USB2 or eSATA for recording to external hard drive

[dbarrow]

Is USB2 o.k. for recording to an external hard drive, while running SAC via SAC-Link or should I use an eSATA connection? I kow eSATA would be better, but I will have to unplug everything and take the computer out of the rack to install an external eSATA port on the back. If USB2 is fine for 30 tracks or so, I won't bother until I have some significant down time and can take the SAC rack out of the truck for a few days.

[905shmick]

USB 2 can easily do 100MB/sec, which is more than enough for 30 tracks. Your hard drive will be the real bottleneck in the chain.

[Bob L]

Check your usb harddrive itself... most of the externals are 5400 rpm... try looking for or replacing with a 7200 rpm drive.

Bob L

[dbarrow]

Check your usb harddrive itself... most of the externals are 5400 rpm... try looking for or replacing with a 7200 rpm drive.

Bob L

I usually use the Acomdata Samba enclosures and buy my own drives. I always get 7200rpm (or faster) drives to stick in the enclosures. The current Samba enclosures I have bought also have eSATA ports on them.

[ekimtoor1]

You may find that USB handles graceful connection and disconnection of external drives better than eSATA.

We use a lot of eSATA drives at work and a reboot is sometimes required when connecting/disconnecting drives.

But eSATA is a lot faster than USB2.

[mr_es335]

Hello,

A reboot is required for eSATA...as ekimtoor1 stated.

It is best as noted to get your own case and install your own drive too.

Check out the WD Black series drives, also.

[Sean McCoy]

Hello,

A reboot is required for eSATA...as ekimtoor1 stated.

They're supposed to be hot-pluggable, but in my experience, it only works occasionally. Screaming fast, though. If you've got SATA II, neither USB nor Firewire can touch it for sheer speed.

[dbarrow]

They're supposed to be hot-pluggable, but in my experience, it only works occasionally. Screaming fast, though. If you've got SATA II, neither USB nor Firewire can touch it for sheer speed.

The eSATA drive would probably be hooked up before the host computer is booted and unhooked after it is shut down. The host computer is only on during shows. I have a similar system at my house I use for testing, so I can fire everything up there to play stuff back, but I don't have a 5-10 piece band at my house for "actual" testing.

[Carl G.]

Hello,

A reboot is required for eSATA...as ekimtoor1 stated.

It is best as noted to get your own case and install your own drive too.

Check out the WD Black series drives, also.

+1 on the black caviar series - built different, stronger, and did have longer warranty.

[Richard Rupert]

I have recorded extensively with external USB 2 drives and they work great, but I'm not using SAC as my front end. I don't see why that wouldn't work just as well though. Now that I think about it though, I've not recorded more than 16 tracks at one time. I've overdubbed up to 4 at a time on a song already containing 50 tracks though, and that worked fine.

Many of my "full album" clients bring their own drives now, which keeps my machine drives clean for shorter-term sessions.

Give it a shot... and you don't need to have a ten piece band actually playing to try this out; just arm the tracks and record silence. The drive will either choke or it won't, if I understand correctly how it all works.