Have to buy external HD for a friend's iMac. Any reason to buy one bigger than her internal drive?

[GeneL]

I still have to check on the size of her internal storage. The question is would a bigger external drive that she could boot from be a lot slower than her internal drive and, if so, wouldn't it make more sense just to match hers in size and have her keep booting from the internal drive?

I bought a 300GB miniStack for Mavis' intel mini and have her booted from it and back up to the internal HD. Seems to be an excellent setup for her.

The next question is, should I get a miniStack, with its many neat features *(i.e. fast quiet operation, extra ports and small size) for my friend, whatever size is appropriate, or should I look at other external drives, which may be cheaper for their size and only USB?

Also, OWC advertises their 500GB minStack as being bootable, both FW and USB. I thought only FW externals were bootable. Am I wrong or do other USB external drives boot OSX nowadays? If so, I think there might be other cheaper solutions.

Suggestion and/or recommendations?

Thanks for your thoughts and expertise,

GeneL

[MacMagus]

> would a bigger external drive that she could boot from be a lot slower than her
> internal drive

Bigger drives are not necessarily slower. In fact, the latest 750GB and 1TB drives are much, much faster than most smaller drives.


> wouldn't it make more sense just to match hers in size

Not really. That's basically asking for obsolescence. What happens when your friend wants to move up to a bigger boot drive? Then your friend has to get a bigger backup drive, too?

There's a general principle of storage -- you have it, you use it. Unless there's some other important factor (like $$$), get the biggest drive you can.


> The next question is, should I get a miniStack

I haven't heard anything particularly bad about them, but they are more expensive than what your friend appears to need.


> or should I look at other external drives, which may be cheaper for their size and
> only USB?

I, personally, do not buy USB-only drive enclosures. Having a FW port on the case gives me the flexibility to use the drive in many more situations and FW is generally faster than USB. That being said, if this has to be done on a tight budget then buying a bare drive and a cheap USB enclosure is probably going to save mucho dinero.


> I thought only FW externals were bootable. Am I wrong...

Yes. Intel Macs and some others can boot from USB. Most PPC's can boot from FW drives, starting with the Sawtooth/AGP G4's.

[anonymouse1]

1. If the iMac has a FW800 port, then the external drive will be about as fast as if it were installed internally, if you put it into a FW800 enclosure.

2. Otherwise, it will be about the same.

3. Buying a larger backup drive will be good for Time Machine--more space for more backups.

[Spiff]

Don't boot from USB. In the past (pre-intel) Apple has crippled the USB port on their machines. Even though theoretically USB is as fast as FW400, it ain't on a Mac. FW was much faster.

I admit to ignorance on the intel Macs, but my suspicion is that Apple has continued the tradition.

[tronnei]

[quote anonymouse1]1. If the iMac has a FW800 port, then the external drive will be about as fast as if it were installed internally, if you put it into a FW800 enclosure.
Have you priced those? Waaay more expensive than than FW 400 (or USB ).

[ho'ard]

Drives keep getting faster. Booting from an external is not going to seem any slower than booting from an internal. Seems dumb from an energy use perpective-- much better to keep your external turned off when not in use. Also a good way to make sure you don't accidentally start putting important things there that you end up losing when you back up.

I bought a 500 gb external to back up a 300gb internal, only about a month ago. Now my internal is almost full, and I would probably replace it with a 500gb, and my external will already be obsolete (you absolutely want a bigger drive to back up to-- never know when you might need to put something else on it for whatever reason).

I would say your backup drive should be at least 50% larger than the internal. Price differences are so miniscule now, if her internal was 80 GB, you wouldn't pay much more for a 500 GB backup drive than for a 100 GB drive (even if you could find the latter).

[GeneL]

First, thanks everyone for taking the time to post your suggestions.

I haven't had a chance to check the size of her iMac's drive, so that's my first step along with checking what ports she has. Not knowing her model has put every other decision on hold.

If she doesn't have a FW 800 port I presume that the FW 400 is the default choice and as said, it will be cheaper than an FW 800.

I've never worked on a newer iMac, so I don't have any idea how easy or difficult it is to install a larger hard drive. My only references are the PPC towers and the G5 and MacPro that I've upgraded. They were all very easy to work on, but I'm clueless about upgrading the recent iMacs. I'll have to look this up.

I do have a question about using "Time Machine." I have read that the method does not produce a bootable backup and that there are some other issues with the built-in method of backing up. I, myself, use Intego's Personal Backup X4 and love it. It does incremental clones, only cloning what has changed, it's very fast and it can be set to do an auto-backup in any time period you want. I just set mine to run every two hours as a test. I normally had it set for once a day. It runs in the background and after years of use, I've never had a problem. Because it produces a bootable clone, I think I'll recommend it to my friend over using Time Machine.

For now, I'll have to talk her into whatever backup drive is best. From what I can tell, she hasn't ever thought about backing up and she's a switcher as well.

The reason I mentioned the miniStack is that OWC has the 500GB v2 version on special for $199, which seems to be at least $100 off the regular price. My experience with Mavis' miniStack has been excellent and I like that it also serves as a hub with the extra ports. As far as price, the convenience of extra ports and the quietness of this unit, makes up for the price difference when the discount is figured in. I'll have to see what my friend thinks of my reasoning.

For myself, I bought an OWC Aluminum FW800/400/USB enclosure, which matches the new towers nicely, and I used one of my older IDE drives that I had in my previous G5 to complete the device. It has been working perfectly for my backups for some time now.

I had never heard about not using USB for the reasons that Spiff mentioned, so it's good to have that info. Your comments and suggestions have been very helpful, so again, thanks.

GeneL

[ka jowct]

For myself, I bought an OWC Aluminum FW800/400/USB enclosure, which matches the new towers nicely, and I used one of my older IDE drives that I had in my previous G5 to complete the device. It has been working perfectly for my backups for some time now.

Why not do the same thing for your fried? Buy a nice enclosure and look for a good deal on an drive to put into the enclosure?

I think you will get a better warranty on the hard drive that way than you will if you buy an already-assembled external drive.

I've never worked on a newer iMac, so I don't have any idea how easy or difficult it is to install a larger hard drive.

I believe that it is a lot more complex than swapping drives in a G5 iMac.

[GeneL]

[quote ka jowct]For myself, I bought an OWC Aluminum FW800/400/USB enclosure, which matches the new towers nicely, and I used one of my older IDE drives that I had in my previous G5 to complete the device. It has been working perfectly for my backups for some time now.

Why not do the same thing for your fried? Buy a nice enclosure and look for a good deal on an drive to put into the enclosure?

I think you will get a better warranty on the hard drive that way than you will if you buy an already-assembled external drive.

I've never worked on a newer iMac, so I don't have any idea how easy or difficult it is to install a larger hard drive.

I believe that it is a lot more complex than swapping drives in a G5 iMac.
I think my friend is likely to feel more "comfortable" with an already completed unit than one I put together for her. I don't feel that she would get that a put together external drive could be as "flawless" as one that was purchased complete.

I know you would have to be right about the iMac's being more complex than working on the G5, which was a snap, both literally and figuratively.

GeneL

[ka jowct]

Well. perhaps you could explain to her that the only difference she would see is a crummy 1-year warranty on the external you buy as such compared to 3 or 5 years on the drive that you install yourself in a good-quality case. Also mention that in some cases, she won't even know what drive she's getting, unless she buys an external Seagate or Western Digital.

Also mention that actual humans somewhere had to put the drives into those already-assembled external drives. Why trust them more than you?

She's just screwing herself if she insists on the pre-fab approach.