[Helpdesk] need to borrow external firewire harddrive asap

[Andrew Main]

On Feb 15, 2006, at 8:03 AM, Vint Miller wrote:

> I would recommend buying an external drive that is bootable and  
> using a backup utility and make this part of a regular routine.

Macworld had a comprehensive review of portable drives last May:
<http://www.macworld.com/2005/05/reviews/fwharddrivesportable/index.php>

Interesting to note that the LaCie drive with FireWire 400 tested  
faster than the drives with FireWire 800. Given that FW 800 has been  
available only on pro series Macs (not on iBook or iMac) and that  
it's disappeared on the latest models (Intel-based MacBookPro), it  
doesn't seem worth bothering with unless you use a Dual G5 for video  
work. Probably the LaCie's impressive speed is partly due to the  
7200rpm drive, but if you don't mind a little slower, LaCie offers  
the same unit with 5400rpm drives a lot cheaper:
<http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10652>

And a little cheaper yet, with 2-day shipping, at ZipZoomFly:
<http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=102662-6>
<http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=102663-4>
<http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=102664-3>

eBay also lists a lot of LaCie Mobile drives, but all appear to be  
USB-only, which will not boot any but the latest Intel-based Macs.  
(Seems likely Apple will eventually abandon FireWire entirely and  
move to USB -- the standard in the PC world, where FireWire never  
caught on -- for all external devices, now that new Macs will be  
based on Intel motherboards that allow USB booting.)

Andrew Main