My old external HDD which I used only to back up my laptop (MacBook) via Time Machine just died. Not much of problem as I do not need the history of the data, but I certainly need a replacement.
Now the question is - what to get. I consider buying some external HDD with capacity of 1 TB or less. It should not serve as a main storage unit for large volume data (like scans, PS-files or movies - those are sitting on 2x1TB RAID1), just as a bootable disc with full backup of the system and small volume data that change often.
The main purpose is to be able to reboot from this backup drive if the HDD in my MacBook would go belly-up. The size of my HDD is only 160 GB and the 320 GB of my (old and now dead) backup HDD was more than enough too.
I have a few questions in the process:
1) Would it be possible to create two partitions - one to backup my laptop and one to backup my wife's Windows laptop? The boot-ablity is the main task here. It would allow us to have just one external HDD instead of 2.
2) What HDD to choose? Obviously the main parameter is longevity and of course compatibility. The absolute speed or noise is secondary as the thing will run once a week for 10 - 30 minutes. Compact size (small footprint) would be nice. If the HDD would not need external power source (large and bulky stuff, hate them) would be preferable, but that usually means the HDD was designed to be carried around and I do not know how that effects the performance.
EDIT: My current MacBook only has USB2. I will probably change my laptop in the future, but it is not a short or medium term project (I have no real reason to change it. I do plan to boost the RAM to 4GB though)
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