Re: Backup Hard Drives?
Hi all, Just to follow up on previous thread; for anyone who didn't see the ad in last weeks West Australian, Harris Technology is doing a really good (IMHO) deal on the WD MyBook Pro 1TB drive: My Book Pro Edition II WDG2TP1 - Hard drive array - 1 TB - 2 bays - 2 x HD 500 GB - FireWire 800, Hi-Speed USB, FireWire 400 (external) Western Digital My Book Pro Edition II dual-drive storage system offers RAID mirroring for extra peace of mind or RAID striping for extraordinary capacity and performance. Triple-interface and a powerful combination of features and performance make this system the storage solution of choice for creative professionals, workgroups, small offices and anyone looking for extra assurance that their data is safe. The best price I found on Static Ice was $525.79 http://www.staticice.com.au/cgi-bin/search.cgi?q=my+book+pro+1tb And it's listed on the HT website at $669: http://www.ht.com.au/N/4294967267+4294967214+4294966155/part/U5601/detail.h ts But as a WA instore special HT are offering it at $200 off (their normal price) so its only $469! I had previously been looking at 500GB single disk units - but since they all seem to come in over $300 for triple interface, I decided that, for twice the capacity, this unit looked too good to pass up - particularly since it comes with all leads (USB, FW400 FW800) Retrospect Express backup software and a three year warranty. Since, for the moment, 500 GB is plenty for me I will probably enjoy the belt, braces piece of string security of running it in RAID 1 (mirrored) mode - but happy in the knowledge that, should I choose, I have the option of RAID 0 (striped) mode or even just two individual 500 GB drives on the desktop. Similarly, although FW400 is the best option with my G5 iMac, I have FW800 when I upgrade my computer - also USB2 if I get an Airport Extreme want to connect it as network storage. This is the first time I've dealt with HT - I ordered the unit on Friday afternoon and they advised that, unfortunately, it was a bit too big for the overnight courier bags and might take three or four days to get to me in Albany. I was happy enough with this (for $18.69 freight charge) - I was even happier this (Monday!) lunch-time when there was a knock at the door a parcel to sign for! For most of you - in Perth, you can just drop in to Osborne Park pick it up, of course! I haven't yet connected it up - just unpacked it - but I was also pretty happy with the appearance of the unit - the case looks pretty good next to my iMac and would also match the Mac Pro pretty well. Anyway, for anyone looking for a bigger HD this seems to offer a lot of bang for your bucks Have fun. Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- on 20/6/07 8:44 PM, Neil Houghton at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: on 8/6/07 9:37 AM, Paul Kitchener at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Stew, I have recently bought a few of these from Austin computers. One unit was a Western Digital 400gb SATA drive in a NexStar USB/Firewire case, $253. Not that my laptop owning client needed it but it also had an eSATA port, a nice bit of future proofing for folk who use towers. Hi Paul, I was just considering something similar - but just checked on Austin website ( linked NexStar pages) but I can't see any NexStar cases that have USB Firewire (eSATA) that take SATA drives - I can see ones with USB eSATA that take SATA drives and ones with USB firewire that take IDE drives - but none with the combo you mention - do you have the model no for that case? Cheers Neil -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
on 8/6/07 9:37 AM, Paul Kitchener at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Hi Stew, I have recently bought a few of these from Austin computers. One unit was a Western Digital 400gb SATA drive in a NexStar USB/Firewire case, $253. Not that my laptop owning client needed it but it also had an eSATA port, a nice bit of future proofing for folk who use towers. Hi Paul, I was just considering something similar - but just checked on Austin website ( linked NexStar pages) but I can't see any NexStar cases that have USB Firewire (eSATA) that take SATA drives - I can see ones with USB eSATA that take SATA drives and ones with USB firewire that take IDE drives - but none with the combo you mention - do you have the model no for that case? Cheers Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
Stewart On 06/06/2007, at 10:16 AM, Stewart Woods wrote: Hi all, In the interests of quelling paranoia and preparing for Apple's Oh- so-easy Time Machine come Leopard, I'm looking at buying an external hard drive to back up all the important stuff on our home network. Looking at Zytech's prices for 500Gb Firewire drives, they're far more reasonable than those at the Apple store (No surprise there), but I was wondering if there is anything I should know about brands, USB 2.0 vs. Firewire, etc before I commit. Are some better than others? How much does the drive speed matter? I'm hoping to back all our movies and music to the drive and stream it to the other (4) machines - Will that be problematic? I've had good results with a Firewire 800 external drive, and the BareFeats site supports the conclusion that FW800 is significantly faster than FW400 or USB2.0. I got the MacPower Pleiades Super S- Combo enclosure (http://www.macpower.com.tw/products/hdd3/pleiades/ pd_scombo) and used it with a suitable SATA IDE drive for the best speed. The S-Combo has FW800, FW400, USB2.0 and E-Sata and so is moderately future-proof. You can probably come close to or beat any packaged price, especially if you go to http://www.staticice.com.au/ and do your online shopping there. Cheers, Glen Low --- pixelglow software | simply brilliant stuff www.pixelglow.com aim: pixglen -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
Neil Houghton wrote: So, have you actually seen any cases combining ethernet with USB2 firewire Hi Neil, No, I wondered about the LAN/Firewire combo as I wrote my post, after a quick look I don't see any either. If I see one I will post it to WAMUG. Cheers Paul -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
Hi Paul, I was interested in your comments re different port configurations. I'm also weighing up the options. I like the flexibility of USB2 + Firewire and adding eSATA, as you say, gives a future flexibility bonus. On the other hand, there is also a certain appeal to the NAS approach. However, I've only seen Ethernet/USB combo cases nothing with ethernet + Firewire. I guess a combo Ethernet/USB2/Firewire800/400/eSata box would really cover all bases - I just haven't seen any!! Then, of course, there are the multidrive cases with various RAID JBOD configurations - but I don't think my budget will stretch that far just yet! So, have you actually seen any cases combining ethernet with USB2 firewire - ideally at a reasonable price! Cheers Neil -- Neil R. Houghton Albany, Western Australia Tel: +61 8 9841 6063 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on 8/6/07 9:37 AM, Paul Kitchener at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Stewart Woods wrote: Hi all, In the interests of quelling paranoia and preparing for Apple's Oh-so-easy Time Machine come Leopard, I'm looking at buying an external hard drive to back up all the important stuff on our home network. Looking at Zytech's prices for 500Gb Firewire drives, they're far more reasonable than those at the Apple store (No surprise there), but I was wondering if there is anything I should know about brands, USB 2.0 vs. Firewire, etc before I commit. Are some better than others? How much does the drive speed matter? I'm hoping to back all our movies and music to the drive and stream it to the other (4) machines - Will that be problematic? Any advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance Stew Hi Stew, I have recently bought a few of these from Austin computers. One unit was a Western Digital 400gb SATA drive in a NexStar USB/Firewire case, $253. Not that my laptop owning client needed it but it also had an eSATA port, a nice bit of future proofing for folk who use towers. Even more recently I have had sketchy results from 'Laser' brand USB/Firewire cases. These were 5.25 for DVD drives as well as hard drives; not happy Jan. You have hit on that it is for your network as opposed to your individual Macs, you may benefit from a NAS device; Network Attached Storage. These aren't as geeky as they sound as they aren't much more than a USB/Firewire case. Geeky? Linksys does a nice one that has Unix-enabled people excited as they can fiddle around with it and connect media devices to it's USB ports. NAS cases have an Ethernet port and an ever so slightly bigger brain, physically they have similar overall dimensions to normal cases. You plug them into an Ethernet port, Hub or Switch but they can also have USB/Firewire ports for faster transfers, transporting etc. Some are also media players with A/V ports. So we have A/V ports, Ethernet ports, eSATA ports, Firewire and USB ports. Sheesh! I personally prefer Firewire over USB, I haven't seen it often but I have seen Firewire cases perform a little more reliably than USB ones in direct comparisons with regards to stability. Others on this list have sited that Firewire is more suited to larger files such as media, or was that just video? 'USB does packets and Firewire does streams' or words to that effect. I don't think there is a lot in the argument of USB vs Firewire (400) for most users. HTH Cheers Paul -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
Just a thought on buying hard drives. I've been astonished by how the price of storage devices keeps coming down and their capacity keeps going up. In the latest Harris Technology catalogue there are lots of 1TB external hard drives. Price for a LaCie is $549. I guess we'll all be talking in terabytes soon. Paul. -- Dr Paul R. Weaver Fremantle - Home of the Dockers http://www.livejournal.com/users/fremantlebiz/calendar -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
i allready have 1.3 tbytes capacity on a total of 8 hd's lacie has a good backup prog silverkeeper that works on osx.4.9 it's for free, you can make your backup copy bootable! which is important if you have a hd failure cheers James On 09/06/2007, at 8:30, Paul Weaver wrote: Just a thought on buying hard drives. I've been astonished by how the price of storage devices keeps coming down and their capacity keeps going up. In the latest Harris Technology catalogue there are lots of 1TB external hard drives. Price for a LaCie is $549. I guess we'll all be talking in terabytes soon. Paul. -- Dr Paul R. Weaver Fremantle - Home of the Dockers http://www.livejournal.com/users/fremantlebiz/calendar -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] SAD Technic Video Productions, Electronic repairs U3 / 6 Chalkley Pl Bayswater WA 6053 +618 9370 5307,+618 6262 5707, 0414 421 132 http://www.iinet.net.au/~saddas skype: barleeway -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: Backup Hard Drives?
Stewart Woods wrote: Hi all, In the interests of quelling paranoia and preparing for Apple's Oh-so-easy Time Machine come Leopard, I'm looking at buying an external hard drive to back up all the important stuff on our home network. Looking at Zytech's prices for 500Gb Firewire drives, they're far more reasonable than those at the Apple store (No surprise there), but I was wondering if there is anything I should know about brands, USB 2.0 vs. Firewire, etc before I commit. Are some better than others? How much does the drive speed matter? I'm hoping to back all our movies and music to the drive and stream it to the other (4) machines - Will that be problematic? Any advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance Stew Hi Stew, I have recently bought a few of these from Austin computers. One unit was a Western Digital 400gb SATA drive in a NexStar USB/Firewire case, $253. Not that my laptop owning client needed it but it also had an eSATA port, a nice bit of future proofing for folk who use towers. Even more recently I have had sketchy results from 'Laser' brand USB/Firewire cases. These were 5.25 for DVD drives as well as hard drives; not happy Jan. You have hit on that it is for your network as opposed to your individual Macs, you may benefit from a NAS device; Network Attached Storage. These aren't as geeky as they sound as they aren't much more than a USB/Firewire case. Geeky? Linksys does a nice one that has Unix-enabled people excited as they can fiddle around with it and connect media devices to it's USB ports. NAS cases have an Ethernet port and an ever so slightly bigger brain, physically they have similar overall dimensions to normal cases. You plug them into an Ethernet port, Hub or Switch but they can also have USB/Firewire ports for faster transfers, transporting etc. Some are also media players with A/V ports. So we have A/V ports, Ethernet ports, eSATA ports, Firewire and USB ports. Sheesh! I personally prefer Firewire over USB, I haven't seen it often but I have seen Firewire cases perform a little more reliably than USB ones in direct comparisons with regards to stability. Others on this list have sited that Firewire is more suited to larger files such as media, or was that just video? 'USB does packets and Firewire does streams' or words to that effect. I don't think there is a lot in the argument of USB vs Firewire (400) for most users. HTH Cheers Paul -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Backup Hard Drives?
Hi all, In the interests of quelling paranoia and preparing for Apple's Oh-so- easy Time Machine come Leopard, I'm looking at buying an external hard drive to back up all the important stuff on our home network. Looking at Zytech's prices for 500Gb Firewire drives, they're far more reasonable than those at the Apple store (No surprise there), but I was wondering if there is anything I should know about brands, USB 2.0 vs. Firewire, etc before I commit. Are some better than others? How much does the drive speed matter? I'm hoping to back all our movies and music to the drive and stream it to the other (4) machines - Will that be problematic? Any advice is much appreciated, thanks in advance Stew -- The WA Macintosh User Group Mailing List -- Archives - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/archives.shtml Guidelines - http://www.wamug.org.au/mailinglist/guidelines.shtml Unsubscribe - mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
