External Hard Drive: I am a Mac user and just getting things set up with a new Nikon DSLR. I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on the better choices for an External drive to use...

Clif Loc: Central Ca.

I am a Mac user and just getting things set up with a new Nikon DSLR. I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on the better choices for an External drive to use only for photo storage and Processing? I would like to keep photo only for the external drive as a backup to the memory on my MacBook Pro. Suggestions and thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

Clif wrote:

I am a Mac user and just getting things set up with a new Nikon DSLR. I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on the better choices for an External drive to use only for photo storage and Processing? I would like to keep photo only for the external drive as a backup to the memory on my MacBook Pro. Suggestions and thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

Seagate 1TB

Nikonian72 Loc: Chico CA

I own a Seagate "Free Agent" GoFlex Desk 1.5 Tb external hard drive. Small footprint (2-in x 6-in) for huge storage.

Now US$85 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-GoFlex-External-STAC1500100/dp/B005W8NLF6

Haveago Loc: Swindon, Wiltshire. UK.

Clif something to think about, dependant upon how much you will use the HDD is the read/write speed of the ex HDD.

Baz

sloscheider Loc: Minnesota

Thunderbolt! If your Mac has a Thunderbolt port make CERTAIN to get a Thunderbolt drive. They are fast. The next preference down the interface chain would be Firewire 800, and then USB 3 (if your Mac has a USB 3 interface)

mawyatt Loc: Clearwater, Florida

Clip,

I agree with the above post. Get a Thunderbolt (LaCie) drive. I got a Thunderbolt LaCie RAID drive with dual Segate Baracutta 7200rpm Hard Drives and configured it to RAID 0. MacMall had a great deal on the refurb for $299 for the 4TB version, I should have got 2!!! They are all sold out now, but have other deals on refurb Thunderbolt drives as well as new drives. I use Time Machine as backup and will get another Thunderbolt drive for this soon, now I am using a USB 3 drive for TM.

Anyway I did a Black Magic memory benchmark and the Thunderbolt LaCie RAID 0 is almost as fast as the MBP internal SSD...which is really fast. You actually experience the speed of this LaCie drive with LR if you have your images on the LaCie, which I do. I did this to deal with large RAW files from the D800.

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I have a 3tb Seagate GoFlex that I picked up at Costco for $120 which was about what I thought I would pay for 1tb. More memory than I need but couldn't resist the price.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Clif wrote:

I am a Mac user and just getting things set up with a new Nikon DSLR. I am curious if anyone has any thoughts on the better choices for an External drive to use only for photo storage and Processing? I would like to keep photo only for the external drive as a backup to the memory on my MacBook Pro. Suggestions and thoughts are appreciated. Thanks

Excellent idea. Don't go out of your way to buy the cheapest HD you can find. Limit yourself to 2TB. Are you using the Mac software to keep your computer backed-up?

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Western Digital 2TB MY Book, 3 without the software installed for photo library (main)and 2 backups of the first. The forth has Backup software installed for incremental backups of data such at DOC, PDF, DWG, TIFF files... System is on a 4 drive Raid 0 +1...

drydock Loc: mackay, queensland australia

sloscheider wrote:

Thunderbolt! If your Mac has a Thunderbolt port make CERTAIN to get a Thunderbolt drive. They are fast. The next preference down the interface chain would be Firewire 800, and then USB 3 (if your Mac has a USB 3 interface)

YOu can buy a thunderbolt adaptor for the seagate goflex ext HDD at Amazon- cost about $100 from memory-- this effectively gives you a thunderbolt drive at a much cheaper price. Mine works just fine

krispix Loc: London - UK

Just had a look. Most of mine are Maxtor, Fujitsu and Western Digital. Seagate is the only hdd I've ever had fail on me, but it wouldn't stop me buying another.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

I have a Syslogic system that has 2 - 3tb drives configured so that one backs the other up. Also have a Buffalo 1tb drive made up of 4 250gb drives configured with Raid 5. Now use the Syslogic for images and photographic stuff and the Buffalo for documents. Use computer memory for programs, images and documents that I don't care should they get lost by some sort of system crash. Keeping my stuff on external drives allows it to be available to any of my computers

OnDSnap Loc: NE New Jersey

Lacee drives are excellent also.

VietVet Loc: Brooklyn, NY

I have a new MacBook Pro and I purchased a 1 TB Buffalo thunderbolt external HD which I transfer the camera photos to and use it for all my pp. than when home I have a LaCie 6 TB thunderbolt unit to which I back up all my photos to, I than clear my camera and buffalo drive of images. For a little more safety for my images I have a seagate desktop drive for extra back up and I'm thinking of also transferring the images to a cloud back up for extra safety.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

drydock wrote:

YOu can buy a thunderbolt adaptor for the seagate goflex ext HDD at Amazon- cost about $100 from memory-- this effectively gives you a thunderbolt drive at a much cheaper price. Mine works just fine

What's the advantage of Thunderbolt? Speed?