Internal hard drive for new Mac Pro at DVinfo.net

Jeroen Wolf · October 5th, 2010, 12:27 PM

I want to buy a second hard drive for my new Mac Pro: should it be the same brand as the drive the Mac shipped with? On my old G5 Quad I ran a WDC (I guess Western Digital) and Maxtor drive and never had an issue. I won't be using the second drive for editing (media) but for storage.
For my eSata RAID tower I remember Seagate Barracuda's being recommended. If I can use any internal drive, which one would you recommend?

Charles Wannop · October 6th, 2010, 12:25 AM

Hey Jeroen,
A wise man said "All drives fail... it's just a matter of when". No doubt you have (like me) googled for hours and found that no one drive remains a favourite for long - everyone has horror/love stories with all the major brands. So all I can suggest is what ever you choose, don't trust it! RAID 1 is an affordable option that will spread your exposure over multiple physical drives, so a couple of 2TB WD green drives will cost you $125 each and will do the job (Note the greens are a bit slower than some drives but fine for storage). Lots of info about RAID out there :-) but that's my 2c worth.

Charles

Jeroen Wolf · October 6th, 2010, 02:08 AM

I've never had a drive fail on me in the what -15 years I've been using computers (I don't remember if it was an Atari or a 386 or something else. My first PC was definitely pre-Windows and I had the little Apple all in one as well)-up until the point that I bought a RAID tower 2 years back to protect myself against data loss and one of the four drives crashed within a few months...
Do I need a RAID card to stripe my internal drives, is a software RAID adequate (if so, what software?) or should I just do an automatic backup from one internal drive to another on a daily basis?

Les Wilson · October 6th, 2010, 08:15 AM

The Apple system profiler will let you get the model number of your current drives. Searching that will show you where you can get identical drives.

If you want to pursue others, look closely and you will see various manufacturers have more expensive "Enterprise" class drives. These are for servers (longevity). I've had good luck and long life from them. I've lost Raids too much, don't require the performance and am no longer a fan of them. I JBOD my internal and external drives. YMMV.

Ivan Jasper · October 6th, 2010, 06:16 PM

Carbonite?

Charles Wannop · October 8th, 2010, 04:20 PM

My MacPro shipped with a Hitachi HD - no problems so far (but see previous comment).
You can set up a mirrored (RAID 1) array with Disk Utility.

C

October 5th, 2010, 12:27 PM	#1
Jeroen Wolf Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 355	Internal hard drive for new Mac Pro I want to buy a second hard drive for my new Mac Pro: should it be the same brand as the drive the Mac shipped with? On my old G5 Quad I ran a WDC (I guess Western Digital) and Maxtor drive and never had an issue. I won't be using the second drive for editing (media) but for storage. For my eSata RAID tower I remember Seagate Barracuda's being recommended. If I can use any internal drive, which one would you recommend? __________________ www.imaginevideo.nl Just published the second of my viral mini-doc series '100' https://youtu.be/ZqHFBrV-oOc

October 6th, 2010, 02:08 AM	#3
Jeroen Wolf Major Player Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Amsterdam Posts: 355	I've never had a drive fail on me in the what -15 years I've been using computers (I don't remember if it was an Atari or a 386 or something else. My first PC was definitely pre-Windows and I had the little Apple all in one as well)-up until the point that I bought a RAID tower 2 years back to protect myself against data loss and one of the four drives crashed within a few months... Do I need a RAID card to stripe my internal drives, is a software RAID adequate (if so, what software?) or should I just do an automatic backup from one internal drive to another on a daily basis? __________________ www.imaginevideo.nl Just published the second of my viral mini-doc series '100' https://youtu.be/ZqHFBrV-oOc

October 6th, 2010, 06:16 PM	#5
Ivan Jasper Regular Crew Join Date: Apr 2010 Location: Billings MT Posts: 70	Carbonite? __________________ I'm Just Here For The Cookies.

October 8th, 2010, 04:20 PM	#6
Charles Wannop Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Canberra - North Side Posts: 28	Internal RAID My MacPro shipped with a Hitachi HD - no problems so far (but see previous comment). You can set up a mirrored (RAID 1) array with Disk Utility. C

October 6th, 2010, 12:25 AM	#2
Charles Wannop Regular Crew Join Date: Aug 2009 Location: Canberra - North Side Posts: 28	Hey Jeroen, A wise man said "All drives fail... it's just a matter of when". No doubt you have (like me) googled for hours and found that no one drive remains a favourite for long - everyone has horror/love stories with all the major brands. So all I can suggest is what ever you choose, don't trust it! RAID 1 is an affordable option that will spread your exposure over multiple physical drives, so a couple of 2TB WD green drives will cost you $125 each and will do the job (Note the greens are a bit slower than some drives but fine for storage). Lots of info about RAID out there :-) but that's my 2c worth. Charles

October 6th, 2010, 08:15 AM	#4
Les Wilson Inner Circle Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: Boca Raton, FL Posts: 3,014	The Apple system profiler will let you get the model number of your current drives. Searching that will show you where you can get identical drives. If you want to pursue others, look closely and you will see various manufacturers have more expensive "Enterprise" class drives. These are for servers (longevity). I've had good luck and long life from them. I've lost Raids too much, don't require the performance and am no longer a fan of them. I JBOD my internal and external drives. YMMV.