OT: external HD recommendations

[Dave Labrecque]

Sorry if this feels like a rehash, but with technology racing forward as it does...

What's your current thinking on the best bang-for-the-buck external HD. I'm open to USB 2 or Firewire. Thinking 250 GB.

I just don't know if any ol' 7200 RPM external drive meeting my specs is just fine, or if there are any "gotchas" to watch for with certain brands or types.

Another thought is bus-powered or not.

Thanks.

[TotalSonic]

I just keep 4 external enclosures that have both USB 2.0 and Firewire ports on them, with their own external power supplies, and then swap out 7200RPM EIDE hard drives purchased seperately as needed (usually Western Digital or Seagate these days - and avoid Hitachi/IBM!)

The "A Power" ones I purchased from a neighborhood store have so far have worked fine and are nice and compact.

I keep a number of 2gig USB flash pen drives handy for my "sneaker net" needs (I keep both my DAW's off the net) also.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Sean McCoy]

Agreed. The OWC drives are really well built, and mine have been 100% reliable. Are you looking for A/V drives, or backup drives? If A/V, and you have any available PCI slots, I'd be thinking eSata instead of USB or FireWire. Even eSata1 has twice the bandwidth of FW 800.

[Dave Labrecque]

Agreed. The OWC drives are really well built, and mine have been 100% reliable. Are you looking for A/V drives, or backup drives? If A/V, and you have any available PCI slots, I'd be thinking eSata instead of USB or FireWire. Even eSata1 has twice the bandwidth of FW 800.

Thinking AV for remote recording on my laptop. I've been using the internal boot drive, which works fine, but I'd like to be able to create an "insta-backup" on-site, so I'm thinking of tracking to the external, then backing up to the internal. Or vice-versa.

[Dave Labrecque]

These are quite impressive...and QUIET!! Best externals I have ever used. You can select options for connectivity. They have aluminum enclosures. You will have to reformat for PC, which takes seconds.

Excellent customer service as well.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

These look nice. What's the latest thinking on FW800 and XP? Anyone?

[Perry]

These look nice. What's the latest thinking on FW800 and XP? Anyone?

Hi Dave :)

My latest thinking is to get e-SATA instead... that's my thinking. ;)

Seriously... get an e-sata enclosure that also has at least USB so that you can connect to computers with no external SATA ports when necessary.

At one point I thought Firewire 800 was going to be the way to go (and I have a Firewire 800 enclosure in fact) but MS did a swell job of scaring that off and making a mess of it.

We could argue whether MS did this on purpose or not.. but it doesn't matter... the results are in... Firewire 800 is out.. at least as a serious 'standard' on the Windows platform. It looked for a bit that motherboards were going to start supplying Firewire 800 support as a de facto thing.. but noooo... thanks to MS for that!

But, besides all that boring corporate espionage stuff... e-sata is a great performer and mostly easier to deal with. Not much in the way of a down side other than the fact that it isn't universally used yet. But, getting an enclosure with USB (and maybe Firewire as well) in addition to e-sata solves all that.

Of course if you have a Mac..... :)

Cheers,

Perry

[MikeDee]

These are quite impressive...and QUIET!! Best externals I have ever used. You can select options for connectivity. They have aluminum enclosures. You will have to reformat for PC, which takes seconds.

Excellent customer service as well.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

I concur ("rehashingly," as well). :D

[Dave Labrecque]

Hey, Perry!

But I'm planning to use it with my laptop. Is there an e-Sata/laptop hook-up? (I have a single PCMCIA slot which would have my RME CardBus card in it at the time) Or are you thinking just to have it for future use, as it becomes more universal?

[Dave Labrecque]

Even if there were an adapter, you wouldn't gain anything.

I would just buy the connectivity you need now, and don't chase techonology. When you are ready for a new computer, chances are good that eSata will be the only game in town.

I heard a rumor today that Seagate is going to stop making ATA drives by the end of the year. Apple stopped using them years ago.

Mark

What does Apple use now? SCSI's long gone, right?

[Perry]

Hey, Perry!

But I'm planning to use it with my laptop. Is there an e-Sata/laptop hook-up? (I have a single PCMCIA slot which would have my RME CardBus card in it at the time) Or are you thinking just to have it for future use, as it becomes more universal?

I'm labtop lazy man... don't ask me about laptops. ;) I know nothing!!!! :rolleyes: :D

But hey... I'd still get the e-sata enclosure.. just get it with something else for the laptop I guess. Going forward (as opposed to backwards?) I think you will be glad that you got the e-sata...

Of course.. going backwards is allowed.. far as I know. Retro.. right? :rolleyes:

But I'd go forwards with this... yeah man... forward. E-SATA.. that's going forward. :)

Perry

[Sean McCoy]

ESATA for the laptop does require a PCMCIA card, so you wouldn't be able to use it simultaneously with your RME card. But you might still want to consider spending a little bit more for one of their enclosures that has every possible interface on it to cover all contingencies.

[ambler]

Apple uses eSata internally, and have for a couple of years.

SATA (the 'e' in eSATA stands for external) drives are still ATA drives. It's 'serial' ATA and this is what has been used in PC's for the last couple of years also. Parallel ATA drives are what Seagate and most other manufacturers are going to stop making soon.

Mark

[John Hernandez]

Hello Dave,

I went with eSata and I've been very pleased. Actually I got a Seagate FreeAgent 0.5tB drive and it has all 3 types of connections (usb, fw, and eSata).

I've had poor experience with usb on my Toshi...loses connection, "finds" the drive all over again...lousy for DAW work. But I purchased an express card eSata II adapter for my Macbook Pro running Windows/Bootcamp and it's been extremely reliable.

If I were you, I'd look for a PCMCIA to eSata adapter and consider a multiport option. The extra ports are great for backup or quick transfers to non-eSata comptuters. And you can't beat eSata for DAW usage (at least that's been my humble experience).

$0.02 1/2,
John

[Craig Allen]

I've had the opposite experience with a USB2 Maxtor drive and a laptop - it's never lost connection or given me problems. I've done 16 tracks at 24/44.1 with no glitches whatsoever.

[John Hernandez]

I've had the opposite experience with a USB2 Maxtor drive and a laptop - it's never lost connection or given me problems. I've done 16 tracks at 24/44.1 with no glitches whatsoever.Yeah, it's probably a faulty USB port on my Toshi. No issues so far on the MBP and eSata, though.

John

[Dave Labrecque]

Thanks, John, but I don't beleive eSATA is an option for me, since my laptop needs to use its only PCMCIA slot for the Digiface CardBus.