External HD Questions - DPChallenge Forums

08/11/2008 06:40:38 PM · #1

I am seriously tempted by the Western Digital My Book World Edition external hard drives, specifically because I could plug an ethernet cable into them and have access to my files from anywhere over the net. However, the Newegg.com reviews on them are not very good at all and pretty much say that the network feature is crap because of bad software, etc.

Are there other drives that offer this feature for about the same price, that actually work well? I've been looking through drives on Newegg but am having a hard time figuring out which ones require a running computer and which ones stand alone for access over the net. Do I want a NAS system?

Any help would be appreciated!

Prof_Fate

08/11/2008 07:23:55 PM · #2

What are you trying to achieve?

You can share a drive across the network that in any computer on the network so if file sharing or backup is the issue then it's not an issue you need an NAS for.
Speed of file transfer can be an issue - i've got 2 computers and I back them up to an external drive on the one machine. There is a tremendous speed difference when shoving files across the network and thru that computer compared to accessing a HD in a local computer. It's not a concern for backup though, but would be if you trying to stream a movie or something.

I have a MyBook 500Gb..the cheap one, USB only, and it works just fine. A bit slow compared to my other external drive, but it's newer/bigger with a bigger cache (and cost more) so that's not too surprising.

DarkRider

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5G IF-ED

08/11/2008 09:27:33 PM · #3

A bump for Brent and a thread hijack for me

one quick question if someone can please advise..

I just picked up a WD Mybook 1TB - Two reasons 1 I only have about 10GB left on my PC and 2 I will be picking up an iMac in the near future and want to use this to do my switch.
So from reading this from WDs answers page and this from Apples Switch 101 page.

Am I correct in thinking that how the drive is preformatted it is ready to work with both systems?? Please advise...Thx Scott

dacrazyrn

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/11/2008 09:40:03 PM · #4

Why use a hard drive to migrate? setup the Network Connection Direct Connect instructions and do it that way. Much faster...and cheaper.
When you have moved to Mac and get a NEW Mac...even easier just through making the old computer a FireWire Drive and using Macs boot up disk to migrate. Works great.
You will not have to worry about the drive not working with Mac anyway, it will read FAT32. You will have at least OS 10.5, and it will read that drive. Afterwards I would reformat it, though.

Message edited by author 2008-08-11 21:41:55.

08/11/2008 09:48:34 PM · #5

Originally posted by Prof_Fate:

My main goal is to make my photos accessible to myself no matter where I am. I want to leave the external HD plugged in at my apartment (directly into the ethernet router, not through a running computer) and be able to access it and sign in from my girlfriend's apartment, from my parent's place in VT - anywhere that I happen to be with my laptop and an Internet connection.

The drive is of course a backup for my photos (also burn to DVD and possibly backup to a second HD), but primarily I want to be able to get to my stuff from anywhere. Like a server, I suppose, although I'm not sure if that's technically the correct term.

While I'm pretty good with computers I'm new to networks. So when I look at different units, I have a hard time knowing if they will work the way I want them to or if they only work between a networked "office" setup (ie - only in my apartment to share stuff between computers there).

Does this clear things up some?

dacrazyrn

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/11/2008 09:57:16 PM · #6

That My Book World Edition is effectively a server and not a hard drive (to me).

dacrazyrn

Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II

08/11/2008 10:01:05 PM · #7

Sounds like if you leave the router and the MB World Edition on, all the time, you can do what you want, from where you want, without leaving the "home" computer on all the time.
Not sure of other solutions. But I am looking into them.

Message edited by author 2008-08-11 22:01:26.

08/11/2008 10:07:25 PM · #8

Originally posted by dacrazyrn:

Thanks Tracy. That's how I'm reading the situation as well. If the MB World Edition had decent reviews I'd just buy it, but I'm very wary after reading what people have to say about it.