Hi. I'm planning to get an iMac and I wanna use the HDD from my previous PC as an external HDD for TimeMachine, etc. The HDD is SATA. Will a normal SATA HDD enclosure work nicely?

On a side note, are there are any promotions when buying an iMac?

Well, It Should Work Nicely. Get The Enclosure With Firewire 800... It's Faster Compared To USB 2.0....

Promotions? PC Fair Is Coming.. And I'm Not Sure If The Student Discount Still Exist...

yea, but from wat i read, FAT32 is standard for mac

in spore buy imac free bose speakers worth 100+ sgd

Hang on, who tell you FAT32 is standard for Mac ?

my bad, then wat is?
me just learning mac

can it copy files from External HDD formatted as NTFS without using 3td party software?

Yes. Read from NTFS is not a problem. But not write to NTFS. To read and write, format your external HDD as FAT32 if you intend to use the external HDD in both Windows and Mac..

no you cannot. U have to use 3rd party, such as ntfs-3g (open source) or new 1 which is NTFS For Mac by Paragon (paid software)

hi there...i'm a new mac user..just got my imac last week with leopard..

heehe if in spore free speaker..i just my imac with free 1gb ram..how bout that..

i buy from the mas studio at low yat plaza...ok2

1st of all..i've sata external hdd using with my pc..but the mac cannot read the disk..its must be formated first under mac..i use fat32..and the inside the disk when i use it with pc is only the .avi files..i dont know why the mac cant read..

afroiq
may I try your SATA with my MacBook? cos I've not seen any USB casing that doesn't work with MacBooks yet

if its NTFS, typically we can read, but can't make any changes (delete, copy files into the NTFS)

This post has been edited by xaw5126: Dec 2 2007, 06:05 PM

i've formated the disk under mac..i've transfer all the video to pc..

now the disk only contain final cut pro and live type file only..

i.ve try the disk before format with powermac g5..still cant read the file inside hdd..

mac osx tell me that i must format the hdd..but one thing i sure is..

if you are using external IDE hdd..that it'll be ok..i.ve try it to..

is there a casing which supports both usb and firewire without additional device ?

i'm using C2D MacBook coupled with Maxtor One Touch III with fw400.
it works well and i'm pretty happy with the speed. but if got fw800, juz go fot it!

Get Western Digital Passport..it work perfectly with Mac!

then there is nothing wrong with my statemnet

Sarotech... casing only...hard drives purchase your own...look for the combo ones...

Lacie is another choice... but seldom find it in Malaysia...

thanx mate. Will check it out when i buy

I've had no problems with SmartDrive casings... ask the shop LPS in SS2 (behind the Burger King) near the duck rice shop, to order in for you ...

i bought 400GB ide, and a firewire 400 & usb 2.0 casing

everything works fine...time machine is super cool...

you mentioned about fat32 is standard for mac.
yes that statement is very wrong. it's not standard. it's just usable under that platform.
standard will be the hfs. plus journalled.

Good for you to go for the iMac.

I use an external hdd (2.5") as a backup and clone it with CCC. Normal SATA enclosure will do with usb. There has been a lot of advice about SATA enclosure with firewire , if u find one let me know. Nevertheless if u want to boot from the external drive using usb is fine as well. I have not tried Leopard yet though.

we have the external SATA for 2.5 & 3.5 enclosures. One of it is posted earlier at the link below
both comes with 1X Firewire400 port, 2X firewire800 ports, and 1X USB 2.0.

http://forum.lowyat.net/index.php?showtopic=557607&hl=

haha, tis casing is $$... anyway, any casing will work fine under mac.

just a side question, are the sata connectors on both 2.5 and 3.5" the same? i might need to back up my old 3.5" sata drive, so i was thinking of getting sonnettech-asia's enclosure or something similar if they are the same

vintec
i have the SonnetTech casing here in 1U. you wanna bring your HDD and we can do a 'belajar sambil memasang' session here?

i'd love too but too bad i'm in brisbane and wont be going back any time soon i was planning to shop around and ask a friend in kl to get it for me

so i assume you're saying that they are both identical connectors?

yes, they are both the same amount of Ports. If you are interested, please ask your friend to go to 1U maccity or Amcorp Maccity. They will be able to assist you.

Ah yes .... MacCity bought over MacAsia ... coz MacAsia was about to go Zhup Lup liao..

that's not accurate ler... MacAsia "zhup lup" is not MacCity's problem at all
Mac Asia "zhup lup" first, then Mac City took over the shop lot and the staff.

do u guys think its good to buy the external brand buffalo and the one they sold in machines??

you need to know the specs on the items you are interested. In the market, there are many brands, I think for the Apple stores most of them are very particular about the reliability and quality of the products. That is why, its usually more expansive compare to the PC market.

At the same time, you need to know the your own requirements. What are you going to use the HDD for?
if you are doing some home video, I believe with the Firewire800 connector, its sufficient. I think its good for you to speak to Machines technical support to find out.

If you are planning to go into HD video editing, I will say, most of the common enclosure will not do the job. teh only way to go is using SATA raid. At lease a 4 HDD to raid into 1 volume. you can do Raid 0,1.

For your info.
those that who are in Advertising, Graphic Design and Photographer
with a Semi Pro Raid selutions of 4 HDD, you can open up a 1GB Photoshop files, drag the image around live, no delay for opening up file or file saving. That is why most of the professional Photographer will go for it.

Video editor and Animator.
if you are doing DV format, Firewire will do the job. but please take note, do not copy big chunk of files. You will loose data of the system will hang while copying. Do not copy 100GB at 1 go to be saved.
if you are doing professional Video such as HD, I would suggest you start to look into External Raid. if you need to know more about the HD Video editing storage, please visit
http://www.sonnettech.com/product/fusionfamily/index.html.

This post has been edited by sonnettech-asia: Jan 29 2008, 12:48 PM