New Mac User- Need help w/ hdd add-on/ floppy disk?

Question

I JUST PURCHASED A MACBOOK-PRO RECENTLY, AND HAVE NOT AS YET USED IT. I'M WHAT YOU MAY REFER TO AS A ' NOVICE' CONCERNING COMP. PERIPHERALS & THE LIKE ; HOWEVER, WHAT REALLY CONCERNS ME AT THIS POINT IS BEING ABLE TO CHOOSE THE PROPER EXTERNAL MEMORY ' ADD-ON ' FOR MY MACBOOK. BASICALLY I'M NOT QUITE SURE AS TO HOW ONE EXTERNAL PERIPHERAL WORKS FROM ANOTHER: e.g. : FLOPPY DISK- or- EXTERNAL HDD? MY INTENTION FOR THE ADDITION IS SOLELY TO MAINTAIN & KEEP MY LAPTOP'S MEMORY AS ' NEW '. I WANT TO BE ABLE TO DOWNLOAD IMAGES, FILES & MUSIC ONTO SOMETHING OTHER THAN MY MAC'S INTERNAL MEMORY. ANY ANSWERS? DEEPY APPRECIATIVE OF ANY/ALL RESPONSES. THANX!

Answer 1

The difference between a floppy disk and an external hard drive is the amount of memory each one holds. A floppy disk only holds 1.44 kilobytes (1440 bytes) of memory. An external hard drive holds 30 to over 250 gigabytes (a billion bytes per gigabyte) of memory. So you can backup a lot of images, files and music onto a external hard drive verses a floppy drive. A good USB or Firewire external hard drive would be better for your needs.

If you don't want to carry around something as large as a hard drive, you could use a flash memory card which nowadays holds up to 4 gigabytes of memory on a small card that you plug into a USB port. That would be a good compromise between a floppy disk and a hard drive.

P.S. Take your caps lock off. Printing in all caps is considered like shouting.

Answer 2

Hello arietis_vega,

First off, congratulations on your getting a new MacBook Pro. That's fantastic! I'm jealous. :-D If you are new to computers. Second, I would recommend that you try to find a local Macintosh users group in your area. Go here to find one:

http://www.apple.com/usergroups/find/

The folks at a users group will be able to help you out. They're a great resource for anything about your Mac. They aren't like a store clerk who is really trying to sell you something. You'll get a bunch of hardware and software solutions for your system. You might even get people to

So what you're saying is you want an external hard drive for backing up your internal hard drive? Get yourself a Firewire hard drive like a La Cie. Firewire transfers the data pretty fast. There's also lots of backup software available.

As far as getting a floppy disk drive, you can buy a USB external floppy disk drive. I think that Macally makes one. Actually floppy drives are on their way out. It's better to simply use your MacBook Pro's CD burner. Windows and Macs can read the CDs that you burn from your MacBook Pro.

I hope that this can help you. Best of luck to you.

--Rick