Category: Reviews

I installed my new (320GB, 7200RPM) Hitachi 7K320 (0A57547) 2.5-inch hard drive in my MacBook Pro. Copied it from 120GB 5400RPM internal Fujitsu drive yesterday. Maybe didn’t SVN commit trivial changes after 6pm yesterday. No biggie. Here’s a review of the drive by Tomshardware. And here’s the NewEgg page, for user reviews and specs.

These install instructions worked great. I was referred to that page from this page, which I believe I found in a google search.

I got a little scare when the power button didn’t turn the MBP on at first. But pushing it a couple times or holding it a while or the combination of both handled this.

The install didn’t take more than thirty minutes.

I have 202GB fee now instead of 12GB. I can move my iTunes from my G-Drive Mini Triple 500GB onto the internal drive now. And perhaps even move my pictures there. But before I do, I have to make enough room on my backup drive for the extra data that’ll be on my system drive.

A note about my MacBookPro. I’ve been putting off this hard drive install as I wanted to get the top panel replaced on my MacBookPro first. The paint has been coming off under my left palm for some time now. But I called the Apple store the other day and they needed 24 hours to turn it around. And I don’t live near there so I couldn’t do it then.

I’m noting this in my blog, today, 9 April 2009, so there’s absolutely no question that this paint problem was not caused by the new hard drive. The hard drive came way after the paint/finish problem.

Last night the Cyberduck FTP client gave me trouble for the last time. It frequently asks me to overwrite — and thus re-upload — files. And most of my FTP uploads are of large files (hundreds of megabytes.) I don’t know if the overwrite prompts are because the connection disappears momentarily or what. But they are annoying.

So today I decided to get another FTP client.

I started with this review to get a beginning list of contenders.

To cut to the chase, there was only one FTP client besides Cyberduck I really liked using: ForkLift. I bought it today. Once I’d seen the other clients and ensured SCP/SFTP was working for me with ForkLift, I didn’t hesitate to purchase it.

Here are my notes on the FTP clients I considered:
Forklift (on sale via MacUpdate Promo for $29.95. cf. $44.95)
http://binarynights.com/
Tried it today. Instantly loved it. Just loved it. SCP worked (SFTP). I was instantly hooked.
I like its interface more than Cyberduck, though I definitely appreciate Cyberduck’s price.
Cyberduck
http://cyberduck.ch/
Looks fine to me. But in actual use, sucks for me due to one big problem. Constant problems uploading large files to my client’s FTP site. Hassle. Might be a resume (interruption recovery) problem.

Would I go back to Cyberduck (free) if I didn’t have the upload problem? No, I wouldn’t. Because to me the $30 I paid for ForkLift is totally worth it to use the tool that I know is the most comfortable for me. But would I recommend Cyberduck to someone that wasn’t totally in love with ForkLift? Absolutely! Cyberduck is a terrific tool and it’s definitely my second choice among the OS X FTP clients I’ve tried.
Transmit
http://www.panic.com/transmit/
Tried it. Interface sucks. Windows are tiny and borders are damned thick. Not natural. By way of comparison, ForkLift was just fab from the get-go.
Interarchy
http://nolobe.com/interarchy/
Tried it today, 17 March 2009. I didn’t like using it. Not comfortable at all. I’ll pass.
Yummy
http://www.yummysoftware.com/
I just don’t like the look of it from the Flash screen shot.
Tried it. Didn’t like the interface. Thick borders, though not as thick as Transmit’s borders. Causes a mental disconnect for me.
Fetch
http://fetchsoftworks.com/
Looks ugly to me.
Not even going to try it.
Filezilla
http://filezilla-project.org/download.php
Not pleasant to use. To Windowsy. I use it in Windows on machines I don’t have Directory Opus on and it’s a worthy tool with a great price.