Macbook Pro External Hard Drives

Marky

Marky

Marky

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Hey all,

I'm going to be using my Macbook Pro as my main computer from now on - The only downside to the Macbook is the hard drive space...

Does anyone use the Macbook as their main computer and use external hard drives for space?

I've been thinking about getting a small SSD for MacOS and other Mac Store apps etc. and then getting an External Hard Drive Caddie to hold my other hard drives (I have two 1TB hard drives I had in my previous rig which I'd like to use).

Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Marky
 
I've got an Akasa 3.5" external caddie for my 750GB WD and a 2.5" caddie for the HDD I removed from my MBP and replaced with SDD.

The 3.5" is for Time Machine and long term storage while the 2.5" has anything I might need when I'm on the move.
 
If performance is important then look at FW800 caddies, but they're expensive.

Another possibility is the Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid HDD. Combined a normal laptop HDD with an SSD type cache for frequently accessed data. Gives some of the performance benefits of SSD with 500GB of storage, and it's a lot quicker at loading apps than a traditional HDD.
 
My experience is it's a pain and the performance is annoying enough with USB to be an issue, better with FW800 drives. Easy answer for me is an optibay, allows a SSD and mechanical drive, I use the optical drive less than I used the external hard drive so essentially swapping the two made sense for me...
 
I have thought about an Optibay - Only thing that is putting me off getting one is that I like to think for the future... If I fill up 2TB and require more space - I'm going to be in the same position as I am currently in :p

Two questions...

1. Is there a 2TB hard drive I can use in the Macbook Pro? (I.e. 4TB in total if I stuck an Optibay drive in :) :))

2. Is there a Caddy out at the moment which supports thunderbolt?
 
I use my macbook pro as a main computer :) been this way for about 2 years now. I originally had a 320gb hard drive in it which I never really filled (didn't need all my games installed at the start anyway) and I went to a 256gig ssd last summer for awesomeness which is about the best upgrade for it.

Anyway just get a firewire external hdd as usb is painfully slow at things like a time machine back up, or you could get some sort of network drive if you can get something set up nicely.

At some point there will be thunderbolt stuff, id love it if my mac had it
 
Yeah, I have MBP with a 500GB drive.

What I did was buy a 750GB toshiba 2.5 USB powered drive, and partitioned is 250 + 500, first 250 for time machine and the rest for extra data.

The benefit of the USB power is you dont need to mess with power cables and adaptors which can be a pain, and meant I hardly ever backed up with time machine.

What I'm going to do though is plug the biggest HD i can get int it, and an 128 or maybe 256 SSD when prices drop a bit more.
 
Not really portable or cheap, but there's always the Drobo, 4 bay, FW800 model. Future-proofed up to 4x4TB HDDs, mix and match drives, fill up all 4 then replace over time with bigger drives etc etc.

Reviews tend to be hit or miss, but I want semi-secure, direct attached storage for my Mac Mini which rules out any NAS device, plus I don't have to buy all 4 HDDs at once or have them be the same size, which is where I can't really see any other options.
 
Somnambulist said:
Not really portable or cheap, but there's always the Drobo, 4 bay, FW800 model. Future-proofed up to 4x4TB HDDs, mix and match drives, fill up all 4 then replace over time with bigger drives etc etc.

Reviews tend to be hit or miss, but I want semi-secure, direct attached storage for my Mac Mini which rules out any NAS device, plus I don't have to buy all 4 HDDs at once or have them be the same size, which is where I can't really see any other options.
Click to expand...

Why rule out a NAS? Using Gigabit speeds are good and you can use iSCSI or similar if you want the drives to seem even more local.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18216324
There you have complete control over what you do. There are OS's or filesystem that will let you mix drive capacities and still have redundancy. Just remember redundancy != backup.
 
whitecrook said:
The benefit of the USB power is you dont need to mess with power cables and adaptors which can be a pain, and meant I hardly ever backed up with time machine.
Click to expand...

That's even more a benefit of firewire though, which supplies more power than USB if I remember correctly. It's only an issue with old eSATA connections (as opposed to newer eSATAp) and potentially thunderbolt. Though it's an issue all round with 3.5" drives of course, depends what you want/need
 
I currently use my MBP as my desktop computer @ home connected to a 22" monitor. But I plan on adding a 27" iMac within the next couple of months.

As I use a computer a lot for programming I imagine having it plugged into the mains constantly is not going to do the battery much good over a long period of time.
 
AbsenceJam said:
Why rule out a NAS? Using Gigabit speeds are good and you can use iSCSI or similar if you want the drives to seem even more local.
http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18216324
There you have complete control over what you do. There are OS's or filesystem that will let you mix drive capacities and still have redundancy. Just remember redundancy != backup.
Click to expand...

Because I get my interwebz via a router I don't have access to. My ISP have a remote backup thing I can use.
 
Simple solution for that would be to add a cheap gigabit switch in your room + NAS for absolute max storage and speed.

Firewire 800 drives are very fast too (millions of times better than painful usb 2).

Thunderbolt I imagine will essentially feel like the drives are installed, so would be preferential depending on when they get round to making/selling for a reasonable price!
 
How does wireless connectivity to a NAS compare with a USB or Firewire connection?

EDIT:

I've found an NAS which has an "gigabit ethernet port for fast wired connections" - How does a wired ethernet connection compare with USB or Firewire connection?
 
Last edited:
iraiguana said:
Simple solution for that would be to add a cheap gigabit switch in your room + NAS for absolute max storage and speed.

Firewire 800 drives are very fast too (millions of times better than painful usb 2).

Thunderbolt I imagine will essentially feel like the drives are installed, so would be preferential depending on when they get round to making/selling for a reasonable price!
Click to expand...

I am a noob, an know nothing about networks, but I'm guessing you mean the gigabit switch is wirelessly connected to the router, and my Mac Mini and a NAS are both connected to said switch? If so that would be, since my 'plan' was to eventually do a large unRAID build when I could wire everything up myself anyway.
 
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