15 December 2008
The fastest and most reliable backup drives (via Twitter!)
The other day I asked this question on Twitter (twitter.com/ryancarson):
“My sis is looking for an affordable, but fast and reliable backup drive for her Mac. Suggestions? Is Firewire or USB faster these days?”
I got a huge number of really helpful responses, so I thought I’d go ahead and share. Enjoy!
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stuscuba: @ryancarson Firewire if you can…I wouldn’t touch Western Digital I’ve found them serioulsy flakey
boboroshi: @ryancarson there are drives with both – check out owcomputing.com. not sure of shipping to uk. i have abotu 8 of em
davehodg: @ryancarson anything but lacie.
maxshanly: @ryancarson Will that do? http://tinyurl.com/6kqnv5
kyleridolfo: @ryancarson For the absolute fastest speeds I’d recommend an eSATA card and eSATA drive. They are available for both MBPs and MacPros.
erskingardner: @ryancarson that is one i have and it’s awesome.
erskingardner: @ryancarson fw is faster,but new macbooks don’t have fw so prob easier to get usb, try http://tinyurl.com/5aqxrb this one does usb and fw.
lewisking: @ryancarson firewire is faster for big files as it stays at a constant rate, USB jumps up and down in speed. As for drives, WD 1TB £80 odd.
pd0: @ryancarson what kind of backup drive? If just USB HDD, buy any. Otherwise, Time Capsule or @dropbox, IMHO
stevekennedyuk: @ryancarson FW800 is faster than USB2.0 (800Mb/s vs 480). FW is 400Mb/s, however USB max is burst, FW sustains
SteveMarshall: @ryancarson FW800 is, as @drewm said, fastest. FW400 runs 380MB/s stream, USB2 can only do that in bursts (ie. short periods).
tanya_peasgood: @ryancarson FW is a more consistent transfer speed than USB and FW800 is much faster if available. I’d get a Seagate FreeAgent – has both.
nikf: @ryancarson Maplin were doing some good deals on External drives recently (Maxtor & Seagate USB drives).
john_oshea: @ryancarson Go Firewire if possible. Avoid Western Digital “MyBook” products like the plague unless she has a penchant for data-recovery
herus02: @ryancarson Firewire = 800mb/s, USB = 400mb/s.
rik1p: @ryancarson DON’T BUY AN IOMEGA ULTRAMAX – had 3 fail in less than 2 months. Buy 2 seperate drives and RAID (mirror) them. FW800 FTW.
drewm: @ryancarson FW is faster. FW800 is fastest, but new Macs have no support. USB2 is similar to FW400 for small files, slower for large.
pauljevans: @ryancarson Recommend USB 2. I *love* WD Passports, small, silent, robust, cheap. Up to 320GB. Perfect Time Machine drives.
JulianKross: @ryancarson FireWire trends indicate it’s on it’s way out. FW800 still beats USB 2.0, and the deals are everywhere on those drives
lachenmayer: @ryancarson USB2.0 is slightly faster than FW400 (480 vs 400Mbps). And seeing as FW has disappeared from MacBooks, I’d say go with USB.
lvtrii: @ryancarson Firewire’s still faster, for now. USB3 is coming, though. And that’s 10x faster
kjlloydie: @ryancarson this is an awesome portable backup drive: http://is.gd/aZ8W. Also, Firewire is way faster (shame it’s not on the new MacBook)
roba3000: @ryancarson WD my book http://twurl.nl/4z7hps
spaulds1: @ryancarson ur sister will want firewire;I like Western Digital or LeCie Drives. Use Carbon Copy Cloner.
awojtowski: @ryancarson Personally prefer Western Digital. If she isn’t editing video or rendering high end graphics I would say usb 2.0.
nikf: @ryancarson USB are cheaper. Firewire more consistent transfer speeds (but would only matter for 1st backup w/Time Machine). Avoid MyBooks
G_Masta: @ryancarson Firewire is still the faster interface, no matter what the USB guys say. FW800 is the shizza. WD MyBook is great
Dan
December 15, 2008 - 4:59 pm
Hi Ryan,
I went out and bought a time capsule at the weekend. Now it is my business, the prospect of losing all this data on a train doesn’t fill me with joy. So far it’s been a dream, so if your sis has a mac, I would suggest one.
USB 2 is faster than standard Firewire (hence it being dropped on new Macbook Pro’s) so she’ll be fine with that if she goes with a wired drive.
Dan
twitter.com/dangriffey
John Sjölander
December 15, 2008 - 5:14 pm
Hey! Good summary. Hope your sister got the right thing.
/@pd0
Andrew Pryde
December 15, 2008 - 5:56 pm
I have got the eSATA My Book 500GB. I have no complaints so far. Thanks for the backup hint though spaulds1.
Andrew
d
December 15, 2008 - 6:57 pm
To the people who claim USB 2 is faster than Firewire: Stop spreading misinformation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FireWire#Comparison_to_USB
Chris Coyier
December 16, 2008 - 12:36 am
If reliability is of the absolute utmost concern, no single hard drive is safe unfortunately. Probably way overkill for most regular sisters, but the Drobo is the best of breed:
http://www.drobo.com/
Tom
December 16, 2008 - 9:33 am
I am using an usb 2.0 Maxtor One Touch, 750gb. It’s not so fast, but I found it perfect for time machine backups. Obviously a Firewire drive is better, but it’s more expensive.
James Kirkup
December 16, 2008 - 1:31 pm
it’s got to be a mix for me, Lacie for desktop backup and Western Digital for portable storage!
Alex Hardy
December 16, 2008 - 1:56 pm
… I wouldn’t touch Western Digital … avoid Western Digital “MyBook” products like the plague … Personally prefer Western Digital … Avoid MyBooks … WD MyBook is great …
Funny, but the Twitter replies demonstrate that (on the web at least) you’ll get as many different answers as people you ask – probably ending up more confused than when you started!
Adrian Parker
December 16, 2008 - 2:07 pm
I like the Carsonifed blogs, don’t get me wrong, but blogging a Twitter thread is setting a new low, bro.
Ryan
December 16, 2008 - 5:00 pm
@ Adrian Parker – Why do you say that? It was a really interesting bit of information and I thought you all might benefit from it.
Chris O'Donnell
December 17, 2008 - 5:40 am
Has nobody mentioned G-Technology? I figure they’re the all-round best. A summary of what you interpreted all this (contradictory) tweetage would have made the article more complete, but nevertheless cool information.
Domsparks
December 18, 2008 - 9:48 am
An important factor is that the new macbook & macbook pro DO NOT HAVE FIREWIRE (although the macpro has FW800) Even if your sis has an older model, it’s probably worth getting a drive with a USB2 interface, so that the drive will remain usable if she ever updates to a newer mac…
Lewis King
December 28, 2008 - 10:42 pm
Ryan, did she get one in the end? If so, I think we’d all like to know which!