Team-BHP - 1TB USB drive for a song

Please post a brief review of the drives (specifically about their usage with WDTV) once you get them. I'd be really interested to know the time taken to copy from PC to MyBook, time taken for reading by WDTV from Mybook, connectivity options between WDTV & MyBook, power required for MyBook, etc.

Sorry if it sounds too demanding, please treat it as a request, which it is :)

got my self one of these baby's
4500 for a 640 GB HD by western digital.
the passport series was so hard to resist but i had to go with the mybook in favor of faster data transfer.
a few pics.
i must say this is very fast. It took around 20 mins to copy a 40gb file :D
i know the high gloss look will get ruined with my rough use.

There are umpteen 1TB Maxtor drives being sold on eBay for 5.5K. And there is an ongoing promotion where you can claim either a bluetooth headset or a Moser Baer MP3 player as a free gift.

\N

yes maxtor and segate was a cheaper option but one of my friends owned the 500gb mybook series for over 5 years without any crashes or what so ever problem.
+3 years warranty (on site). In the pic its looking big because i kinda took the pic at a close range. Compare it to the switch in the background.
the length is smaller than the length of my palm :D
4500 for 640 gb and 6500 for 1TB. seagate around 5.5 for 1 TB.
i had considered the 500 gb passport series for around 5.5k but then i realised i needed faster data transfers and not portability.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vnabhi (Post 1361787)

Vinaydas---it looks a bit big in size. Is it WD My Book Essential or Home Series? Is it powered by a plug?
Why did you not go for the Passport series?

its the essential series and i have used the passport series but it has kinda slower data transfers compared to the powered ones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinaydas (Post 1361878)

i had considered the 500 gb passport series for around 5.5k but then i realised i needed faster data transfers and not portability.

its the essential series and i have used the passport series but it has kinda slower data transfers compared to the powered ones.

Ok thanks. Assuming one is going for a WD hard disk with the main purpose of storing HD content for watching using WD TV, would the inherent slowness of the passport series be an impediment?

A noob question-

I need to back up data from my Dell WinXP and a Apple Powerbook (OS X 10.4). I guess windows accepts only FAT 16 and FAT 32 formats. The External HDD has to be formatted before taking data from the Mac. So I lose all windows data. This was what happened when I tried with a Seagate half TB HDD.

Is there some External HDD on which I can take back up from both Windows and Mac (both read and write)

Or, is there some way to make the existing HDD interoperable between Mac and Win.

Quote:

Originally Posted by amitoj (Post 1362006)

I need an external HDD. Where in Bangalore can i get one?

Any good computer shop will have it. You can try places at Jayanagar 3rd block as that'll be closer for you. Let me know when you are planning to go, I'll also tag in as I also am planning. Prices I've seen is more or less the same and you need to bargain a bit.
Guys, any heads up on prices of 320/500GB USB hard drives which doesn't need external power connection?

Quote:

Originally Posted by topedgemonk (Post 1362305)

A noob question-

Or, is there some way to make the existing HDD interoperable between Mac and Win.

You can format it from MAC using FAT. It then can be used between Mac and Win.

Guys, I need urgent inputs on the following:-

I've surveyed the WD and Seagate 1 TB external hard drives today (powered ones) and got a quote for:-

Seagate for Rs 5200 with 5 years warranty.
WD for Rs 5500 with 3 years warranty.

Which one would you recommend? The main purpose is to link with a WD Media player that I intend to procure soon to watch HD content on my PV 8D.
WD has all its hard disks in black, but Seagate has an option for black or silver colour.
Thanks.

Quote:

Originally Posted by topedgemonk (Post 1362305)

Or, is there some way to make the existing HDD interoperable between Mac and Win.

As already answered - Mac ought to be able to read FAT. And probably NTFS too.

So, a dumb question can FAT (NOT ntfs) deal with 500 GB? 4 GB on FAT 16, 120 odd gb on FAT 32. (??)

Edit - found it -

File Allocation Table - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maximum Volume Sizes

Quote:

Originally Posted by vinaydas

i must say this is very fast. It took around 20 mins to copy a 40gb file :D

I don't think this can be considered fast.
its only 34.133MB/sec which is slow for these drives.

When moving a large file the speed should always be better than small ones.