dave-O Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 I'm looking for some advice on buying an external HD. I need it to be both Mac and Windows compatible, I plan on moving/sharing files (mainly music) between mac and pc.Can anyone recommend a brand or model?Merci en avance. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timouse Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 jennifer got a seagate free agent 120gb for her mac laptop and was very pleased with it. in theory it will talk to a pc, i have yet to test that. i will let you know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 as long as they're formatted FAT they're compatible with both PCs and Macs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dancingbear Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 i just bought a seagate 'freeagent'. the guy at futureshop recommended it over western digital. from reading reviews they both seem to have their fans. anyhow i was looking for somthing really easy as i'm not so good on the computer, and the set up and back up was really easy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phishtaper Posted April 17, 2008 Report Share Posted April 17, 2008 check canadacomputers and tigerdirect to gauge prices too. future shop has had some good deals on external HDs. getting cheaper and bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave-O Posted April 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Thanks guys. AD - is that true for any external HD? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 If anyone sees any killer deals on an external (500Gigs - 1Terabyte) that has an RJ45 connection please post it!!! That's how I want my external to work/share (so that there doesn't need to be a host computer running in order to get access to files). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The D Funk Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 kanada kev check your pms Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AD Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Thanks guys. AD - is that true for any external HD?i am pretty sure. someone should post to back that up though... or call a computer store or a computer nerd. FAT and FAT32 are compatible with both OS, NTFS is the 'windows file system' which isn't compatible with mac. One of those formats has a 4 gb filesize limit. Can't remember which. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave-O Posted April 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Hey Kev, wanna pass on any deets on deals you get? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouche Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 dave-o.get any external hd that you want. FS has deals ALL the time. you might save money by purchasing an enclosure and a harddrive from your local nerd shop.with mac/windows, you can just setup filesharing and you'll be fine. I don't think the format matters to be honest. I have setup my mac and pc to share files and i didn't have to worry about ntfs or fat32. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Hey Kev, wanna pass on any deets on deals you get?http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10097033&catid=23795&logon=&langid=EN&MSCSProfile=3C79F0C7EA3162B2059EC88D75C732E8FC3B597375DFAF2263F29CB96F7053FD33F6BCAA489A743C7AEF11BD4482E575493816BBC0FCBAA211D2721C2AE84B54F1349B244BE34ABF4A2E0A656192C242D7EDF5C9A7D7E64294A53FA0887743C5C915368CD9F2FC184AB7F125A1CE84F67FB6B6B316CE72DFThis one has been on sale for some time now. I am somewhat hesitant to try it out based on the reviews, but it's a damn good deal. I know a guy who got one a couple of weeks ago and wanted it for the same purpose (sharing files without having to have a host computer on). I'll email him and see how it worked out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dave-O Posted April 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Yeah, I've been eying that one too Kev. Your RJ45 suggestion is great for my purposes too, but I have doubts that my Mac is going to be able to see that Comstar as a network device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phishtaper Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 buying anything less than 500G now seems like a waste to me. also, dont assume that just because the regular price is high, and it's half off now, that it's a "better deal". until january, the lacie 500G externals were regular priced around $300 or so, but it dropped to $170 (and is on sale now for $130). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Booche Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 One of those formats has a 4 gb filesize limit.Here comes what I hope I actually remember correctly from school......I think it is FAT that can only read a certain limit on a hard drive and I also remember something along the lines of FAT needing to use much larger clusters.So what am I saying? Stay away from the FAT.FAT32 is fine.But dont take my word for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Yeah, I've been eying that one too Kev. Your RJ45 suggestion is great for my purposes too, but I have doubts that my Mac is going to be able to see that Comstar as a network device. My buddy emailed me back and he hasn't had the time to fully test it out yet other than connecting via USB (which worked on his computer, but not through a USB port on his standalone DVD player ... flash media only i guess). He said (as did a bunch of the reviews) that you have to load software on your computer to "see" the drive or something. This is where I wonder if an XBMC would be able to "see" it via RJ45 if you can't load some crappy software in order for it to do so. Hopefully he'll test soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phishtaper Posted April 18, 2008 Report Share Posted April 18, 2008 Stay away from the FAT. wafer thin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted April 29, 2008 Report Share Posted April 29, 2008 (edited) Here's another one that is on sale for a decent price: 750Gig http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10097497&catid=26260&logon=&langid=EN 500Gig http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0926INGFS10092491&catid=26259&logon=&langid=EN Edited April 29, 2008 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattm Posted April 30, 2008 Report Share Posted April 30, 2008 (edited) Couple things:Western Digital or Seagate, stay clear of most other ones, those two are the primary hard drive makers and make great drives. That said, the company selling the external might not be one of those two but the drive inside might be.Also, an external drive is an internal drive in a portable box marked up by a whole bunch. You'll save money if you just buy a drive and buy the box separate.Also, as AD says (could be kanada_kev that said but whoever...), it has to be formatted as FAT32 to be recognized by both windows and mac.I have:http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=10306507&whse=BCCA&topnav=&browse=〈=en-CAI want:http://www.costco.ca/Browse/Product.aspx?whse=BCCA&topnav=&prodid=10305569&ec=BCCA-EC8949-ProdID10306507&pos=0F〈=en-CAOh yeah baby, now that's a hard drive.Also, one great feature to have is the ability to daisy chain drives. In other words, your drive should be able to have other drives plug into it...The single most important thing is to remember that an external hard drive, as mentioned, is an internal hard drive in a box. I can't count the amount of times I've heard someone tell me that their drive stopped working, they had lost their data and thrown the thing away. Take it out and plug it into a desktop first!! Man, it's as bad as the guy who gave a laptop to my buddy cause the hard drive died. He put a bigger drive in and had a new laptop. Edited April 30, 2008 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted May 1, 2008 Report Share Posted May 1, 2008 I saw this one for sale at Costco for $90 I believe a few days ago.. Although I can't seem to find that on Costco's website (?). It says its $130 at Best Buy so that must be a pretty damn good deal (at Costco)! Unless maybe it was a smaller model than the 120gb. Not sure. I want one of these though, for the portability. http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10088509&catid=20238# Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DevO Posted May 1, 2008 Report Share Posted May 1, 2008 Ahh.. That was probably the 80gb model. Here it is at Futureshop for $70:http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0665000FS10101547&catid=23795 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted May 5, 2008 Report Share Posted May 5, 2008 I want what mattm posted as well: can't afford it However, this is a pretty sweet deal on a decent USB memory stick (my wife has one that went through the washing machine ... it still works and didn't lose any data!!) http://www.futureshop.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?sku_id=0665000FS10073343&catid=10485&logon=L&langid=EN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Wish Posted May 5, 2008 Report Share Posted May 5, 2008 Funny this should get bumped today. Best Buy is having an online sale and for $99 you can get this 320Gb bad boy:http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10090723&catid=20238&CMP=EMC-email_special_promoSimpleDrive 320GB External Hard Drive Don't let its beauty fool you. SimpleDrive is a high-performance external hard drive ideal for storing and backing up your music, video, photos and more. And with high speed USB 2.0, setup is a snap and data transfer rates are fast and reliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanada Kev Posted May 5, 2008 Report Share Posted May 5, 2008 Also, an external drive is an internal drive in a portable box marked up by a whole bunch. You'll save money if you just buy a drive and buy the box separate.I'm thinking that this might be the way to go too. There are so many good deals on drives on their own. I don't know much about the casings, but I'll have to do a little research to see which ones have the RJ45 connection.Here's a decent priced 500Gigger for $79:http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3167558&sku=THD-500M3&CMP=ILC-RNV02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mattm Posted May 6, 2008 Report Share Posted May 6, 2008 (edited) Exactly, there are always deals on hard drives.The only hard part there is that you have to make sure the enclosure supports the size of the drive you buy.Best place to get things like this you ask? Why, it's your local computer store, the small little one that isn't a chain (or a large chain unless it's tigerdirect.ca). You can get an OEM hard drive (comes in a bag without all the environment killing packaging) for super cheap and they will also have way, way more selection for the drives and the enclosures...Here are some that deliver but if you're in ottawa you can just visit a store...http://www.tigerdirect.ca/http://www.pccyber.com/http://sprintcomputer.com/Not sure about other cities but for computer stuff, try to avoid futureshop, bestbuy, etc, etc, etc, unless there is a sale on (which your local computer shop most likely won't be able to match). Also, if you go into your local computer store you will get someone that will help you and, gasp, actually know something about computers and not have his/her head filled with the amount of commission they will get. Edited May 6, 2008 by Guest Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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