Should I reformat my External HD

[gsmittle]

What do your drives hook to? A router, or are they wireless, hard drives only (no "pc" internals).

Can you guess I have a pet peeve about the false "I'm a pc, and I'm a Mac" ads.

Windows, Linux, Mac OS, BeOS, etc, ALL run on pc's.

OK, let me revise my statement: no Windows in my house.

Randall, I get the impression that you're an old mainframe guy.

Usually I use a hammer analogy: some people prefer a hammer with a nice wooden handle, some prefer fiberglass, and some prefer a steel handle with the rubber grip that shreds your hands. All will get the job done with varying degrees of comfort and convenience.

The NAS is a LaCie 500 gig with it's own OS, some sort of Linux variant. Basically plug it into a switch with some Cat5 cable and turn it on. My three main Macs are laptops, wireless to an Airport Extreme (the older saucer-shaped one) which is Cat5-ed to the DSL router and an 8-port switch. The switch feeds the NAS and a couple of old iMacs with shared hard drives.

The AirPort has a USB port for sharing a HD or a printer; currently I share the printer that way-someday I'll get a real Ethernet printer.

My other hard drives are FireWire and plug directly into my Main Axe MacBook when I want to do video editing.

Probably more detail than you wanted...

g.

[LinuxRandal]

OK, let me revise my statement: no Windows in my house.

Randall, I get the impression that you're an old mainframe guy.


The NAS is a LaCie 500 gig with it's own OS, some sort of Linux variant. Basically plug it into a switch with some Cat5 cable and turn it on. My three main Macs are laptops, wireless to an Airport Extreme (the older saucer-shaped one) which is Cat5-ed to the DSL router and an 8-port switch. The switch feeds the NAS and a couple of old iMacs with shared hard drives.

The AirPort has a USB port for sharing a HD or a printer; currently I share the printer that way-someday I'll get a real Ethernet printer.

Probably more detail than you wanted...

g.

Not a mainframe guy, the closest experience I have with them, is playing with the punch cards my father brought home when I was a kid (he was an IBM'er). I grew up with/access to Timex Sinclair 1000, various Tandy's, Commodores, Atari's, TI's, and Apple II's at school. When you wanted something done, you had to program it. I got REAL tired of pc's, since everyone expected me to love programming like my brother. I just wanted to use the XXmn things to get the job done. I got back into pc's around the time of Windows 3.1 as it was usefull (could buy or find programs), and started playing a bit with networking on a friends 3.11 network (he couldn't figure out printer sharing). I went NT and then to Linux (only went 98 for a bit, due to Diablo II) due to the networking and redundancy (my needs/wants). So your technical specs are exactly what I am looking for. This gives me access to real world/personal reviews.
Weirdly, I came from a SCSI background (found used cheaper then IDE), and my father worked for APSI for a while (friends company before the whole Mac clone/Micropolous bankruptcy thing helped cause it to be bought by LaCie). I originally wanted a Cobalt Cube (years ago), and have used older pc's (limited to hard drive size), but have recently been looking at a small board with the dual core Atom, to base my home/low power NAS on.
So I ramble, but do appreciate your full response (even my NAS needs a USB drive backup, since no inexpensive, multigb solution yet).

[Wood_workur]

Beware that if you don't then you can't put a file bigger than 4 gigs on it.