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General discussion

reformating a new external hard drive...

May 19, 2007 2:22AM PDT

what format should I reformat a USB powered portable HD as?

What if I want to do most of the work on a mac but may need to download files onto a clients winbox?

Any portable drive brands or models I should stay away from (being a mac user)?

Thanks as always for future responses!

grim

Discussion is locked

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FAT32. But beware...
May 19, 2007 2:29AM PDT

It's sometimes can go pwoof. So it's just for transfers and not to be mistaken as storage. Never trust it.

Newer MAC OSX's can read NTFS but to write you have to used dodgey old FAT32.

Make or model? All the office units were self builts. We picked up some drive on sale and then some case and were done. I'm sure someone will analyze this commodity item. I know a few that did research on USB memory sticks.

Bob

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Hmmm... that worries me.
May 19, 2007 2:51AM PDT

I have been looking at the Seagate FreeAgent Go 120GB for about $100 US over the past week. It comes loaded with all sorts of software designed to make it an independent, portable desktop that hooks up to any PC and leaves no trace behind of your activities.

Of course none of the software works on a mac so they advise mac users to just reformat.

I had wanted to use it for semi permanent storage in the sense that I haul working projects (graphics and video for both print, dvd authoring, and web use) from work to school to home. In that role... I can't afford to lose any project saved on the drive since major changes could be made at home for work and on and on. I mentioned the dual use of working on a mac but the need to view and download to a client's PC since it's a multi-platform world out there.

FYI... I'm using a G4 1.2 ghz iBook with OS 10.4.9 at home... all other computers I work on will be newer, beefier dual G5's and mac-intels

Thanks for the previous response Bob...

grim

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Then it's semipermanent.
May 19, 2007 3:16AM PDT

With FAT32 it's fairly reliable but nothing as reliable as Apple native or NTFS. So as long as you know it can vanish (semipermanent) then you're done.

With 500GB units found for 150 all around is that 120GB a good deal? It looks nice but seems a tad high on the $ per GB scale.

Bob

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I already have and external 250 and just got a terabyte too.
May 19, 2007 3:53AM PDT

Both of which are big and require power bricks/accesory cords.

I'm looking for a "slip in your pocket on the way out the door" HD that doesn't require me climbing under a clients desk to plug in a power cable. The 6.4-ounce and 4.8 x 3.9 x 0.7-inch dimensions along with being bus powered is the reason for the price per gig being higher... just like a laptop, you pay for miniaturization and portability.

I lost some valuable work at school recently. Even though I was a student at the time, I had borrowed a faculty user account to safe guard a 10 gig dvd project I was authoring. I got the job done... burned 20 DVDs... and came back 2 weeks later with one of my big external drives and it's accessory power cords to back up the project... and the project was gone! Out of 30 computers in a lab, someone else from outside the department had used the faculty login on my computer and threw away all my work sitting on the desk top. If I had carried a small 120 gig drive in my pocket every day, I would have not been chained to one computer, nor risked losing about a 100 hours worth of work, or so I imagine. Sad


Now, since I'm working in multimedia and trying to build a client base up developing educational and promotional video/flash projects I need portability along with more capacity than a 2 gig thumb drive offers. A small portable drive like this offers much of what I need without having to carry a laptop everywhere I go.

You mentioned FAT32 along with "Apple native or NTFS". If I want to learn more about this subject, what are the key words I should be using when doing a google search please?

Thanks.

grim

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For the USB powered units I have to carry a cable like this.
May 19, 2007 3:57AM PDT

See what you find at http://www.google.com/search?q=AA2USBPC

Too many machines have anemic USB power. Also such things have been known to cause grief for consultants as some machines are so "on the edge of failure" and pulling full power from USB ports have caused much finger pointing as they yell "you killed my PC."

Bob