Best portable hard drive

[danielmak]

I know there are a variety of forums for hardware but I figured I'd post this question here since I use a Mac and want to purchase a portable hard drive that will work well with the mac. After a few moves and finding that the my own energy (when I handle the move) or bank account (when I have to move great distances and pay a moving company) are zapped because of too much music, I am finally considering converting all of my CDs to digital files. I am wondering if folks can recommend good portable hard drives for storing and playing music. I really don't have any sense of file sizes when it comes to music, but I can say that I have about 2,000 CDs that I will want to convert (and will want some room for growth since I don't see a time in the near future when I would stop buying new music).

Also, I currently have a G5 iMac but will probably add a new computer in the next year or so and assume that will be a Mac with an intel processor. Should that shift have any bearing on the use of the portable hard drive I purchase (i.e., if I purchase a portable HD now, will it sill work with an intel Mac or will the HD need to be reformatted)? Thanks for the help.

[MacDSL]

Get a LaCie 2TB drive with firewire 800/400/usb2 It's hard to go wrong with that....

[danielmak]

I posted the original question awhile back and am writing again to seek the wisdom of folks on this board. I'm looking to purchase a small, portable hard drive (around 500GB) that would work with a Mac and a PC. The prior suggestion in this thread was good, but that was more for home use (or work/home travel). I need something small that I can travel with and in some instances, when working with a production partner in another state, that I can mail and not lose too much sleep if the thing gets lost (not that I have money to lose or burn, but if a $75 hard drive is lost, that's easier to replace than a $250 drive).

Does anyone have a suggestion for a good drive? This one got good reviews on CNET and it meets my criteria in terms of durability, size, price and PC/Mac compatible. However, if other folks have had good luck with a drive, can you share that info. with me? Thanks.

[rumplestiltskin]

- Verbatim gives you a -seven- year warranty on many of their externals. I think these are all 3.5" units.
- Hitachi gives you a -three- year warranty on their 2.5" externals.
- Hitachi and WD give you a -three- year warranty on their 3.5" internal drives. Combine one of these with a Rosewill enclosure (with extended warranty from, let's say, Newegg) and you have a three year warranty on the entire unit.

- Seagate gives you three or five year warranties on many of their products but you'll end up having to send back your drive within the first year and then get re-furb'd drives for the balance of the warranty as you'll be sending those back, as well. I stopped buying Seagate products after my return rate exceeded 150% (replacement drives failed, as well). How should I put this? Ummm...oh yeah: Seagate sucks.

Now, I won't claim to have never experienced a DOA Hitachi or WD drive but, once they're running (and I test every one I buy before deploying it), I rarely have problems. By the way, I'll recommend you buy your HDs locally just in case you have a DOA; saves the trouble of having to ship back a bad HD.

Sizes: I'm buying 2TB 3.5" units and 250/500GB 2.5" units.

Hope this helps.