Buying today! External hard drive for mac..which one?

[LaurieA]

In need of a portable hard drive for our mac..hard drive almost full. Which portable hard drive would be good..would like to stay under 80.00. Seagate, Western Digital,, something else? Need to dump camera today and out of space so looking to get one this afternoon...thanks!!

 

[photo_chick]

Both Western Digital and Seagate are decent brands. Lacie are more expensive and I haven't decided if they're really worth it or not. And if you're not using Time Machine with it you don't need the ones labeled specifically for Mac.

Whatever you get have something for backup as well because they will all fail eventually.

 

[fritodenny]

Here is a nice one from Newegg for $72 shipped. They are a very trusted dealer. I've bought thousands of dollars of components from them over the past years. They ship very quickly too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...4-_-EMC-041314-Index-_-index-_-9SIA4HH1FR2771

It says it needs to be reformatted for Mac, which shouldn't be a problem.

 

[fritodenny]

If you want one today and you have a Best Buy near you, this one is nice too.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/my-passport-1tb-external-usb-3-0-portable-hard-drive/9028495.p?id=1218974709514&skuId=9028495&st=categoryid$pcmcat272200050006&cp=1&lp=2

 

[SkaGoat]

And if you're not using Time Machine with it you don't need the ones labeled specifically for Mac. .

You don't need one of the "For Mac" labeled drives to use Time Machine, the only difference is how they are formatted out of the box.

 

[photo_chick]

You don't need one of the "For Mac" labeled drives to use Time Machine, the only difference is how they are formatted out of the box.

Really? I thought Time Machine drives had to be HFS+. I've got an NTFS drive and Time Machine will not back up to it.

 

[SkaGoat]

Really? I thought Time Machine drives had to be HFS+. I've got an NTFS drive and Time Machine will not back up to it.

It does need to be HFS+, but it's as simple as going to Disk Utility and formatting it HFS+. Meaning if you need a drive today, and go to the store, and only have NTFS formatted drives, just pick one up, head to Disk Utility and format it.

 

[photo_chick]

It does need to be HFS+, but it's as simple as going to Disk Utility and formatting it HFS+. Meaning if you need a drive today, and go to the store, and only have NTFS formatted drives, just pick one up, head to Disk Utility and format it.

Well, yeah. You can format any drive. But most people don't want to mess with that. They want to buy a drive off the shelf that they plug in and go with.

 

[handicap18]

I use a regular 2TB Western Digital HD for my Time Machine backup.

 

[jimim]

All the WD's are set for time machine pretty much anymore and staples and best buy always have em pretty much, if you need it today.