Recommendations for external backup drive for new mac user?

[jayctravis]

I have a 17" imac with a 160gig hard drive. The backup option keeps popping up and reminding me to back up. I'm really not keen on accumulating a stack of DVD backups, so I'm thinking I need to get an external drive.

I need suggestions. I would assume firewire is preferable. As far as size - I guess if I'm backing it up I want nearly the same size drive or slightly larger...should I buy a bigger hard drive in anticipation of Time Machine? Any brands to focus on or avoid?

I have another PC that currently is mostly just games...is it possible or practical to partition the external drive and back up a PC on half of it? I probably won't do that but was just curious if it worked.

[politicat]

1. Our standards actually require 3x the hard drive space for backups.

We keep three revs of backup at any given time for both of us. Usually it's a critical failure backup (i.e. everything we can't live without and a list of the contents so we can replace) a weekly working backup that is a snapshot of the system on X day and a monthly carbon copy cloner backup. And we burn through more disks than should be legally allowed...

I have three 160 GB la cie hard drives and a couple of palm drives that I built using extra laptop drives and enclosures from other world computing. DH has 2 400s that are maxtor drives using level 2 RAID (we got them at Costco) and a couple of palm drives; he's never had a problem with them. I like La Cie and the Costco ones have been great. So have the enclosures from other world.

As long as it's got a good hard drive, you're fine.

And yes, we're paranoid. DH cut his teeth in the early days of computing when backups were massively important, and I spent several years known as Critical Failure Girl (until I switched to a Mac; now all I kill are iPods.) But to be certain, the more rigorous your backup standards are, the better off you are, and the less likely you are to have unrecoverable failures.

(Now, if we could only convince people that humans need off-site backup for this planet!)

[onehandle]

2. Here's a great place for external drives.

Others here will agree. The "Neptunes" are the most cost efficient drives they have.

I have several Mercury drives and they have served me well for years. Very quiet and fast.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/

[Ezlivin]

5. Another vote for the OWC drives

Other World Computing has great Mac stuff. I've a pair of the Mercury Firewire 800 drives and they are simply fine.

[stepnw1f]

3. I Have a 160 GB Lacie Drive

So far so good.

[Richard Steele]

4. I'm a fan of the LaCie external HDs.

Completely plug-n-play with OSX; and very reliable.
You could pick up one of their triple interface BigDisks
(USB 2.0, FireWire 400 & 800) in a 500 gig size for under $300.