Is it better to record to an external drive?

[Derykus]

My disk usage in bigger projects just gets absolutely ridiculous and I experience drop-outs while the audio files are loading. My cpu usage is only around 50% in the ASIO meter, yet the disk tends gets pegged in big projects. I'm using a 7200rpm laptop drive as my main drive with samples, audio, OS; everything. Running on an old dell latitude dual core 2.0 with 2gb ram.

Will running my samples and recording audio files to an external drive free up my disk usage and prevent this problem from occurring so much? Or is it a bigger problem and I need more RAM or possibly a new computer?

 

[jipchen]

It is a good idea to record on another harddisk than your main drive with the OS and sequencer, yes.
Depends on the quality and connection of external drives, though. If it's a tower PC just throw in another harddrive, that's the safest way.
If it's a laptop eSata, Lightbridge, USB 3.0 or Firewire 800 would be good..
Of course it should also work with good USB 2.0 drives and FW 400 but there's a chance you will still have dropouts.
Choosing 7200 over 5400 rpm is a good idea either way.

 

[Trevoire520]

I get less dropouts recording to the internal drive on my Macbook than I do recording to my WD Mybook through firewire 400 (both drives are 7200rpm)

 

[Melodeath]

If I had a desktop I would record to a separate internal. But I'm on a Macbook Pro, so on a laptop, I think recording to the internal would be better. Focusrite told me the same when I asked

 

[Flat Fifth Fury]

If you are running a desktop system I recommend that you install a removable drive bay. It will run at full SATA speed and when you are finished working on the project you just take the drive out of the bay and replace it with a different drive for a different project. I use two drive bays so that I can easily archive my data.

 

[Enghell]

As I think Dell Latitude is a laptop, I'd say go for either an external 7200rpm disc either connected through eSATA or USB 3.0. I think you should probably stay away from using the internal disc or an external USB 2.0 since I think it might not be fast enough. But since you said it's an old Dell, maybe it hasn't got either eSATA or USB 3.0, so maybe it's time to upgrade to a new computer then?

 

[jeid]

Running a Lacie external drive with Firewire 800 and it's certainly helped with drop outs I used to have.

 

[-Noodles-]

I've never had issues with my WD Studio drive. 7200rpm, 500GB. Fw800.

 

[006]

Glyph external for about 6 years now over FW400/800, not a single problem to date on PowerBook G4, PowerMac G5 nor my iMac 27".