[P1] suggested external firewire hard drives?

[Zachary Heaton]

On Saturday, Mar 15, 2003, at 02:16 US/Eastern, Brett Forrester wrote:

> Fellow iBookers,
>
> I'm looking for shopping advice. My rig is a first edition iceBook 
> (500 MHz, dual USB) with original 10 GB hard drive, and I use this 
> machine for a little bit of everything. I'm looking to buy an external 
> FireWire hard drive to, er,  supplement my storage situation--a drive 
> that will stay in one place mostly but may, on occasion, travel along 
> with my iBook in my iBook bag, so it should be somewhat portable, at 
> least in weight if not dimensions. In terms of capacity, I'm thinking 
> anywhere between 40-120 GB with high enough RPM to work with some 
> limited digital video and iMovie. Also, as I'm using Jaguar more and 
> more over OS 9, the option to function as a boot drive in OS X would 
> be a swell perk. I had been looking at QPS' Que M3 drives, but they 
> seem to be scarce, and I've since heard mixed reviews. More recently I 
> have heard good things about OWC's Mercury Elite drives, but how are 
> they in terms of weight and portability? What do you like and have had 
> success with? Please share your reviews. Thanks.
>
> Brett

I was in the same situation that you are, but I took a slightly 
different solution.  Instead of buying an external drive, I purchased a 
replacement 40GB internal drive (2.5" IDE) and a firewire drive case 
for a 2.5" IDE drive.  Then, I replaced the 10GB drive in the iBook and 
placed my old drive in the firewire case.  I now use the 10GB drive to 
do nightly backups of my home folder.

The upside to this approach is that you don't have any additional gear 
to carry with you, and can use all of the additional storage space 
offered by the larger drive while on the go.  (Right now, I've still 
got ~22GB free on the internal drive.)  The downside is that you may be 
able to get a larger or faster drive if you go external.  You will also 
need to be willing to swap the drive in an iBook or find someone to do 
it for you - it's not impossible, but it takes some time, a bit of 
patience, and a good set of small screwdrivers.  Swapping the hard 
drive will also void your warranty - however, if you didn't purchase an 
extended warranty that shouldn't matter anymore.

Best of luck!

Regards,
Zach Heaton


Regards,
Zach Heaton
heatonza at notes.udayton.edu