OS and Software > All Things Macintosh > Question about extenal hard drives to use on a Imac.

Question about extenal hard drives to use on a Imac.

I've had good luck with Seagate FreeAgents, but you could always get an enclosure and drive. I've used this enclosure: »www.amazon.com/Macally-G-S350SUA···0P1NAMO/ . Just drop in the SATA drive of your choice and go.
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***ATMFAQ***DIFAQ***Kitchen Sink***

reply to denny
Most HD should be compatible, sometimes the 'mac' version has a price premium, because it's already formatted for the HFS+ filesystem......Disk utility can easily wipe/reformat a supposed 'Windows' HD to be fully mac compatible.......
As an aside I use Seagate FreeAgent series.....regular version..not the 'special' Mac ones, and they seem to work fine......

reply to denny
I'm pretty new to this stuff. So what would i need the enclosure for? And do i need to refomat the hd to work well with my mac even with the enclosure? Also, is it self explanitory to reformat the hd if needed?

reply to denny
The model I have is very similar to

»www.bestbuy.com/site/Western+Dig···=9539617

I have it hooked up via Firewire 800. I like that it frees up my USB ports for other things, but so far I have not been thrilled with Firewire 800. Doesn't seem faster than USB 2.
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iMac 2.5 Ghz i5 (Lion/Windows 7) - MacBook Air 13" 1.7 Ghz i5 (Lion) - iPhone 4 (ATT) 32 Gig

reply to denny
I am using osx lion. My price range would be around that price of the HD you linked to me. Also does these HD back up items like games i've install games i have on my desktop?

The HD doesn't do anything by itself. It just sits there and allows you to copy things to it.

How things backup to the HD depend on what software you use to back up to it. If you're using Time Machine, everything (by default) will be backed up to your external unless you specifically exclude something. Some drives come with their own backup software, but most of it is crap or Windows-only (and still crap).

You can use any HD you want, as long as it has firewire or USB. The software handles how things are organized on the HD.
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University of Southern California - Fight On!

Thanks for the response!! I understand.

I just noticed this comment

"Time machine would be my first choice but it is expensive"

Time machine is a free feature that is built into OS X.
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iMac 2.5 Ghz i5 (Lion/Windows 7) - MacBook Air 13" 1.7 Ghz i5 (Lion) - iPhone 4 (ATT) 32 Gig

reply to denny
I would look at this one. For your games, read this about Time Machine »en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_(Mac_OS) This one has plenty of HDD space, is Mac formatted, works with Time Machine, and works with Firewire or USB:

»www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent···_vtp_e_3
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"Is there a 50's Cafe around here"?

reply to ArchAngel21x

reply to denny
Yeah i just notice that I meant to type the Hd apple sells not the time machine.

reply to Thinkdiff