External HDD for mac

[s0nic69]

Hey guys, this is a questions for all you mac guys. My friend needs an external USB hdd for her mac. she has never had a backup and she has a lot of stuff important stuff in her laptop. I wanted to help her get one with her tax return, but i dont know much about mac. So hope you guys canhelp. I was looking at a Seagate FreeAgent Go but they also sell a mac version for a bit more here I went to best buy, guy there told me that seagate sells mac version because their external hdd do not work with mac. he said any western digital should be good. can someone clear things up for me? thanks!

Also, can someone clear this up too. One time my cousin purchased an external hdd and for some reason it would not let him save, but it would let him access files. someone said it had to do with the file system?? do i need a specific file system?

[RadishTM Veteran]

WD's MyBook's are pretty decent.

For the file systems - FAT32 if you wish to read/write on OS X as well as Windows or stick to HFS+ for OS X alone. Pretty much all the external HDD's out there can be formatted for other OS'es.

Radish?

[CPressland]

Any external hard drive *should* work with Mac OS X, chances are Seagate sell a dedicated Mac version just to try and get a few extra bucks off of people. However I'd go with a Western Digital Drive regardless because 1) they look better 2) have an amazing track record.

As for the File System, it entirely depends on what you want to do with the drive. If you're planning to use TimeMachine backups then HFS+ is really the only way to go, If you want to be able to use the drive on both Windows and Mac OS X then FAT32 is your best choice.

As for your friend, chances are the drive he got was pre-formatted in NTFS, At current Mac OS X cannot write to NTFS partitions natively because once again Microsoft have their finger up their collective asses when it comes to sharing technologies with other companies. But in Mac OS X Snow Leopard you'll be able to read and write to virtually ANY file system.

Long story short, Get the drive, plug it in, open Disk Utility, Click on the Drive, go to the Partitioning Tab, select 1 Partition from the Dropdown, Make sure it's set to Mac OS Extended, Give it a name, Click Apply. All done :) Should take about 2 minutes tops. Then you can go ahead and turn on Time Machine for automatic backups or manually backup using Drag and Drop :)

[s0nic69]

thanks for the info. is there any reason they make the mac version and the Win version? is it just that one comes in windows format (fat32) and another in mac format (HFS+)? do u think i would be fine with the win version of the seagate. they have it at an awesome price in a local store and she doesnt have the money for an expensive one. thanks

[CPressland]

I see no logical reason why it wouldn't work, after all it's just a SATA to USB controller at the end of the day, just partition the drive for Mac OS X once you've bought it.

Absolute worst case scenario if the drive doesn't work then just take it back to the store and say the drive was dead and you'd like a refund to go with a different brand.

Obviously make sure to run Software Update to make sure she's got all the latest updates installed, that'll be a big help. I know too many people still running on Mac OS 10.4.2... /sigh.

[s0nic69]

Long story short, Get the drive, plug it in, open Disk Utility, Click on the Drive, go to the Partitioning Tab, select 1 Partition from the Dropdown, Make sure it's set to Mac OS Extended, Give it a name, Click Apply. All done :) Should take about 2 minutes tops. Then you can go ahead and turn on Time Machine for automatic backups or manually backup using Drag and Drop :)

wow man. thanks for the information. the long story short will really save me a lot of time in trying to figure out how to do this. Time macine? is that like system recovery? any requirements? is it like ghost or something? ill try to google it. does anyone remember how much fat32 supports? if i get something pass that supported number, i will have to go with that mac format, right? or do fat32 partitions?

[s0nic69]

I see no logical reason why it wouldn't work, after all it's just a SATA to USB controller at the end of the day, just partition the drive for Mac OS X once you've bought it.

Absolute worst case scenario if the drive doesn't work then just take it back to the store and say the drive was dead and you'd like a refund to go with a different brand.

Obviously make sure to run Software Update to make sure she's got all the latest updates installed, that'll be a big help. I know too many people still running on Mac OS 10.4.2... /sigh.

i am almost 100% sure she has never updated her mac. i think ur right, just buy it, try it and if worse case scenario return it and say its dead.

thanks radish and vegetunks. i really needed that help. i feel the headache from doing this going away!

[s0nic69]

OMG it worked. i had a problem with the laptop being usb1.1 i guess, and i had to use a usb hub with power. she has everything backed up and she doesnt have to be scared of having her hdd crash or something. thanks guys!

[+jamesyfx Subscriber²]

The Mac version of the WD Drives is just a FireWire version.

That's all. Since FireWire is an Apple innovation.

[Macalicious]

I've got a Western Digital Elements Desktop drive, 640GB, and it works incredibly well; the only thing I would suggest is when you get it to run the western digital checking software (it only runs in Windows) before you start using it. Its paranoia I know but it is good to know whether the hard disk you're about to rely on is working correctly from day one rather than having a nasty surprise later on.