External Hard Drives? Advice Please.

caesura

Hi Folks,

Need to get myself an external hard drive - the cheapest possible but something reliable/trustworthy enough - been looking at a couple of different budget options (not exactly the most computer savvy man in town) and just wondering if anyone could offer a few pointers on the following:

Maxtor (probably Onetouch 4 or Onetouch4 plus) 500GB €69 from Easons
A Verbatim (not sure which one) but i think it's 320GB at around €50-€55 from Harvey Norman
Or this (which might be above my budget) from Argos Seagate Free Agent http://www.argos.ie/static/Product/partNumber/6756987/Trail/searchtext%3EEXTERNAL+HARDDRIVE.htm

Basically i'm using a hp pavillion F1523 PC to record on which has never given me any trouble but it's a home computer used from a million different things - and it's not actually mine - so i want to make sure i have back ups in case anything does go wrong?

Any thoughts or alternative suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
C.

bobcar61

You should try over here

You should get a few answers to your query.

ZV Yoda

Depends on a few things, here's some stuff to bear in mind... (and apologies if it's over simplistic, but I noted you comment about computer savviness)

If the PC is working fine & you're only concerned about backups, why not just save your sessions to DVD? You could also look at USB memory sticks too.

If you do need an external drive, then before you consider any specific brands you need to know what type of connections you have on the pc. The type of connection dictates the transfer rate – i.e. how quickly the external drive can accept data from the pc. All pcs will have some/all of the following...

• Definitely USB (slowest, but budget external drives will all have USB)
• Firewire 400 (faster, quite common)
• Firewire 800 (even faster, less common)
• SATA (fastest, but older PCs won't have this)

If you record all your sessions to the pc’s drive & only use the external drive for back ups (say when you're finished working at the end of each day) the transfer rate doesn't really matter – it just means the end of day backup may take a few seconds longer..

If you want to use the external drive to record to in real time (i.e. it's your "default audio drive” and your sessions are never saved the PC drive itself), then the transfer rate is very important. In general, USB is too slow & you will need Firewire 400 at least.

One last thing to consider if using the external drive as your default audio drive… some recording software/DAWs are only certified to work with external drives that meet certain specs (i.e. they have a specific motherboard or BIOS settings). This is the case with Pro Tools, but I’m not familiar with details on other DAWs.

Hope this helps

studiorat

I'd say go for a firewire drive above a USB only drive. USB could be a problem if you intend on working off that particular drive.

I'd get an internal drive and start backing projects onto DVD.

caesura

ZV Yoda wrote: »

Depends on a few things, here's some stuff to bear in mind... (and apologies if it's over simplistic, but I noted you comment about computer savviness)

Thanks ZV Yoda. I’d love to say you were being over simplistic but realising I gave the make of my monitor as the make of computer in my first post (well the item number f1523…) I do tragically have to admit that simplistic might be the best approach for me – so cheers for that and for taking the time to break it down for me.

And on that note actually: Are there any particular types of DVD I should use? I reckon the cost of USB memory sticks would be more than an external hard drive in relation to the amount of storage I’d get in the long run.

ZV Yoda wrote: »

If you do need an external drive, then before you consider any specific brands you need to know what type of connections you have on the pc. The type of connection dictates the transfer rate – i.e. how quickly the external drive can accept data from the pc. All pcs will have some/all of the following...

• Definitely USB (slowest, but budget external drives will all have USB)
• Firewire 400 (faster, quite common)
• Firewire 800 (even faster, less common)
• SATA (fastest, but older PCs won't have this)

If you record all your sessions to the pc’s drive & only use the external drive for back ups (say when you're finished working at the end of each day) the transfer rate doesn't really matter – it just means the end of day backup may take a few seconds longer..

If you want to use the external drive to record to in real time (i.e. it's your "default audio drive” and your sessions are never saved the PC drive itself), then the transfer rate is very important. In general, USB is too slow & you will need Firewire 400 at least.

I think my PC does have a FireWire port it says (FireWire IEEE 1394) don’t know if that’s 400 or 800 (or either) but I do know that the USB is 2.0 (it’s a HP Pavilion can’t find the make no anywhere on it). I plan on using the external hard drive only for back up and so i'm not using up too much space on this computer.

caesura

studiorat wrote: »

I'd say go for a firewire drive above a USB only drive. USB could be a problem if you intend on working off that particular drive.

I'd get an internal drive and start backing projects onto DVD.

Cheers studiorat, i'm not planning on working off this external hard drive (though i plan to get something for that a little further down the road)

But the Maxtor might have both USB 2.0 and FireWire its either the OneTouch4 (which only has USB) or the OneTouch4Plus which has both USB and FireWire.

I'll check in Easons tomorrow - i'm thinking at 500GB it might be the one to go for...
Any thoughts?

Anima

I'd get it online if I were you. Much cheaper. http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.aspx?bn=10098

Most external harddrives will have both firewire and USB so I wouldn't worry about that.

Hartyk87

Ive had alot of experience with External Hard drives.

I would defn recomend Western Digital
Either the 1TB (1000Gb) about €115
or 320 Gb Passport €90

try Komplett.ie I find them the best