Hello,
I understand that this question may have been answered several times in the discussion forum.
I've just purchased a new MacBook Pro and would like to buy a new External Hard Drive to store my video footage,
Please do you have any recommendations on brands? Do I look with one with a 'thunderbolt socket' or 'firewire 800 socket'
Any advice would be much appreciated,
Cheers
David🙂
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7)
Are you looking for a portable drive ... or something more substantial? Do you need a RAID setup? What's your budget?
-DH
Hi David,
Thanks for your prompt reply,
I'm ideally looking for a 2TB portable drive, i've been searching on google for a thunderbolt drive but I understand there not widely available...budget up to ÂŁ150...do you think I should go for a Firewire 800 drive? Any brands you recommend?
Cheers
David
You're correct that Thinderbolt capable drives aren't widely available yet and I doubt that the Thunderbolt standard will be around very long anyway. It's one of Apple's developments and other manufacturers don't seem very eager to pursue it - I can't blame them.
I'd go with one of the FW 800 drives from GTech.
-DH
Thanks David,
I'm buying in the UK and have found this model -
Does it look ok to you? Have you heard good reports about Western digital?
I have several WD drives in use for several years without issue, but only one in an external WD housing. You will need to know that there's a special procedure you have to use when formatting a WD external drive for Macs. I cannot remember the procedure, but details can be found on WD's website.
Also, if you're using the drive for media storage while editing, make sure you set it to never sleep in System Preferences.
FWIW, I don't consider the WD "MyBook" external to be all that portable.
Have you seen this one: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hitachi-G-Drive-7200-2xFW-eSata/dp/B002RATTD0/ref=sr_1_1 ?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1310330312&sr=1-1
-DH
Get the G-Raid as David suggests. They can be bought at the Apple Store and are Mac formatted already.
Very solid and reliable using fast Hitachi drives.
Thanks Nick, the price seems to have shot up regarding the Hitachi, i'm looking for an alternative cheaper
I've just seen this one on Amazon, and a mate has recommended it to me, how do you think they both compare?
Just out of interest, how much HD Video footage (Full 1080i HD) can a 1TB hold..
Cheers for your help
remember, you gets whats you pays for. I've done ok with Lacie drives, but many people here have reported problems. The fact is that every drive will eventually fail and even the best, most expensive drives can have an occasional lemon slip thru quality control.
As far as how much HD footage a TB will hold, there are many different degrees of compression in the many codecs available in 1080i so you need to be more specific or, even better, do a little googling on this subject.
External Hard Drive for MacBook Pro
