A specific type of external HD?

My brother has a 200GB external HD that he has attached to his PC and this summer, when he tried to connect it to my macbook, it wouldn't work (as in, my macbook wouldn't read it). SOmeone told me it was because of FAT32 v. ntfs issue. Maybe.

My question is, can I get any type of external HD for my macbook, or do I need to be looking for specific ones out there? I'm assuming i can format an external HD from FAT to NTFS, correct?

 

It should be able to read it in OS X without a problem. I'm thinking the problem is power, the USB port on your Macbook does not supply sufficient power to the HD to make it run. Exactly which HD are we talking about anyway?

 

Don't all external HDs get power from the wall?

 

i don't know the brand.
Then if all hard drives can be attached to my macbook, then why on amazon and cnet there's a subcategory for compatibility, with 'mac' being one of the options you can choose from?

 

nope. and sepandee most if not all drives should be compatable with OS X they just might have to be reformatted.

btw has anybody else noticed that all of a sudden a lot of people seem to have questions about external drives lately?

 

With SLR cameras going for $500 and the regular digital cameras selling at $300 for a 7.0 megapixel, yeah, it makes sense. And I think the trend is going to continue upward for now, unless online storage becomes the replacement one day.

But to repeat myself:Then if all hard drives can be attached to my macbook, then why on amazon and cnet there's a subcategory for compatibility, with 'mac' being one of the options you can choose from? lol i just want to know what to look for, and that was my original question, yet everyone seems to be getting off track.

 

Dunno why, but ANY external HDD will work if it's firewire or USB. I dunno about the power output on the USB, but the MBP has no problem powering 7200 rpm drives with a single USB header or firewire. MB could be different though.

As regards to format, HFS is the way to go, unless you need to share it with Windows. In that case, go for FAT. Keep in mind though, FAT has a file size limit (which is a killer for me). If you have a desktop, and don't need to be mobile, you could always setup your desktop to share a folder (or use FTP) for your MB to upload files to.
If you need it to be mobile, I suggest doing HFS+ and when windows needs to use it, turn on FTP and share it over the network.

Just some options there...

 

that happens a lot here.

but to answer your question. the mac compatibility section might just mean out of the box compatibility w/o any reformatting needed. just an idea...

 

cool, thanks.
Now i have a macbook, the previous version, 2.0Ghz black macbook with 120gb HDD and 2GB RAM. Will a firewire or USB give enough power for a 7200?

Oh and any suggestions on a good HD? I'm thinking 160GB AT LEAST, 7200 if possible.

 

USB or Firewire will power them fine. Its just the transfer rate is different between them. USB 2.0 is faster than Firewire 400, but Firewire 800 on the MBP is faster than USB 2.0.

 

errr, i keep reading everywhere ( example) that Firewire 400 is actually faster than USB 2.0.
So who's right?

 

Y'know, I'm not too sure myself, I originally posted "I believe USB 2.0 is ...." but I got rid of it later . But from what I've read, the maximum Firewire 400 can go is 400 Mbits/s, while USB 2.0 can go up to 480 Mbits/s.

EDIT: Doing some quick searches, it looks like USB 2.0 does indeed go up to 480 Mbits/s, but barely anything uses it up to 480, most just use around 200 Mbits/s. So yes, USB 2.0 indeed has a higher maximum transfer rate, but nothing uses it up to 480 Mbits/s, so Firewire 400 will transfer faster.

 

cool, thanks. And Firewire 400, is that the same as IEEE 1394, or IEEE 1394a, mor IEEE 1394b? Which one?

ANd how come on newegg, i see almost 150 products under usb 2.0 but only 24 under usb 2.0/IEEE 1394a, and even fewer under usb 2.0/IEEE 1394? And it seems there's no HD that only has firewire and no USB. How come?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IEEE_1394#Standards_and_versions

Firewire is Apple's brand name for IEEE 1394 (same way Airport is Apple's brand name for 802.11 WiFi).

IEEE 1394a is Firewire 400, IEEE 1394b is Firewire 800.

The MB has a Firewire 400 port, the Core 2 Duo and Santa Rosa MBPs have a Firewire 800 port. Do you have a MB or a Core 2 Duo/Santa Rosa-based MBP (Core Duo MBPs don't have Firewire 800 either)?

And I guess it doesn't hurt to have both USB and Firewire, for the hard drive manufacturers.

 

Firewire 400 is faster than USB 2.0 but it will also depend largely on the chip that is in the external drives. Ext. HDD enclosures that run either often slow down firewire (from what I've seen on review sites like tomshardware).
But overall, FW often gets much faster transfer rates. It's pretty night and day IMHO and I have two enclosures that have FW and USB.

The maximum transfer rate of USB 2 can never really be reached, due to the very high overhead it has (primary reason it's slower). From most sites, you will see a 5-10 mb/s difference in transfer speed.

 

k any recommendations now for a Firewire 400, 250GB or more?

 

yea heres two. first, second.

 

no firewire on those.

 

nevermind, sorry.

 

can someone see any difference between these two products? They have the exact same name and specs but for some reason one is a lot cheaper than the other.

???

 

the bottom is a "triple interface" with usb, firewire 400 and esata. The above only has usb and esata.

 

so it has more options but cheaper? that makes no sense.

 

Dunno. Maybe it's a sale? WD's 500GB drive is going for cheaper than its 320GB drive atm too...