External hard drives - the basics?

Can anyone recommend a good one for Macs? I've been meaning to get one for my iMac for ages, just to back up our big music collection and photos. In fact, is there one that you could back up a Mac and a PC to, so DH and I could use the same one to back up both computers, or does that make things weird? I'm fine with having my own, and the only thing he uses his PC for is gaming, and he has all the discs to reinstall if anything were to go wrong, I believe. Was looking at some for the Mac last night, but have no idea which one would be best. I was just thinking that even though Macs are super reliable, one day I might want to upgrade to a new one, so would you just be able to move things from the external hard drive to the new computer or access the external hard drive from the new computer? I, too, am clueless about this stuff, which is why I use a Mac. 

Any external USB or Firewire hard drive can be made to work with both PCs and Macs; the trick is getting the filesystem format right; there is a discussion of the pros and cons of various schemes here

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/shareextdrive105.html

Regarding Macs being "super reliable", that has not particularly been my experience; I have been using both Apple and PC computers since the mid 1980s and I have had more Macs go wrong than PCs.

Any external USB or Firewire hard drive can be made to work with both PCs and Macs; the trick is getting the filesystem format right; there is a discussion of the pros and cons of various schemes here

http://www.thexlab.com/faqs/shareextdrive105.html

Regarding Macs being "super reliable", that has not particularly been my experience; I have been using both Apple and PC computers since the mid 1980s and I have had more Macs go wrong than PCs.

Well, I've got less experience than you, but I've had two Macs - the first one lasted for more than 5 years, never had any problems, and was still working when I replaced it with this new one about 3 years ago. I admit upgrading to OSX was a real annoyance with the whole Classic OS, etc., but now that I don't have any old peripherals to worry about, I have no problems at all! I love my Mac! 

I've had 6 Macs and about 15 PCs; 3 of the Macs failed in service, and only 1 of the PCs.

Jewelz, the Iomega Prestige Desktop works on my Mac.

Thanks for everyone who offered advice etc on this!  I'm still undecided on what size to get (500mb or 1TB) but feel like I'm in a good place to make a decision.

Dennis, I really appreciate your willingness to help - and I'll check back in when I get this first step completed.

 

Right, y'all, the external HD is here and working a treat.

But it didn't come with a disc for installation.  So if I reinstall my operating system, it will wipe out the software installation.  When I reconnect it afterwards, will it understand to reinstall?  I assume it will but I'm really just looking for confirmation.

If I copy things like the software for my printer, camera to the EHD, can I move them back afterwards or do I have to locate the installation discs and do it that way?

thanks 

It should be "plug and play" meaning no install required. Not sure about the other programs, however. I've always kept the install discs for those things just in case.

If I copy things like the software for my printer, camera to the EHD, can I move them back afterwards or do I have to locate the installation discs and do it that way?

If you reinstalled the OS you would need to reinstall those things afresh. I suppose you could create folders on the EHD and copy the contents of an installation disc to each one, so as to have them all available without switching disks, but you may as well just keep the installation disks in a safe place. You can generally download the software for such things as cameras, printers, etc from the makers website anyway. When I bought my Kodak digital camera I found that the software on the Kodak website had gone through 2 updates compared with the version on the CD. Similarly with my Canon laser printer.

Right on.  I'm pretty sure

When I bought my Kodak digital camera I found that the software on the Kodak website had gone through 2 updates compared with the version on the CD. Similarly with my Canon laser printer.

Good point! 

I'm pretty sure that I have the install disks for everything, just wanted to know if it was an option in case something had gone MIA.  I'm a little nervous about this as it's the first time I've done a reinstall, and just don't want to lose anything.

cheers 

I need to take my hard drive out to bring with me...now I just need to find a case I am guessing?

Any clues?

How do I know what size case will fit?

I need to take my hard drive out to bring with me...now I just need to find a case I am guessing?

Any clues?

How do I know what size case will fit?

Hard disks come in 2 sizes: 2.5 inch (laptops) and 3.5 inch (desktops) and 2 varieties (IDE and SATA) and you need to know these things before you can choose a case.

I take it you mean the type of case where you install a hard drive into it and it acts thereafter as a USB or FireWire external hard drive? (Sometimes called an "enclosure")

Yes Tremula - exactly something to carry it in...I will see If I can find out what kind I have now ;-)

thanks!

Hard disks come in 2 sizes: 2.5 inch (laptops) and 3.5 inch (desktops) and 2 varieties (IDE and SATA) and you need to know these things before you can choose a case.

It seems you can get plenty of enclosures which will take either an IDE or SATA drive, so the size seems to be the information you need. If it's a laptop almost certainly will be a 2.5 inch drive. Perhaps you can post the computer make and model?

Zoyabean, a couple of things. You said you were taking your hard drive out to bring with you. If you were hoping to take out the hard drive from a Windows machine, bring it over, buy another computer, stick the drive in, and hey presto! your Windows system is reconstituted, this won't work.

However, if you were thinking of bringing over all your files and stuff so you could have access to them that would work. One thing to really consider is that it is better to get an external hard drive case with its own power supply (brick or wall wart) because this is better for the computer it is attached to. So you have the 120 volt 240 volt thing. You can buy cases in the UK cheaply so maybe you just need a box and some polystyrene granules.