[iMac] i7 iMac USB Performance

[Steve Goldstein]

I recently got a LaCie external quad connectivity (USB 2.0, eSATA, and FW 400/800).  Actually, the FW 400/800 is achieved with an adapter cable that plugs into the FW 800 port and has a female FW 400 connector at the other end.  At any rate, it has two 1TB drives inside, and the can be configured as RAID 0 or 1.  I chose RAID 1 for a bit of safety, so I essentially have a self-backing 1TB drive.

I run my TimeMachine on an external 1TB WD MyBook drive that has both FW 400 and USB 2.0 connections.

So, note that I am both running Time Machine and a bootable backup.  'cos I can't boot from Time Machine.

Also, I recently saw a portable 2.5" 320GB drive at eBay.  It was not one of the major brand names, and I forget the name.  It was about $88.

I fully agree as to the flakiness of USB for reliable backup.  They're OK for storage, but I would not trust them for backup.  OTOH, I have to rely on USB backup and Time Machine for my portable Dell Hackintoshes that have only USB 2.0 ports.  So far they have been reliable.   But, the portables do not carry the critical info that I have on my iMac, so I am not all that concerned.

Good luck,

--Steve

On Apr 22, 2010, at 1:54 AM, Andrew Lynch wrote:

> Any better suggestions?