I recently purchased a SimpleTech SP-U25 160 GB external hard drive for my iMac G5 with OSX 10.4.11. The cost was 78 dollars, but I notice, a week later, that the price is now $95. The device, about the size of a calculator, is so tiny I can hide it behind my computer rather easily. It's also easy to drag my Word files and iTunes music directly into the hard drive. However, the owner's manual is, like most manuals, unclear and horribly written. This is no problem if you have a PC since in that case you don't have to format the SimpleTech; you simply "plug and play." However, Mac users must format in a way that is not accurately explained in the manual. You should go to Application, then Utilities, then Disk Utility. From there the manual says to select "Volume Format" from the list but you won't see any "list." To be more clear, what you must first do is click on the SimpleTech device, which may confuse you because you won't see the words "SimpleTech" in the rectangle on the left of your Disk Utilities. What you will see is the following: "149.1 GB WDC WD 1600 J." In fact, this is listed twice. I clicked on the first listing of this. Then I selected "Erase." Then I gave my external hard drive a name in the designated box, calling it "SimpleTech Backup." Then I clicked "Erase" and it is "Erase" that formats the disk for your iMac with OSX.
Another important point not mentioned in the manual: To avoid having to power up the external hard drive with an AC adapter, not included, and to just use the one USB connector, do not plug the USB into your keyboard. Even my Belkin USB port did not give enough power for my SimpleTech. I had to use the USB connector in the back of the iMac.
I stored about 22 gigs of music and all my Word files into the 160 GB SimpleTech and still have 130 GB disk space remaining. Unless I start buying movies on iTunes, the 160 GB should be enough to last me 4 years or so. Those who need to back-up movies might look to hard drives with 1 TB of space, which cost about $400.
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