Re: Recommendations for external HD - Maxtor One-Touch, OWC Mercury Elite, or what?
matt neuburg
> I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
> need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
> them.
>
> Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
I have an OWC Mercury Elite and it has been superbly reliable (even
through several power fluctuations caused by storms and accidents) and
whisper-quiet (I use it for serving music and I hear the music, never
the drive - my iBook is louder than the external hard drive). m.
--
matt neuburg, phd = ma...@tidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
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sbt
<ma...@tidbits.com> wrote:
> Van Bagnol <v...@crl.com.invalid> wrote:
>
> > I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
> > need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
> > them.
> >
> > Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> > Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> > I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
>
> I have an OWC Mercury Elite and it has been superbly reliable (even
> through several power fluctuations caused by storms and accidents) and
> whisper-quiet (I use it for serving music and I hear the music, never
> the drive - my iBook is louder than the external hard drive). m.
I have a Maxtor120GB FW+USB2 that worked beautifully under extremely
heavy use for almost two years -- recently, it has gone "belly-up" a
couple of times, the most recent one wiping out the disk information so
badly that even DiskWarrior couldn't recover it. Fortunately, I back
things up regularly and only lost about 1.5 days of stuff.
Since it worked so well for so long under a steady and heavy load, I
would not be adverse to purchasing another product in the line:
hardware with moving parts does "wear out" after a while, after all.
--
Spenser
o-chan
> I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
> need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
> them.
>
> Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
>
> free shipping, bundled with Retrospect Express and a Mac-specific disk
> utility) but the Maxtor seems to have an edge (16MB buffer, fanless,
> smaller aluminum case instead of OWC's current "tin box inside clear
> plastic" style).
>
> Van
I have a Maxtor and it's the quietest external drive I own. It's also
very solidly built. It came with Retrospect but I don't use it, so I
can't comment on the software.
Norm
Van Bagnol <v...@crl.com.invalid> wrote:
> I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
> need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
> them.
>
> Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
>
> The OWC 250GB seems to be the best value for the money (no sales tax,
> free shipping, bundled with Retrospect Express and a Mac-specific disk
> utility) but the Maxtor seems to have an edge (16MB buffer, fanless,
> smaller aluminum case instead of OWC's current "tin box inside clear
> plastic" style).
>
> Van
In answer to your question and in the "or what" category :
I've been very pleased with 3 WiebeTECH firewire drives I've had. They
are very quiet and I've had good customer support. They have both bus
and AC powered alternatives.
FWIW. Good luck
--
Please send email to: nwhiii at yahoo dot com
Tom Harrington
Van Bagnol <v...@crl.com.invalid> wrote:
> I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
> need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
> them.
>
> Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
>
> The OWC 250GB seems to be the best value for the money (no sales tax,
> free shipping, bundled with Retrospect Express and a Mac-specific disk
> utility) but the Maxtor seems to have an edge (16MB buffer, fanless,
> smaller aluminum case instead of OWC's current "tin box inside clear
> plastic" style).
I've bought a couple of drives from OWC and had good results, though I
haven't bought a Mercury Elite. I have one of their 60GB On-the-Go
portable drives, and a 200GB Neptune drive, and both have been
excellent. Noise in both seems entirely normal; I notice it, but it's
not any more than I'd expect.
--
Tom "Tom" Harrington
Macaroni, Automated System Maintenance for Mac OS X.
Version 2.0: Delocalize, Repair Permissions, lots more.
See http://www.atomicbird.com/
Madwen
Van Bagnol <v...@crl.com.invalid> wrote:
> Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
I have two Mercury Elite FW drives that are the best external drives
I've owned. They have like a 4 or a 5 year warranty IIRC. No more
Maxtors for me since i had one that failed in less than 3 years. The
power supply went out on one of my Mercuries last summer. They gave me
an RMA w/no complaint and had it *back* to me by the second day with no
data loss and, of course, no charge. I have an OS on each one so that I
can boot from them if need be. While they are normally attached to my
Quicksilver, I also use them to back up our two iBooks. Mine also have
pretty, ice blue lights. :)
Madeleine
Van Bagnol
sbt <dogb...@chaseabone.com.invalid> wrote:
> In article <1gtk2qn.youh6914kp6oaN%ma...@tidbits.com>, matt neuburg
> <ma...@tidbits.com> wrote:
>
> > Van Bagnol <v...@crl.com.invalid> wrote:
> >
> > > I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
> > > need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
> > > them.
> > >
> > > Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
> > > Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
> > > I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
> >
> > I have an OWC Mercury Elite and it has been superbly reliable (even
> > through several power fluctuations caused by storms and accidents) and
> > whisper-quiet (I use it for serving music and I hear the music, never
> > the drive - my iBook is louder than the external hard drive). m.
>
> I have a Maxtor120GB FW+USB2 that worked beautifully under extremely
> heavy use for almost two years -- recently, it has gone "belly-up" a
> couple of times, the most recent one wiping out the disk information so
> badly that even DiskWarrior couldn't recover it. Fortunately, I back
> things up regularly and only lost about 1.5 days of stuff.
That wouldn't bode too well for me if I'm planning for the drive to _be_
my backup. I figure, though, it will be offline most of the time; OTOH,
it will go through frequent connect-disconnect cycles as it floats from
machine to machine.
Two years doesn't seem that long. My PowerBook G3 and Beige G3 have been
in operation since 1998, and I've got a 7100/66 that was bought in 1994
and their drives are still going strong (knock on wood).
Van
--
Van Bagnol / n p c o m p l e t e at bagnol dot com / c r l at bagnol dot com
...enjoys Theatre / Windsurfing / Skydiving / Mountain Biking
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Repeating Rifle
ma...@tidbits.com wrote on 3/17/05 7:02 AM:
> Van Bagnol <v...@crl.com.invalid> wrote:
>
>> I have an iMac G4, a couple of 900MHz iBook G3s, and a Beige G3 that
>> need backing up and archiving. I'm looking for a roaming hard drive for
>> them.
>>
>> Anybody have experience with either the Other World Computing "Mercury
>> Elite", or the Maxtor "One-Touch" FW+USB2 drives? Reliability? Noise?
>> I've heard some talk that Maxtors are not that great.
>
> I have an OWC Mercury Elite and it has been superbly reliable (even
> through several power fluctuations caused by storms and accidents) and
> whisper-quiet (I use it for serving music and I hear the music, never
> the drive - my iBook is louder than the external hard drive). m.
I have had good luck with Western Digital. I have had no problems other than
misinterpreting instructions. This is now over a period of about three
years.
Bill