LaCie Rugged portable HD

[Gareth]

mrlynn wrote:
[quote=Gareth]
Ditto. Given that the vast majority of people I know that have hard drive failures in MB/MBP's are the people who just pick up their laptop and walk around, I wouldn't voluntarily move any drive that way while it's running. Apple's laptop drives have rubber mounts also (albeit smaller) and also have sudden motion sensors, but still, the majority of failures seem to come from the "pick up and go" crowd.

Is that true when the MB/MBP is closed hence (presumably) asleep? Or does the 'Book have to be completely shut down? Number Two Son likes to carry his MB around without shutting down.

/Mr Lynn
Sleeping is fine, the hard drive is parked when the computer goes to sleep. This assumes you wait until the sleep light is blinking. There is actually a delay nowadays as the computer writes the contents of the RAM to the hard drive before going to sleep, which can take up to a couple of minutes. So if you just shut the lid and go, it's potentially no better than just moving the laptop while it is awake. You have to wait until the light is actually blinking (pulsing bright to dark/off).

[Gareth]

DRR wrote:
Maybe SSD is the way to go then. Should be much more tolerant of bumps and jiggles, no? (I'm not talking about drops)

SSD is not affected at all by bumps, jiggles or even drops (assuming it survives with no physical damage to the chips). Of course, cost is a huge issue as it's around $2/GB (varies a lot depending on size and brand) versus around $0.10/GB on a hard drive.

[mrthuse]

Bought the 500 GB on sale last year when an older 250 GB LaCie failed:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11030

It lives in a padded case w/ cables and adapters used w/ the office iBook and the old home eMac. Have backed up both machines once a week for a year+ w/ no issues. Glad I made the purchase and grateful for the security.