External Hard Drives for DJ'ing and on the road

[Ham]

I'll elaborate more on the 'proper' use of an SSD, or at least, how I use my SSDs.

I have a 120GB SSD in my MacPro that I install all my programs onto, Ableton Live, etc.. I installed all the programs onto the SSD so they run optimally and faster. I then have a 1TB hard drive built into the MacPro and then a few external HDDs that I store all my stuff on. You can buy SSDs in MacBook Pro's as well now.

By the sounds of things, all you want is a HDD, a few TB (so maybe just 2-3 Portable ones...the LaCie Mini you linked will get the job done, and could probably be found cheaper/second hand).

[djdunamis]

Lacie is very good esp for Mac. I would say I haven't had any of my WD drives fail me yet and I've had them for years. But then again, I bought internal drives and put them in cases as well.

I'm assuming you formatted your drive Mac OS Extended. That case, only Mac will be able to read it. Just about the only way you can format to read on both Windows and Mac is NTFS. But with that, Win can read/write to it but Mac can only read off of it. Formatting FAT wouldn't be good for large drives and will be limited to few GBs transfer rate. Now if you can find one, a Seagate I have, had a utility to add NTFS to my Mac and format to it.

[manus]

I'll elaborate more on the 'proper' use of an SSD, or at least, how I use my SSDs.

I have a 120GB SSD in my MacPro that I install all my programs onto, Ableton Live, etc.. I installed all the programs onto the SSD so they run optimally and faster. I then have a 1TB hard drive built into the MacPro and then a few external HDDs that I store all my stuff on. You can buy SSDs in MacBook Pro's as well now.

By the sounds of things, all you want is a HDD, a few TB (so maybe just 2-3 Portable ones...the LaCie Mini you linked will get the job done, and could probably be found cheaper/second hand).

Cheers for this. This is actually very useful and now you have spoke about the 'proper' use of an SSD I think I will definitely be considering doing what you do with your SSD and then the 1tb built in as well. Not quite at the moment but the fact you have made me aware of it has got me in saving mode once again lol I did see the SSD's built into MacBooks though when buying though I thought in all honesty it was something that Mac once again massively overpriced and was not worth it considering the size.

[manus]

Lacie is very good esp for Mac. I would say I haven't had any of my WD drives fail me yet and I've had them for years. But then again, I bought internal drives and put them in cases as well.

I'm assuming you formatted your drive Mac OS Extended. That case, only Mac will be able to read it. Just about the only way you can format to read on both Windows and Mac is NTFS. But with that, Win can read/write to it but Mac can only read off of it. Formatting FAT wouldn't be good for large drives and will be limited to few GBs transfer rate. Now if you can find one, a Seagate I have, had a utility to add NTFS to my Mac and format to it.

I am a tad confused by this. So can you get a external HD that can freely read and write on both Mac and Windows? I forget what I formatted it too to be honest. I got the guy in the shop to do it for me and not sure how I could check what way it is formatted (I assume Mac Os Extended)

The external HD I have is a Seagate 3tb. How would I change this so that both Mac and Windows could both read & write to it? I am aware that I will probably lose everything on the HD but its okay as its basically everything on my old (backup) Macbook and can easily be transfered over again. (I think)

[Ham]

You've got a MacBook Pro, so it's as simple as

Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility

Then choose the Hard Drive (it has to be connected to the computer) and it's as simple as clicking the RAID tab and finding out what format it is/change the format. I had one of my HDDs as MS-DOS which is FAT and it wouldn't transfer single files larger than 4GB.

[manus]

Cheers for this. I do not even have the HD with me at the moment as its at my mates but will look back at this as reference. If I convert it over to MS-DOS, will it delete whatever is on my HD then? As I mentioned before its no biggie just want a heads up so I know what to expect. Also sorry to sound like like I am repeating myself but... this will then enable it to be read on both Mac and Windows then?

Cheers again. Your patience is appreciated! lol

[mdcdesign]

FAT32 is for cross-platform support, although exFAT works too, and has less limitations than FAT32.

[sev]

I have a sea gate 1tb dc powered hard drive, works well and haven't had it free or disconnect randomly, but still I would never use it out, just another thing to go wrong, especially when traktor shits its pants when you sneeze anyway

[Ed Paris]

i bought my first wd-Passport 320gb 5 years ago and still using it. i never had any issues with it in live situations.

[Ham]

If I convert it over to MS-DOS, will it delete whatever is on my HD then?

It will delete it all, yes.

Also sorry to sound like like I am repeating myself but... this will then enable it to be read on both Mac and Windows then?

http://www.macyourself.com/2012/03/1...compatibility/

The sum of it all is basically,

HFS+ (Mac OSX Extended) only works with Mac.

NFTS is read/write on PC but only read on Mac, so you can't transfer from Mac to PC.

FAT-32 works with PC and Mac, but is limited to file sizes of 4GB and if formatted on a PC can only have a partion of 32GB, but 2TB on Mac... but that 4GB file size is a buzz kill...

and then their is exFAT, which is better as it doesn't have that 4GB limit OR any overall partion limit, however it only works on newer versions of Mac & PC operating systems, so it works on....

Windows XP SP3
Windows Vista SP1
Windows 7
Any Mac running Snow Leopard 10.6.5 (and newer) and Snow Lion 10.7

Heopfully that clears it ALL up.