External hard drive

[mfwahl]

I did a search and didn't find exactly what I'm looking for. I need an external hard drive for recording music. Basically, I want to put my files on there so I can just have programs on my C drive. From my experience and what I'e heard it makes everyhting run faster. I'm using a laptop so a second internal isn't an option. What kind do oyu guys recommend. I was thinking of getting at least 120GB. I've heard good things about LaCie and Western Digital. I may have read too many reviews because everything I've looked into has been trashed by someone. Basically I want something fast and quiet, and preferably portable. Also, Firewire or USB 2.0? My recording interface is firewire so I would prefer USB 2.0 so I could have them hooked up at the same time. Maybe both would be good so I could use the firewire for editing/mixing/mastering? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[a.miller]

Pair this enclosure with this hard drive. You can swap a different drive into the enclosure, which future proofs it more. Additionally, these enclosures feature superior cooling; something that many "stock" external drives lack. I have 4 of these enclosures. They all perform wonderfully for music recording and are (both) USB 2.0 and Firewire. Hope that is of some help.

[Golden Smoghead]

They all perform wonderfully for music recording and are (both) USB 2.0 and Firewire. Hope that is of some help.

How does that work exactly? You go USB / FW direct into the hard drive? How does the processor / soundcard figure into that process?

 

Sorry for the newbie question!!

[a.miller]

Yes - The hard drive has the ability to be hooked to the computer via USB or firewire cables; there are "plugs" or "ports" on the hard drive enclosure that allow either type of connection to be used.

 

Hmm....when writing to the external hard drive, the computer is performing as if if were writing to the internal hard drive. The soundcard and processor handle the data in the same way, but it is then stored on an external hard drive. I'm not sure if that answers your question.

 

My statement, about an external drive working well, was derived from the idea that there was no lag or delay in the recording being saved to the external drive as opposed to the internal one. This is essential if you are running only programs on your internal drive. You can hit record and the info can be saved directly to the external drive.

[TCP]

I recommend to go with Firewire 800. That way you can record just straight onto your external drive.

You may want something larger then 120 gigs.

[mfwahl]

Thanks for the advice. One more question, for Firewire 800, do I need an adaptor or something? Doesn't 800 have a different connector than 400? I'm new at this thanks

[dannygutters]

I really doubt 'everything' will run faster vs an internal drive except in some unique cases like running out of free space on the internal drive or some older g4 ibooks have such a bad frontside bus speeds that an external hard drive connected via usb2 or firewire actually transfers data faster than using the build in drive. Since you're on a laptop this setup should be good since your internal vs external differences aren't going to be noticable. Also, the comments that mention firewire a better option because it's directly connected to the sound device instead the computer are incorrect, tho the firewire devices can be daisy chained together data from the external sound port must "travel through" the computer before writing, so you don't save anything here. Firewire 800 is faster than 400, they use the same connection port but your equiptment must support this transfer rate. Also, if your soundcard is firewire 400 and your laptop can do 800 I don't think you get the benifit if they are chained together because it throttles for the slower device.

 

The upside of this setup is that if your internal drive fails you still have the important files, portability or for easy upgrades if you switch machines you can just switch the drivecables.

[a.miller]

There's always been a debate on firewire 800 vs. 400 vs. USB 2.0 with respect to speed. I agree with the points above regarding front side bus speed, etc. I have found that many aspects (components) are overlooked and others are focused on -- often unnecessarily -- when 'optimizing' a computer. There can be a bottle neck of sorts, with data 'traveling through' the computer, so that having one super-fast peripheral becomes a moot point in an otherwise average system. This happened frequently with the introduction of multi-core processors, where software wasn't written to take advantage of this new technology.