Another Mac/PC thingy!

[Smoothound]

I need a new Hard Drive for my Mac. Was going to get a bigger internal drive but have decided to get a reasonable sized external one and rejig the internal drives.

I've come across [URL="http://www.maplin.co.uk/750gb-core-external-desktop-usb-2.0-hard-drive-513483"]these[/URL] ones at Maplins and other places on the web in various sizes which seem pretty reasonable. I was in Maplins the other day and was talking to a guy in the store about them and he said they won't work on Macs! I know they are formatted for PC's and have some sort of inbuilt encryption system but surely you can just reformat them into any flavour you like and use on any computer you like or is there something I'm not getting?

[danch]

Being USB2 I believe it should work no issue, as you say just reformat although I have to reccommend the lacie drives, I swear by them & so does my brother who uses for studio use.

Dan

[Smoothound]

[QUOTE=danch;657635]Being USB2 I believe it should work no issue, as you say just reformat although I have to reccommend the lacie drives, I swear by them & so does my brother who uses for studio use.

Dan[/QUOTE]

Yeah I do like the Lacie stuff but just want a cheap option to get another year or so out of this machine before I upgrade to something from the 21st century ;)

Guy in Maplins was adamant that a mate of his had tried it and got nowhere! I said i thought a drive was just a drive and only needed to be formatted the correct way but he wouldn't have it! Which is why I thought I'd ask on here. I'm assuming it's possible this built in encryption rubbish it has is the problem?

[danch]

How about a WD Passport drive, using one as a development mac server backup drive & all good so far.

Dan

[Disc]

[QUOTE=Smoothound;657603]I need a new Hard Drive for my Mac. Was going to get a bigger internal drive but have decided to get a reasonable sized external one and rejig the internal drives.

I've come across [URL="http://www.maplin.co.uk/750gb-core-external-desktop-usb-2.0-hard-drive-513483"]these[/URL] ones at Maplins and other places on the web in various sizes which seem pretty reasonable. I was in Maplins the other day and was talking to a guy in the store about them and he said they won't work on Macs! I know they are formatted for PC's and have some sort of inbuilt encryption system but surely you can just reformat them into any flavour you like and use on any computer you like or is there something I'm not getting?[/QUOTE]


Okay whats the Mac ?

replacing the HD is not hard if you don't mind taking things to bits

and any IDE/SATA HD will work in the mac if its the right HD they are not encrypted to run for one OS!

Just format as required!!!

[Disc]

[QUOTE=Smoothound;657647]Yeah I do like the Lacie stuff but just want a cheap option to get another year or so out of this machine before I upgrade to something from the 21st century ;)

Guy in Maplins was adamant that a mate of his had tried it and got nowhere! I said i thought a drive was just a drive and only needed to be formatted the correct way but he wouldn't have it! Which is why I thought I'd ask on here. I'm assuming it's possible this built in encryption rubbish it has is the problem?[/QUOTE]

correct just format as required

never a HD stop me yet!

[Disc]

My Advice with iMac HD upgrades is this:

1. buy a 2TB SATA HD they cost 80-100 pounds

2. buy a USB HD Dock

3. open the iMac up replace the internal HD (takes 15-30mins)

4. Plug the old internal HD into the USB dock

5. put the OSX DVD into the drive and hold down C

6. Fresh install of OSX

7. At one point during the install it'll ask import Personal Data from another HD choose the old external HD pluged into the USB dock.

8. it'll import the lot taking whats required


Worse case it will even boot from the external HD if you couldn't get the mac to Boot from the DVD Drive, you can do it from the boot up via the external USB drive.

The only iMac thats an issue is the one with 4 Ram slots those HD's have a different boot Rom!!

[Smoothound]

This is a G4 FW800 so fairly old.

I can get an internal IDE 500GB drive but they are around £60ish. I've done this all before and going inside is not a problem I have the T shirt :)

I can get external drives of far larger capacity for less money and they will be forward compatible unlike another internal IDE drive hence my direction...



Guy at Maplins was quite adamant I would not be able to get it working on my Mac and would be unable to reformat it. I imagine it is something to do with this:-

[QUOTE]*Full disk encryption
*Removeable media encryption
*Encrypt Email, folders & Files
*Multiple encryption keys stored in a keyfile
*AES, 3DES, Blowfish Algorithms
*Encrypted mountable files
*Secure data shredder
*Keyfile backup utility [/QUOTE]

[Disc]

when your format these drives you tend to loose the ability to back/up encrypt via the HD's own software.

so non of those options will work.

if in doubt just buy a different USB HD

[Smoothound]

[QUOTE=Disc;657738]when your format these drives you tend to loose the ability to back/up encrypt via the HD's own software.

so non of those options will work.

if in doubt just buy a different USB HD[/QUOTE]

Yeah this was my argument with him but he was adamant that the drive was not possible to reformat in the first place!!

[Steve]

I know it's not a HDD, but an optical drive - a few years ago I had a DVD drive in a Mac die on me.

I opened up the Mac, removed the drive and noted all its model number and manufacturer etc - it was a Panasonic drive if I remember rightly.

I then just bought a replacement drive off the online shelf for a very excellent price and a better spec, from a supplier that didn't specialise in Macs - i.e. some PCs out there used the same drive so you can take advantage of lower price PC spares.

Worked a treat.

[Disc]

Macs have always used same parts as PCs only motherboards and gfx cards are slightly diffrent. You can flash gfx cards though to work in macs though the boot rom in gfx cards is slightly diffrent.
Ram is the same as well. It's all about buying the right spec unit.

[Smoothound]

Main issue with optical drives on Macs is that even though they generally work fine many will not allow the Mac to boot from them for some reason.

[Smoothound]

[QUOTE=Disc;657945]Macs have always used same parts as PCs only motherboards and gfx cards are slightly diffrent. You can flash gfx cards though to work in macs though the boot rom in gfx cards is slightly diffrent.
Ram is the same as well. It's all about buying the right spec unit.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, I already have a flashed PC GFX card in this Mac now :)