Build Your Own Firewire Hard Drive (for mac). How?

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bluemack

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OK, so maybe I will build my own hard drive as so many people on this site say that is the way to go. But how does one do that? Do you manually put it together yourself? I'm not mechanical. Is there a particular web site that gives directions and pictures. This feels to me like the difference between buying a house prebuilt and building one yourself where you have to pick out all of the hardware and at least for me, I wouldn't know where to start. The fewer choices the better.

thanks,

bluemack
 
You order a case thing, unscrew it, connect the hard drive of your choice to the cables inside the case, and close it up. Anyone with a screwdriver, and the coordination to use it, could do it. Instructions will differ by manufacturer, but there should be instructions in a case you order. Here's some general information:
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-an-External-Hard-Drive
 
thanks. read the article but too complicated for me. Can you recommend a hard drive already put together?
 
I use an ACOM 250 gig drive, and a WD 250 gig drive. The ACOM died on me, but tech support was good, and I got a new drive in a week. Make sure you get a drive that has Firewire 400 if you want to do anything with large files, it's much faster than USB 2.0. That article makes it look difficult, but if you feel comfortable installing hardware in towers, it's nothing.
 
Here's a link to OWC storage page, with possibly hundreds of different options for connection type/case construction/hard drive capacity, etc. Any FireWire 400, perhaps USB 2.0, would all be good. And you need to decide what capacity you want, up to several TeraBytes.
http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/
 
USB 2.0 may be OK for document storage, but it does not work for a video capture drive. The USB isn't fast enough, and you end up with choppy video.
 
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