EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE?!?

[MR NINE]

Hi guys!

need to buy a new HD, just saw a Lacie 320GB (usb) pretty cheap in a store nearby.
What do you think about this product? Is it good enough for just doing my studio backups!?
Any comments and suggestions are welcome, Thanx!

 

[AudioPhile777]

just for backing up, yeah its fine...

if you were going to run your sessions from it, it should work equally well...

I was running my sessions from a usb for a while... didnt encounter any problems.

 

[R-Stuur]

I would recommend you to get a cradle/casing and normal HDD instead of one boxed already. This way, if the cradle dies outside of the warranty period, your HDD lives on in another case.

 

[AudioPhile777]

that is good too, usually cheaper method as well...

 

[MR NINE]

Thanx for your suggestions guys!!

 

[JeffTD]

I like Western Digital 'My Books' - Andy seems to, as well.

 

[JBroll]

I would recommend you to get a cradle/casing and normal HDD instead of one boxed already. This way, if the cradle dies outside of the warranty period, your HDD lives on in another case.

Agreed - you might find them called 'External HDD Enclosure' or something like that, just make sure it's the same type as your hard drive (SATA or EIDE - SATA is a skinny cable about the width of your thumb, EIDE is a fat one a little narrower than your wrist) and you're good to go with any number of hard drives - you can even have one access several drives and be treating it like a really big floppy drive (although you can't switch drives with the power on, flip the switch on the back of the enclosure and put a new one in and you're good to go when you turn it back on).

Jeff

 

[iekobrid]

Has anyone tried an eSATA drive?


' USB and 1394 external drives are ATA drives with a bridge chip that translates from the ATA protocol to USB or 1394 protocol used for the connection. These interfaces require en-capsulation or conversion of the transmit data and then de-capsulation after the data is received. This protocol overhead reduces the efficiency of these host buses, increases the host CPU utilization or requires a special chip to off-load the host.

The results of eSATA are dramatic and with no protocol overhead issues as with USB or 1394. The eSATA storage bus delivers as much as 37 times more performance. This ability is perfect for using an array of drives with performance striping behind the eSATA host port. '



My current system doesn't support eSATA, but I may well go for that option on the next one I build. Western Digital's list price for a 500gb MyBook with eSATA-3 & USB-2 connections ("Premium ES", $199) is $30 less than their 500gb with Firewire-800 / Firewire-400 / USB-2 ("Pro", $229), $20 less than their 500gb with Firewire-400 & USB-2 ("Premium", $219), and only $30 more than their 500gb with just USB-2 ("Essential", $169). Actual retail for the 500 ES is in the $150-170 range at the moment. Sounds like a win-win if you've got the hardware to take advantage of it.

 

[Wolfeman]

Has anyone tried an eSATA drive?


' USB and 1394 external drives are ATA drives with a bridge chip that translates from the ATA protocol to USB or 1394 protocol used for the connection. These interfaces require en-capsulation or conversion of the transmit data and then de-capsulation after the data is received. This protocol overhead reduces the efficiency of these host buses, increases the host CPU utilization or requires a special chip to off-load the host.

The results of eSATA are dramatic and with no protocol overhead issues as with USB or 1394. The eSATA storage bus delivers as much as 37 times more performance. This ability is perfect for using an array of drives with performance striping behind the eSATA host port. '



My current system doesn't support eSATA, but I may well go for that option on the next one I build. Western Digital's list price for a 500gb MyBook with eSATA-3 & USB-2 connections ("Premium ES", $199) is $30 less than their 500gb with Firewire-800 / Firewire-400 / USB-2 ("Pro", $229), $20 less than their 500gb with Firewire-400 & USB-2 ("Premium", $219), and only $30 more than their 500gb with just USB-2 ("Essential", $169). Actual retail for the 500 ES is in the $150-170 range at the moment. Sounds like a win-win if you've got the hardware to take advantage of it.

I use an eSATA external..... At the moment, it is nothing but problems. I'm pretty sure it's mostly driver issues, but I know ASUS has to do work with it in the bios also... Do a bit of searching on pc tech forums and you will see what I mean... Good concept, I'd give it a few years before relying on it though.

 

[iekobrid]

Damn. File under "Too Good To Be True... Yet" for now, I guess.


Do you have internal SATA drives that work okay with the same system?

 

[nwright]

Good thread, as I've been trying to decide which My Book to go for.

I'm looking for an External just to use as a backup for projects. I don't think I'd ever run anything from it, just a cheap place to store files...Would a USB 2.0 suffice? Or, should I go for Firewire/USB?

 

[Wolfeman]

Damn. File under "Too Good To Be True... Yet" for now, I guess.


Do you have internal SATA drives that work okay with the same system?

Yep! 2 raid configurations actually. One was supposed to be split in 2 partitions for OS/programs respectively, and then the other array was going to be strictly for storage, and the eSATA for recording. But since I'm having all the problems with the eSATA, I have to use the storage array for my recording.

BTW, the internal sata connections run off of the nvidia nForce raid controller, whilst the eSATA port is controlled by a jmicron chip. That is probably the culprit. BTW the problems that were really pissing me off is that the drive wouldn't stay 'connected'. I would be trying to access it, and mid transfer the computer would think it was unplugged. Wouldn't pick it back up until I restarted. Every time it happened, data would be lost/corrupted. Not something you want with your newly recorded tracks. And I could only get it to transfer at about 5mb per second.... Not close to what I get with my internals. I tried a different drive in the external enclosure, didn't help. I sent the enclosure back, same issues.

Maybe they can egt it working better soon, who knows. Maybe someone out there has a motherboard or card with a better eSATA controller on it....

 

[iekobrid]

the problems that were really pissing me off is that the drive wouldn't stay 'connected'. I would be trying to access it, and mid transfer the computer would think it was unplugged. Wouldn't pick it back up until I restarted.

I have the same problem with one of my two Firewire MyBook drives. All is well for 15-30 minutes, then the computer seems to suddenly forget the drive exists. I've swapped out the cables, tried different ports, even hooked it up via USB instead -- nothing helps but a restart.

 

[Torsis]

I like Western Digital 'My Books' - Andy seems to, as well.

+1
Plus they're pretty cheap these days.

 

[Wolfeman]

I have the same problem with one of my two Firewire MyBook drives. All is well for 15-30 minutes, then the computer seems to suddenly forget the drive exists. I've swapped out the cables, tried different ports, even hooked it up via USB instead -- nothing helps but a restart.

I think it may be a windows thing, drivers conflicting with the hardware or something. Although, I tried mine in XP and now in Vista, same issues.... So who knows.... I'll just stick to internals for now. You don't have an ASUS board by any chance, do you?

 

[RKelly]

For external drives that you're going to be recording to I would highly recommend Glyph drives. I normally use the FW800 but they do support eSata as well and have run 120+ track sessions without any problems.

A smaller feature that can be a life saver is that it uses a standard IEC cable so you don't need to worry about losing the adpator or finding one in a new studio.

Plus if it dies in the first year they replace it and recover all the data for you. A

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

I am in the same boat, however I do need to be able to record to the drive so I am going to go with FW this time (I am currently running USB 2.0), although USB 2.0 has allowed me to record to disc 10 tracks at once @ 44.1k 24 bit


But I want faster because I am thinking about getting another firepod soon.