On May 28, 4:31 pm, Thunder 1 <thunder...@mindspring.com> wrote: > Greetings All. > > I want to invest in an external hard drive, and I need some advice > from the great gurus here. Here's what I have, as far as my > hardware goes: > > iMac 2.4GHz Intel Core Duo, 298GB HD, running OS 10.5.7. > Has both FireWire 400 and 800 plus USB. > > iMac 350MHz Blueberry, 6GB HD, running OS 9.2.2. > USB 1 only. > > iMac 333MHz Blueberry, 6GB HD, running OS 9.1 > USB 1 only. > > Titanium Powerbook, 10GB, running OS 10.4.11 > FireWire 400 and USB. > > Here is what I would like to do: > > I would like to be able to back up all these computers to a > single external hard drive. I'm looking at an external drive > that gives me around 500GB or so of storage space. I haven't > decided on a brand yet, but I'm leaning towards Seagate, but > will consider others.
Someone suggested a unique external drive for each machine. There is merit to that. Or perhaps you could go for one drive with two partitions for the two Blueberry iMacs and one drive for the two OS X machines, one partition for each. Another strategy might be to simply copy all or parts of the drive contents for the three old machines via ethernet to the Intel iMac, putting each of the three to its discrete folder. Then backup the Intel iMac to an external drive. For size, consider a larger one where you can include two partitions to serve as Time Machine units for the Users folders on your Intel iMac and Powerbook. You could shoot for a 1TB. For a discussion about brand, see this thread: TOPIC: OT: External Hard Drives, LaCie & OWC http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list/t/a73bc6b633a840f7?hl=en I ended up with the OWC Mercury Elite Al Pro Quad. I normally favor Seagate internal drives, but in considering their features and a few specs and reported characteristics that I did not like, I eventually took the external Seagates out of the mix. Someone mentioned a Drobo. See this thread: TOPIC: Need new external HDD's - should i buy RAID units??? http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list/t/569c5df0a2a03f64?hl=en > > Also, I would like to make all these back-ups bootable for > each machine. Making the partitions bootable requires extra attention to setting up. I do not know how to make bootable external drives or partitions for the Blueberry iMacs. It may not be possible, given a historical condition where USB drives cannot boot older OSs. I suggest you probe this question under a separate subject heading such as "Bootable External Drive for Blueberry iMac." Also, the folks at OWC can advise on this. http://www.macsales.com/ As for bootable external drives or partitions for the OS X machines, see this thread: TOPIC: Setting up External Firewire Drive for CCC http://groups.google.com/group/g3-5-list/t/7ae2efa826714507?hl=en In addition to Carbon Copy Cloner (CCC) shareware, there is the pay-to- buy SuperDuper for cloning to bootable drives. http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html > > Right now I'm looking for advice on 1) feasibility of doing all > these back-ups on one external drive; 2) recommendations > on brands/sizes/speeds/features for an external drive that > I can buy for what I want to do; and 3) and any advice on > what problems (if any) to look for or not, what drives to stay > away from, and if anyone else has tried/done what I want to do. In setting up one drive with two partitions for the OS X machines, note that for both to be bootable with CCC, the drive must be initialized APM, not GUID. APM will work for the Intel Mac in spite of the erroneous Apple statement in Disk Utility to the contrary. There actually is Apple documentation in their support pages that indicate APM is fine. Do not get hung up drive speeds and throughput rates for your purposes. Anything in the size you want will do well for you. But if you narrow down two competing models and want to discuss specific specifications, there are people in this list who can work with you. Have fun, Al Poulin --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to Low End Mac's iMac List, a group for those using G3, G4, G5, and Intel Core iMacs as well as Apple eMacs. The list FAQ is at http://lowendmac.com/imac/list.shtml and our netiquette guide is at http://www.lowendmac.com/lists/netiquette.shtml To post to this group, send email to imaclist@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to imaclist-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/imaclist?hl=en Low End Mac RSS feed at feed://lowendmac.com/feed.xml -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
