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External hard drive for expanding iTunes library?

My hard drive is nearly full and I need to get an external HD for my rapidly expanding music library. I use iTunes and stream the music to my Airport Express to my Marantz SR-7200's DAC . Using a bel-canto eVo 6 and Gallo Ref 3's makes good music to me. All my music files are Aiff(uncompressed) and currently use 106GB. I've read good reviews online about the G-DRIVE 500GB External Hard Drive but I'm curious if any other Audiogoners have used it or could recommend other large,quiet and reliable external hard drives. My computer is an iMac G-5.
Thanks for any help.
Howell
hals_den
herman
2,259 posts
 
The 500 gig Western Digital external is routinely on sale for about $200 at big box and office supply stores.. I think Best Buy has it for that now.

Don't forget a backup. Your main drive will eventually fail and you must have a backup. This is not a possibility, it is a definite.
crna39's avatar
crna39
145 posts
 
I use the 2TB LaCie Bigger Disk Triple. You can use USB, FW400 or FW800. I have 4 of these daisy-chained together for my DVD movies and music.

Regards,
Bruce
hals_den OP
77 posts
 
Thank you Herman and Bruce for your replies but I'm curious as to how loud these hard drives' fans are?
sufentanil's avatar
Ag insider logo xs@2x
sufentanil
782 posts
 
Get an external HDD box like this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817146602

Then put a 400GB ATA HDD in it for around $110, such as this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152043

This combo will set you back around $150 and will work with both USB and firewire. (I use it with firewire on my Mac, and it works great.) Very quiet and a cinch to install.

I agree with Herman that you do need an additional one for backups.

Michael
herman
2,259 posts
 
Heat is the enemy of hard drives. Unless it has a fan I would not get a box like Michael recommends. A sealed box is Ok for occasional backup use but if it is on all the time then it must be ventilated.
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