New to Macs so I'm still on the upside of the learning curve.
I just bought a 320 Gb Seagate "FreeAgent" external HDD. USB 2.0 only. I read a lot of old posts about "can't boot off USB" but I have an Intel Mac and, if I understand correctly, they CAN boot from USB...?
That being said, a firewire external HDD is going to cost me about double. Is it worth the money? (I can still return current HDD) Do I
need it to boot off an SD image or will a USB 2.0 work? Any potential pitfalls to USB 2.0? So on and so forth.
The way I see it, the USB works fine for what I need: a backup for important files. I know firewire is faster, but if it's just for archiving once every few weeks, it's not compelling (unless it's unbelievably faster). Anyway, I'm kind of shooting in the dark here so any input is welcome, though the bottom line is: can I boot an SD clone off a USB 2.0 drive?
EDIT: Just found this in the manual: "USB drives cannot be used as a startup drive for PowerPC based
Macintoshes, regardless of the program used. On top of that, USB drives
have a large number of limitations regarding speed and – even if USB 2.0
Hi-Speed rated – can slow down to USB 1.x speeds when used in
conjunction with slower devices.
So, if at all possible, please get a FireWire drive!"
But again, do I NEED a firewire? Just having a hard time going from $90 for 320 to $150+ 