NAS Drive - WD MyBook 1TB

TheMagicPirate · 21 Mar 2008 at 11:31

I'm looking to get some external storage and start using Time Machine properly, I just want to make sure that this drive will work with my iMac connected wirelessly to my Belkin router.

And on a side note, is the 'n' rating, as opposed to the 'g' in regards to wireless speeds realistically that much faster? Would I be better off forking out for Time Capsule?

Thanks

Immsy · 21 Mar 2008 at 11:45

I think there is quite a bit of difference between n and the other standards in terms of speeds and range.

theheyes · 21 Mar 2008 at 12:05

'n' is a lot faster but if your other adapters aren't 'n' as well you'll only get 'b/g' speeds.

tsinc80697 · 21 Mar 2008 at 15:31

Just saw an advert for this drive, £149.99 collect in store!

I was going to get one but reading around a few people ahve said they've had problems with the drive?

Such as randomly dying and losing all data. Thats the only thing stopping me from getting one right now. Getting a dual Icybox and 2x HDD works out slightly more expensive but people have said they encounter problems with the WD MyBook, you had any?

gumbald · 21 Mar 2008 at 16:01

When I was reading about the MyBooks, main complaints were slow transfer speeds. I went for the more expensive, but flexible IcyBox.

tsinc80697 · 21 Mar 2008 at 16:25

gumbald said:
When I was reading about the MyBooks, main complaints were slow transfer speeds. I went for the more expensive, but flexible IcyBox.

Yeah that is also putting me off slightly.

NAS Icy Box works out about £50/drive whether you get the single ones or a dual one at £100.
Add on top of that the best price/GB hard drive and it comes out at around 2p/GB more using Icy Box setup

theheyes · 21 Mar 2008 at 19:52

I don't know about you guys, but when I buy an external drive there's always at least one , sometimes a few, bad review(s) that say their drive failed and all the data was lost. Touch wood so far non of mine have yet. I don't see why these would have a typically higher failure rate because the drives themselves are the same as you'd find anywhere else and if anything, aren't going to be thrashed half as much as a boot drive.

1TB is a decent deal at that price but if its a serious backup you might want to look at some RAID options.

Chris1712 · 21 Mar 2008 at 19:55

I've seriously considered these, having just filled up a 1tb USB drive.
The problem with seemingly all NAS, is speed! Even the WD with gigabit rarely tops 9MB/s r/w! Blows chunks, the ICYbox only having 10/100mbit aswell its not gonna be any better

.

It looks like using an old pc and whacking a gigabit card in is the only way to get half decent speed over a network.

tsinc80697 · 21 Mar 2008 at 20:49

oooo its so tempting for £150!

Decisions decisions!
£150 - WD MyBook (15p/GB)
or
£100 - IcyBox Dual
£82 - 1x750GB HDD (24p/GB)
or
£100 - IcyBox Dual
£164 - 2x750GB HDD (17p/GB)
or
£50 - IcyBox Single
£82 - 1x750GB HDD (17p/GB)

I'm useless at decisions

JediFragger · 21 Mar 2008 at 21:29

I was also considering the MyBook deal as I'm switching to a laptop soon for home & think I'll go the Icybox route for the flexibility

LordSplodge · 22 Mar 2008 at 11:09

tsinc80697 said:
oooo its so tempting for £150!

Decisions decisions!

£100 - IcyBox Dual
£164 - 2x750GB HDD (17p/GB)

I'm useless at decisions

There you go I made the decision for you!

saffyre · 22 Mar 2008 at 16:13

I picked one of these up the other day to sort me over while I fix a raid array. Ive been using rsync from my linux box to backup files to the drive. Im getting transfer rates around 5Mbps but its connected via some cheap 100mbit switch my sister had. The strangest thing ive noticed is that rsync seems to have trouble displaying the transfer speed its getting. It will sit on 0% until the transfer is nearly complete then shoot through it. Also if the drive isn't mounted in windows it doesn't refresh properly when you add new files/folders which confused me at first.