image. The other external drive for just my media?

Yes but again it's a risky solution because if that drive dies you have lost both backups. Yikes!

To be honest there is cheap and there is smart there's no such thing as cheap and smart.

So basically my question is.....can you use Time Machine backup and a bootable drive image on the same external drive (1 partition)?

Yes it's possible but you would need 2 partition.

Here is what I'd suggest, get the WD you are looking at and put your media on it. WD's are inexpensive drives and honestly don't have the best track record.

I would also start out with another higher quality EHD and use it for your TM drive so at least you have some backup. The drives I would recommend (in the 1 - 1.5 TB size) would be any of the following:



OWC Mercury Elite Pro Series




Lacie Quadra D2 Series




G-Tech G-Drive Series



All of the above are great drives, the Lacie & GTech you can do some shopping and maybe find them for a bit less than the list price.

Personally I use the Lacie's however I wouldn't hesitate to use any of the three. As time and finances permit I would then buy a 3rd drive to use for that bootable clone.

I have two Mac's at home, iMac 24" and MacBook Pro. Here is what I plan to do as far as back-up and network drive are concern. Please feel free to make suggestion as I haven't bought any of the drive yet
1) Move all my media files, iTunes library, iPhoto/Aperture libraries, to an external RAID drive, like the LaCie 2big Quadra. Connect the RAID drive to my iMac vis FireWire 800. I'm bit parnoid about my media files, as it contains all the photos/movies of my family in the past 10 years. I'm hoping this provides failsafe mechanism for media file storage.
2) Another 2TB external connected to AEB via USB port. Create three partitions for the drives: two Time Machine drives for my two Mac's for Time Machine Backup. The third partition for easy file sharing among users at home.
My question is will Time Machine for my iMac backup the media files stored on an external drive?

I think the only flaw to your plan is connecting the 2nd 2TB drive to the AEB, whatever an AEB is? Time Machine isn't designed to be used connected to an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule, while some have gotten it to work (I sure haven't) it's totally unsupported by Apple so you're on your own. I'm not sure what an AEB is however my guess it's either an Airport Extreme or Time Capsule. If is the former I'd suggest getting a Time Capsule instead and use that for your TM backup for both your iMac and MBP, that's what it's designed for. You can still connect the extra 2TB drive to it but just not use it as a TM drive. What I'd do with it is partition it and use it as a bootable clone for both the iMac and MBP.

Maybe you guys can help. I have an external hard drive but i can't seem to drop files into it. It says I only have read privileges when i check GET INFO. And it doesn't offer a drop down or padlock to change the privileges.

Now I have a question about the best external drives & size. I just got an iMac with 1TB hard drive. I don't even have close to 1TB info---maybe 150G. I like the G-Technology 500GB G-Drive with firewire & Bus power. Could I at least start with this for Time Machine backups? This is really all I will use it for. I haven't found anything bigger yet with Bus power versus AC. I like limited cables. I'm new to Mac & not familiar with Time Machine.

Thanks for any help or input.

G-Tech makes fine drives however I think you are getting too small a drive. The larger you get the longer will last for TM. TM will eventually fill up all hard disks, how much you add and change data, applications and settings will determine how long it lasts. At a minimum I'd get 1TB and if you can afford it 2TB.

Other great brands that have similar features and quality are OWC Mercury Elite Pro Series and Lacie Quadra D2 Series.

Roger