Got to the stage where I have a lots of stuff on my HD that I’d rather not lose.

I only have a MBP with 250GB hard drive so its not like I need real time back-up like you would with a desktop if you know what I mean.

I’d like something that I can use Time Machine with.

I’ve never bothered with external drives before so not really sure what I should be looking at.

Anyone care to comment on my options?

Cheers

I use a Western Digital myBook, which gets connected about once a fortnight when Time Machine prompts me that it’s not backed up recently, and this works fine.

Cheapest option is to buy a drive from a reputable manufacturer (Scan are selling 1Tb Hitachi drives for about £40) and a USB caddy, rather than buying a ready-made external drive.

Andy

Any cheap USB2 or firewire drive will do the trick.. or if you feeling rich a Time Capsule is a nice way to do it and saves mucking around with cables – other NAS boxes are a bit painful to setup (or at least the few I’ve tried have been)

iomega minimax if you want something that looks macish… but doesn’t power up and down with the mac the way the WD mybook I have on a minimac does.

Time Capsule. Excellent piece of kit and works through wi-fi without you even knowing.

Yes, time capsule here and it really is magic.

Rachel

Time Capsule, but make sure you do the first back up over ethernet. It takes days for the first one over Wi-Fi.

If you’re looking at a budget option I think I’d go with a 2.5″ external – you should be able to get a something big enough for about £35.00 easily.
The thing with a 2.5″ drive is that, although slightly slower than a 3.3″ drive, it will be USB bus powered so you don’t have to worry about an external power supply so you’re more likely to take it with you if you’re out. Just plug it in and off you go.
I’ve used a couple of these and they’re pretty good.
Not used a Time Capsule but I’m sure they’re very good.

Thanks for all the replies-
Sharkbait, I don’t really take it out anywhere with me, I have a laptop rather than desktop just for ease around the house so the power and portability isn’t really an issue

As for the time capsule, it certainly looks’ good but I’d prob only back/up once a week so it seems a he’ll of a lot of money compared to other choices. Are they really worth it for ‘my’ needs, read backing up photos/iTunes?

Looked at the hitachi ones but leaning toward the WD MyBook, seen a 1tb one for £47, seemed reasonable……..those time capsules do look sexy tho, if a plastic box of electrics can be described as such!

The thing with a TimeCapsule is that it backs up all the time – you don’t “do” anything to make it happen. I had a portable hard disk for a while and I found my personal backup habit was rather ad-hoc and I went a long time between backups. Since getting the TC, it just happens and when I spilled Lemsip on my MBP, allI had to do with it’s replacement was answer “yes, I have a Time Capsule backup I would like to use” at the appropriate place and I had all my files and settings back in no time…

If you have MobileMe, too – then they really shine. The disk appears on your MobileMe registered Macs all the time, wherever you are in the World and you can download files, even print to it if you really want.

If you have two Macs, you can even remote control the one left at home. Even it it is left on standby – the TC will wake it up for you – even over wireless on newish ones…

Rachel

Rach, I do use MobileMe – yiu make a compelling argument…..maybe I’ll just have a quick look again at prices on a time capsule 🙂