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External hard drives

External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Christy Stebbins

Dear friends,

I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable, 
affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual 
processor has narrowed the field to the following:

LaCie Big Disk Extreme
LacCie d2 Extreme
G-tech 500 GB.

The Big Disk has the advantage of a 16 MB buffer, and it is the 
cheapest.  But is it reliable?

The d2 Extreme has only an 8 MB buffer, but it comes with a fan, 
which leads me to believe it might be more reliable than the Big 
Disk.  But I would have to live with the fan noise.  It is more 
expensive than the Big Disk.

The G-tech looks sweet, but it's also the priciest.  It has no fan, 
but is designed to stay cool; it has a two-year warranty compared to 
the one-year warranty that LaCie offers, but it's $$$.

Any of you hard-driving disk space users out there want to weigh in 
on your experience with the disks mentioned above?  We have also 
looked into buying the components and building one ourselves, but I'm 
not a techie, and I would prefer not to go that route.

Many thanks for your help.

Christy

Re: External hard drives

2006-03-13 by John Vitollo

> I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable, 
> affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual 
> processor has narrowed the field to the following:
> LaCie Big Disk Extreme
> LacCie d2 Extreme
> G-tech 500 GB.
> Christy

I'd avoid the LaCie drives because of relablity problems...

G-Tech seems overpriced...

I'm a fan of Seagate drives and buy.com has on sale on Seagate 400G 16MB Cache drive for 
$229.95

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202009395&adid=17051&dcaid=17051

RE: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Rob

You might also want to look at the Maxtor external drives. There's a 
new 500GB drive with firewire 800. I've heard a bunch of horror stories 
(on the d1scussion e-mail list) about the LaCie drives having lots of 
problems in the larger drive sizes.

----------------------------------------------------
ROB GREER | photographer
Pasadena, CA
http://www.robgreer.com/

Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Stephen Petegorsky

Christy - I use a number of LaCie d2 Extreme drives, the latest being the
500 GB.  They have all been very reliable and very quiet.  I wouldn't
hesitate to buy more of them.

Stephen Petegorsky

Re: [Digital BW] Re: External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Adam Maas

John Vitollo wrote:
>  > I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable,
>  > affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual
>  > processor has narrowed the field to the following:
>  > LaCie Big Disk Extreme
>  > LacCie d2 Extreme
>  > G-tech 500 GB.
>  > Christy
> 
> I'd avoid the LaCie drives because of relablity problems...
> 
> G-Tech seems overpriced...
> 
> I'm a fan of Seagate drives and buy.com has on sale on Seagate 400G 16MB 
> Cache drive for
> $229.95
> 
> http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202009395&adid=17051&dcaid=17051 
> <http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=202009395&adid=17051&dcaid=17051>
> 
> 

I've found the LaCie drives to be rock solid. I've currently got an 80GB 
F.A. Porsche USB drive, which has been running 24x7 for 2 years, and a 
8x external DVD-RW which is also rock solid.

-Adam

Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Steve and Ann Taylor

You might want to consider an NAS system like the Buffalo Technology  
TerraStation.
See http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97
I just got one for about $750 which is more than the single drives you are  
looking at. The advantage is that this unit has 4 ea. of 250G drives which  
if you configure as Raid 5 you end up with 750G of safe storage. You can  
also access it from any computer on your network, if you have more than  
one. Set up properly it can also be accessed from the internet. The main  
disadvantage, other than cost, is that it is slower than a directly  
attached ecternal drive. It is great for backuping up your data but not  
for working on that data directly on the NAS system.

Steve Taylor



On Mon, 13 Mar 2006 07:23:26 -0800, Christy Stebbins  
<caostebbins@...> wrote:

> Dear friends,
>
> I'm out of disk space. My research on the web for a reliable,
> affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual
> processor has narrowed the field to the following:
>
> LaCie Big Disk Extreme
> LacCie d2 Extreme
> G-tech 500 GB.
>

-- 
Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/

RE: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Stephen Billard

Or drives from http://www.ximeta.com/. These are individual drives, but you can
"gang" them together if you want raid. This way you can start small and build
your array.

-Stephen
 www.sbillard.org/Stephen
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> -----Original Message-----
> From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com 
> [mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com] On 
> Behalf Of Steve and Ann Taylor
> Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 8:07 AM
> To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives
> 
> 
> You might want to consider an NAS system like the Buffalo Technology  
> TerraStation.
> See 
> http://www.buffalotech.com/products/product-detail.php?productid=97
> I just got one for about $750 which is more than the single 
> drives you are  
> looking at. The advantage is that this unit has 4 ea. of 250G 
> drives which  
> if you configure as Raid 5 you end up with 750G of safe 
> storage. You can  
> also access it from any computer on your network, if you have 
> more than  
> one. Set up properly it can also be accessed from the 
> internet. The main  
> disadvantage, other than cost, is that it is slower than a directly  
> attached ecternal drive. It is great for backuping up your 
> data but not  
> for working on that data directly on the NAS system.
> 
> Steve Taylor
> 
>

Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Greg

At work we use many firewire drive enclosures based on the newest 
Oxford 911 chip. These are far more reliable than the Avid Quiet Drive 
enclosures that use the Intio chip, and they are 6 to 8 times less 
expensive. We use Maxtor Diamond Max 10 drives. The newest Oxford chip 
allows a RAID 0 configuration through the chip, so you can get closer 
to the 400mb/s speed of the firewire as well as much larger volumes.

Alternately you could install a PCI card that has external SATA 
connections and use an external SATA enclosure.

Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Bert Katzung

Hi Christy:
If you lower your size requirement to 400 GB, you'll find a more larger
selection and better GB/$ ratios. And go for one that has 2 Firewire ports
so you can daisy chain them.
Bert

Bert Katzung
katzung1@...
http://www.astronomy-images.com
http://www.visionlightgallery.com/katzung/
Show quoted textHide quoted text
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Christy Stebbins" <caostebbins@...>
To: <DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 7:23 AM
Subject: [Digital BW] External hard drives


Dear friends,

I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable,
affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual
processor has narrowed the field to the following:

LaCie Big Disk Extreme
LacCie d2 Extreme
G-tech 500 GB.

The Big Disk has the advantage of a 16 MB buffer, and it is the
cheapest.  But is it reliable?

The d2 Extreme has only an 8 MB buffer, but it comes with a fan,
which leads me to believe it might be more reliable than the Big
Disk.  But I would have to live with the fan noise.  It is more
expensive than the Big Disk.

The G-tech looks sweet, but it's also the priciest.  It has no fan,
but is designed to stay cool; it has a two-year warranty compared to
the one-year warranty that LaCie offers, but it's $$$.

Any of you hard-driving disk space users out there want to weigh in
on your experience with the disks mentioned above?  We have also
looked into buying the components and building one ourselves, but I'm
not a techie, and I would prefer not to go that route.

Many thanks for your help.

Christy



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Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by jim kitchen

Dear Christy,

I recently explored that route, and my decision resulted in
the following:


Controller: Tempo-X eSATA 8

    <http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo-x_esata8.html>

But you could use this controller also:

    <http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tempo-x_esata44.html>


Hard Drives: Seagate 300GB Barracuda 7200.9 ATA with 16MB Cache

    Canadian Price and Location for HD:

    
<http://www.memoryexpress.com/index.php?PageTag=&page=file&memx_menu=EmbedPr
oductDetail.php&DisplayProductID=7192&SID=>

    Seagate eSATA Compatible Barracuda Information:

    <http://www.seagate.com/pdf/marketing/PO-Cuda7200.9.pdf>


External Case Kit: MacGurus Burly 4 Drive SATA Kit

    <http://www.macgurus.com/productpages/sata/sataguide_1.php>

Comes with everything you need, although I found their HD prices a bit high.
I put it together in a couple of hours.

MacGurus tend go the extra distance to assist you with your needs and
delivery.
This external box is absolutely quiet and well made.


What I did:

I set one pair of HD¹s with RAID 0 Photoshop scratch disk space, where
Photoshop 
retrieves the original files while working on the images, and the second
pair of HD¹s 
are set with RAID 1, where I store any incremental image files with
redundant storage.

Although I leave many files with RAID 0 for future use, it is not the safest
place for 
long term storage because of the inherent design of the RAID setup, so I
always 
store a partially completed or completed image within RAID 1.

This set up is excellent and fast...


To understand RAID arrays, go here:

    <http://www.acnc.com/04_01_00.html>


Last note:

Be wary of any firewire and, or USB connections with RAID array setups.
A quick search of RAID arrays and Mac OSX, will reveal issues around
LaCie, et al...

I hope this helps a bit...

jim k






[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Stephen Petegorsky

Bert - the newer LaCie 500 GB d2 has two firewire ports and can be
daisy-chained.  It's under $500 at most outlets.  I have no connection to
LaCie, btw, I just like their drives.

Stephen Petegorsky

RE: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by John Moody

Jim,
Thanks for taking the time to post all the component info.

I won’t get into a debate about it, but after 2 years of troubleshooting
firewire drive problems, I will NEVER use them for anything important,
including offline backups; you may have different results.  Best of luck to
us all.

Best regards,
John Moody
Show quoted textHide quoted text
-----Original Message-----
From: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
[mailto:DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com]On Behalf Of jim
kitchen
Sent: Monday, March 13, 2006 12:30 PM
To: DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

Dear Christy,

I recently explored that route, and my decision resulted in
the following:
<snip>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

OT: Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Sam McCandless

>[snip]
>
>I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable,
>affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual
>processor has narrowed the field to the following:
>
>[snip]

Not that I object to your asking on this list, Christy, and you've 
gotten some good advice, but you might want to ask also on the the 
MacEpsonList, which is another Yahoo list. Other good sources for 
hard-drive information for the Mac are

<http://www.barefeats.com/>, especially in re speed,

and

<http://www.macintouch.com/>

HTH
--
Sam

Re: OT: Re: [Digital BW] External hard drives

2006-03-13 by Phil Morse

Sam McCandless wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
>>[snip]
>>
>>I'm out of disk space.  My research on the web for a reliable,
>>affordable and quiet 500 GB external hard drive for my Mac G4 dual
>>processor has narrowed the field to the following:
>>
>>[snip]
>>    
>>
>
>Not that I object to your asking on this list, Christy, and you've 
>gotten some good advice, but you might want to ask also on the the 
>MacEpsonList, which is another Yahoo list. Other good sources for 
>hard-drive information for the Mac are
>
><http://www.barefeats.com/>, especially in re speed,
>
>and
>
><http://www.macintouch.com/>
>
>HTH
>--
>Sam
>
>
>Please visit the Group Homepage to check the Files, and other resources as they are often being updated.
>
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint
>
>If you wish to receive no emails or just a daily digest, or you wish to unsubscribe, please edit your Membership preferences by visiting this same page.
>
>Please follow these basic guidelines:
>- As threads develop, trim off excess portions of earlier messages to keep them short.
>- Good manners are required at all time. No personal attacks or flames. Hostile, aggressive or argumentative users may be removed from the membership without notice.
>- Keep your posts and threads related to the group topic of digital B&W printing. Users who persistently make off-topic posts may be removed from the membership.
>- By posting on this forum you agree to abide by the group rules and guidelines, and to abide by the actions and decisions of the group Owner and Moderators. See \ufffdGroup Topic, Rules and Guidelines\ufffd in the Files section:
>http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DigitalBlackandWhiteThePrint/files/
>
>BY PARTICIPATING IN AND/OR POSTING MESSAGES TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO! GROUP YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT THE \ufffdOWNER\ufffd AND \ufffdMODERATORS\ufffd OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, GOODWILL, USE, DATA OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES (EVEN IF THE  \ufffdOWNER\ufffd AND \ufffdMODERATORS\ufffd OF DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM: (i) THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; (ii) UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO OR ALTERATION OF YOUR TRANSMISSIONS OR DATA; (iii) STATEMENTS OR CONDUCT OF ANY THIRD PARTY ON THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP; OR (iv) ANY OTHER MATTER RELATING TO THE DIGITAL BW, THE PRINT YAHOO GROUP.
> 
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
> 
>
>
>
>
>  
>

Re: External hard drives

2006-03-14 by Christy Stebbins

Dear friends again,

Many thanks to all who answered my question about buying external 
hard drives.  Forgive me for using this forum to pose the question.

I especially appreciated responses that pointed me to on-line 
reviewers.  I realized after I had posed my initial question that 
what I should have asked was which on-line reviewers do the folks on 
this forum use when buying computer/digital stuff.  For example, I 
personally like dpreview.com for camera gear, but that's only one 
aspect of the equation.  I found it difficult to find good equipment 
comparisons that looked at off-the-shelf hard disks as opposed to 
component comparisons (seagate vs. raptor, hitachi, et al.).

Christy

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