Recommended external hard drive for 2009 iMac ?

[sundial]

Need a budget price USB HD for my 2009 iMac - will use for back-up purposes only e.g.prior to reinstalling Yosemite . Looked at TZ UK previous posts but all rather old and nothing recent. John Lewis lists a Toshiba Stor E slim £59.95 but specs state Mountain Lion compatible - would it work with Yosemite and is it worth buying? Any other recommendations? Any to avoid?

Thanks

dunk

[waynertron]

Dunk,

That would work fine. Any USB drive will be fine for any version of OS X, just reformat it to MAC extended journaled and tell time machine to use it.
If you want to use it for permanent backup and have a decent amount of history, you may want to get one double the size of your main drive.

Of all the hard drives I've had, two Western digital my books failed. I've never had a problem with Seagate drives.

[vulcangascompany]

I usually buy Lacie drives for the mac mini and macbook - i have had other drives fail but never a Lacie ( might just be good luck!) They aren't the cheapest but look good and are well built, good prices on Amazon if interested.

[sundial]

Thank you for the advice.

dunk

[bondguru]

Dunk,

That would work fine. Any USB drive will be fine for any version of OS X, just reformat it to MAC extended journaled and tell time machine to use it.
If you want to use it for permanent backup and have a decent amount of history, you may want to get one double the size of your main drive.

Of all the hard drives I've had, two Western digital my books failed. I've never had a problem with Seagate drives.

+1, your Mac will play well with any of them.

But I should mention that I've never had an external drive fail and have used both WD and Seagate; I replace them after 3 years.

[sundial]

Thanks again for advice received. Now have a bit of leeway time-wise as managed to clean up my hard drive so that it runs more quickly - but could still be quicker. Still planning to buy an external drive and weighing up whether to opt for a solid state or disk type. Former seem to be more future proof? Still on the learning curve.

dunk

[bondguru]

Thanks again for advice received. Now have a bit of leeway time-wise as managed to clean up my hard drive so that it runs more quickly - but could still be quicker. Still planning to buy an external drive and weighing up whether to opt for a solid state or disk type. Former seem to be more future proof? Still on the learning curve.

dunk

You wouldn't want to buy an external SSD as your speed would be limited to USB 2 or 3, so its a bit of a waste of money.

However, I would highly recommend replacing your internal HDD with a SSD - you will be amazed at how much faster your system runs. You'll still want to buy something external for backing up though - and because an external drive is so small you can keep it away from your main system in case disaster strikes (I keep my spare drives in the car in case there's a fire or someone breaks into my flat).

And don't worry about future proofing with drives - considering the expected life is 5 years, I can assure you that solid state and disk type drives will both still be around then.

[sundial]

Thanks for all the recommendations and advice . Managed to get a good deal on a LaCie Rugged 2TB Triple Interface 5400RPM - USB 3.0 - a new but 'out of box' item … and cheaper than Amazon.

When it arrives will reinstall Yosemite.

Best wishes

dunk

[sundial]

Thanks for all the recommendations and advice . Managed to get a good deal on a LaCie Rugged 2TB Triple Interface 5400RPM - USB 3.0 - a new but 'out of box' item … and cheaper than Amazon.

When it arrives will reinstall Yosemite.

Best wishes

dunk

Not such a good buy because being 'out of box' does not have manufacturer's warranty (unable to register the previously purchased HD's serial number)… and the free software is not accessible because already used. Lesson learnt ... avoid OOB 'bargains'. It's going back and for peace of mind I'll buy new.

dunk

[Franco]

Not such a good buy because being 'out of box' does not have manufacturer's warranty (unable to register the previously purchased HD's serial number)… and the free software is not accessible because already used. Lesson learnt ... avoid OOB 'bargains'. It's going back and for peace of mind I'll buy new.

dunk

Also, USB 3.0 is not present on a 2009 Mac. But certainly it is back-compatible to 2.0. As Mac backup software, I use SuperDuper which is truly excellent and makes the copy bootable.

[simoscribbler]

As post above. I meant to post earlier on this thread that a Firewire HDD would probably be your best bet if you need a bit more speed than USB2. We tend to use Iomega drives with our macs - seem fine.

[sundial]

Also, USB 3.0 is not present on a 2009 Mac. But certainly it is back-compatible to 2.0. As Mac backup software, I use SuperDuper which is truly excellent and makes the copy bootable.

I used the Firewire connection - that's one reason I chose it - but It's packed ready to post back. Prefer to have a full manufacturer's warranty.

Also upgrading the RAM from 4GB to 8GB - it's a very simple upgrade on my 2009 iMac as only requires removal of one cover screw to pull out the RAM cards. Ordered the memory from Crucial today … they currently offer extended Black Friday 5% discount … and their online system scanner advised which RAM upgrades are possible.

dunk

[bondguru]

Also, USB 3.0 is not present on a 2009 Mac. But certainly it is back-compatible to 2.0. As Mac backup software, I use SuperDuper which is truly excellent and makes the copy bootable.

+1 for SuperDuper, its superb.

[sundial]

Ordered LaCie 3TB d2 Quadra v3 Hard Drive as replacement … not as portable but additional 1TB will be useful.

dunk