On Oct 25, 2011, at 1:29 PM, John Callahan wrote: > Anyone care to make recommendations for an external hard drive? 500GB to > 700GB's, is cost any indication of quality?Need only for back up, speed is > not a factor, nor is Firewire important. Something in the $100.00 range.
I very much like the Seagate range of external hard drives, especially the GoFlex series. I've had a lot of different external hard drives over the years, and almost all of them, whether ready-made by the manufacturer or bring-your-own-hard-drive empty case versions, have been either a) noisy (cooling fan and/or drive itself), b) cursed with an annoying activity light (or lights, in some cases), c) short-lived, or d) all of the above. My two main backup hard drives these days are Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex 1.5 TB UltraPortables, with the standard USB 2.0 interface cable USB 3.0, (eSata and Firewire 800 adapters also are available). This form factor is small, so quiet I can't hear it run, and has activity/running lights that are very discreet. Mine cost about $120; other sizes start at 320 GB for the UltraPortables. Desktop GoFlex models go up to 4 TB. Go here for more info: <http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/products/external/freeagent/#tTabContentOptionsForMac>. They are widely available online and at brick and stick stores. My GoFlex UltraPortables tuck behind my 27" iMac and quite silently "just work." I swap them out every so often so that I've got two backups of everything important. The drive not being used at the moment is stored securely in another location, just in case. HTH, Jim Scott -- You received this message because you are a member of G-Group, a group for those using G3, G4, and G5 desktop Macs - with a particular focus on Power Macs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list
