[lokie]

This is a sad tale of a love lost.


No problems with the Hard Drives but it's time to pony up and increase the capacity from 1 TB's to 3 TB's.


Here's my problem. I love OWC/Mac Sales. I have had nothing but great experiences with them regarding both their products and their service. 5 Stars all around.


I won't go into details about various issues which were self inflicted (like not dismounting correctly and swapping back and forth from MAC to PC and not formatting correctly, etc..)... and every time the problem was resolved by OWC without charge! I have am improving with my back up management skills but still not perfect and there were a few hairy moments that OWC drives and service  saved me allot of aggravation and heart ache.


Here's the problem. Their external Hard Drives are  TWICE the price of Tiger Direct or New Egg. And I'm talking about Toshiba or Seagate HD's.


Here's OWC 3TB drive that came off their specials page ($20 off) 3TB OWC  at $229.


Here's Tiger Direct which happens to have a store 20 minutes from my house: 3TB Toshiba at $119 but was actually $109 when I went in the store yesterday.


I also have to buy 2 of these so the price is $460 vs $249. I didn't ever think I would have to leave OWC but the price difference is just too compelling.


A sad, sad story, indeed. I will miss you OWC but Christmas is coming up and, well, baby needs some new shoes.

[srb]

Here's the problem. Their external Hard Drives are  TWICE the price of Tiger Direct or New Egg. And I'm talking about Toshiba or Seagate HD's.

You are comparing a 7200rpm/64MB cache drive with USB, FireWire and eSATA interfaces in an aluminum enclosure with a 5900rpm/32MB cache USB-only drive in a plastic enclosure.  Toshiba doesn't list specs on their enclosure interface, but it probably does not have the higher performance Oxford chipsets and also appears to have less featured included ancillary software than the OWC.

These differences are probably unimportant for your specific audio use, but does somewhat help to explain the price difference.

Steve

[avta]

another possible difference is the ability to boot the OS from the hd. I questioned Seagate about one of their external 1 TB drives that looked like it would work but they told me they don't guarantee it will be bootable nor will they support it.

[dB Cooper]

I just bought a 2TB Seagate "Backup Plus" drive; I have a clone of my HD on it and it boots from there just fine. It cost $99 from Apple so might be cheaper elsewhere; there is a 4TB version for $169. Both are USB3 which is fine; I don't really need Thunderbolt.

Once bought a Toshiba HD that came with some crapware built into the firmware of the drive that was impossible to delete. That drive would not support a bootable backup so I returned it.

Hope this helps.

[newzooreview]

In addition to checking carefully on chip sets and construction in the enclosure, you should seriously consider a Western Digital Red hard drive. They are built for low noise, low vibration, and continuous use. They are not much more expensive than the general consumer models, but are very well suited for use in music servers.

I have been using Oyen Digital enclosures more recently, although I have in the past used OWC extensively.

I agree very much with the above comments about cheap drive enclosures: lots of problems with functionality, compatibility, durability. There must be a better than average cheap enclosure out there, but my experience has been bad and not worth the cost difference.

[lokie]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/backup-plus-4tb-external-usb-3-0-2-0-hard-drive/7585057.p?id=1218854298368&skuId=7585057&st=seagate%204%20tb&cp=1&lp=3

4TB Seagate at Best Buys for $119.

[AllynW]

It is sad to lose an old friend.  Shopping at OWC is a great place for someone like me, due to my lack of tech skills.  Upgrading or repairing my Mac's is made super easy on there site.  The process of finding right parts for my Mac's, no matter the age is pretty easy.  Plus the DIY installation videos are straight forward and easy to follow.  Yet, as my tech skill have grown, I find myself at Amazon getting a better price, free shipping and faster delivery.