bdshort

I'm looking for a new external HD. My current laptop is a 2007 model MacBook Pro with a 160 gig HD. I currently have a 200 gig or so external drive for Time Machine. I'm planning on upgrading to a new notebook next year with the largest HD I can get (750gig or 1TB of they're available on the new Pros coming out next year), but in the meantime, I have a new digital camera (Panasonic DMC-GH2) that can do 1080/24p/30p video, and I really don't have any room to store the video... or anything else for that matter.

I'm looking for a good external backup solution, minimum of 1 TB, in a 2.5 inch form factor so I can carry it around with the laptop. Not sure on the best connection though. USB 3.0 + Firewire for the best compatibility? I could make use of FW now and USB 3.0 on my new machine. What about Thunderbolt? I plan to store most if not all of my video/photos on the external drive to free up the internal drive for other things, though I realize if I do that I should really have a couple of external drives that store the same files separately.

Right now I'm looking at some of the Buffalo drives but really am not sure what I want to get yet.

zuffy

Skip on the WD Passport 1TB 2.5. WD put in some BS proprietary interface that you can't just plug into another enclosure or computer.

fumanstan

I have a Western Digital 750 GB 2.5 inch portable drive that uses USB 3.0 and while there's some Western Digital software on there, you can just format the drive and not worry about it. It works great for my backups

TheBang

Ditto. I got a 1TB WD My Passport Essential 2.5", and it works just fine on my Macs. I just wiped everything on the hard drive when I got it. It is very small and portable, bus-powered, and it has a USB 3.0 interface, which is backwards compatible just fine with USB 2.0 ports.

An external with USB2/3 interface is probably your best choice. You're unlikely to find any 2.5" external drives with Firewire or Thunderbolt interfaces, and if you do, they're probably going to have an unreasonable price/performance ratio, compared to USB.

bdshort

Anyone familiar with the Buffalo drives? My current drive is actually a WD Passport and it's worked just fine, so I guess I might as well just get another one - or two. Anyone have a good way of doing redundant backups without a RAID setup?

*Edit* Was just looking at B&H and they have the WD drives for $70 more than the Buffalo drives. You get what you pay for, or am I just buying a name?

*Edit 2* Found a Firewire 800 WD My Passport Studio 1TB drive for $202 - Is that a fair price? Is Firewire that much better than USB 2.0?

zuffy

Why not just buy a USB 3.0 and/or FW enclosure and a 1TB HDD? That is what I did for a 500GB and a 160GB SSD. Much better than the 3 WD Passport I have.