External Hard Drive for Recording

jasonrhcp · Feb 7, 2013, 04:31 PM

Hi. I am new to this. I am wondering if it is ok to record to a drive such as the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive.

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard...d/backup-plus/

Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

Fishrrman · Feb 8, 2013, 10:45 AM

How do you plan to connect your external?

Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, USB2 ??

ChrisA · Feb 8, 2013, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jasonrhcp

Hi. I am new to this. I am wondering if it is ok to record to a drive such as the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive.

http://www.seagate.com/external-hard...d/backup-plus/

Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks

Yes. In fact it is a good idea to use a FAST external drive and you will need on if you are doing more than a few audio tracks. Make sure the connection is faster than USB2.

Many people will use a disk array, at least a mirror (aka "raid 2") and even then you need to get the data backed up a few times as soon as you can.

jasonrhcp · Feb 8, 2013, 12:28 PM

I have a 15" rMBP so i am using usb3.
Thanks for the info!

bwhli · Feb 8, 2013, 01:35 PM

Get one of these. You'll be able to use both USB3.0 and FW800. I recommend FW800 because it's been used for audio for a long time now. Very reliable.

fastlanephil · Feb 9, 2013, 11:10 AM

Nowhere does Seagate say what the spin speed is on this drive so I'm assuming it's a 5400 rpm drive vs a 7200 rpm drive.

If it is then I wouldn't recommend it for audio recording. That's why I won't buy the Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt.

jasonrhcp · Feb 9, 2013, 10:43 PM

No moving parts. Its all flash.

Boyd01 · Feb 10, 2013, 07:15 AM

Are you saying that the Seagate Backup Plus drive in your link above is a flash disk? $100 for a 1TB SSD? I don't think so...

PRPS · Feb 10, 2013, 08:58 AM

I use a LaCie rugged and it works fine

Fishrrman · Feb 10, 2013, 09:57 AM

My suggestions are probably different than those that most others will offer.

I'd suggest you consider a USB3/SATA docking station, such as:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00APP6694?...SIN=B00APP6694
or
http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Docki...SIN=B003UI62AG

If you'd prefer an actual "enclosure", get this:
http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/U32-M.html

Then combine with a "bare" hard drive or SSD drive of your choice. For audio projects, an SSD could probably take anything you could throw at it.

You might also consider partitioning an external drive, to create at least one or two "work partitions" that will be roughly 2x-3x the size of the projects you normally create. The advantage is that by "cordoning off" a partition of the drive, all your input is recorded to a small area of the drive's platters, reducing the time the drive has to spend "sweeping the surface" of the platters to find sectors to which to write. It also makes it easy to defrag the work partitions, to keep large blocks of free space available.

That's what I do, works fine for me...

zimv20 · Feb 10, 2013, 01:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwhli

Get one of these.

+1

i mean that literally: get two. one for recording, one for backup. these are the drives i use for location recording and all my backups.

Feb 7, 2013, 04:31 PM	#1
jasonrhcp macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2010	External Hard Drive for Recording Hi. I am new to this. I am wondering if it is ok to record to a drive such as the Seagate Backup Plus Portable Hard Drive. http://www.seagate.com/external-hard...d/backup-plus/ Any help would be much appreciated! Thanks
	0

Feb 8, 2013, 01:35 PM	#5
bwhli macrumors 6502 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: Boston, MA	Get one of these. You'll be able to use both USB3.0 and FW800. I recommend FW800 because it's been used for audio for a long time now. Very reliable. __________________ 15" rMBP, 2.3 GHZ, 16 GB RAM \| 32 GB White iPhone 5 \| 16 GB Black iPad 4 @bwhli \| http://bwhli.com \| MainStage for Musical Theatre
	1

Feb 10, 2013, 08:58 AM	#9
PRPS macrumors member Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Philadelphia, PA	External Hard Drive for Recording I use a LaCie rugged and it works fine __________________ http://soundcloud.com/joey-jeff-productions http://twitter.com/JoeyJeff
	0

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Feb 8, 2013, 10:45 AM	#2
Fishrrman macrumors 68020 Join Date: Feb 2009	How do you plan to connect your external? Thunderbolt, USB3, Firewire, USB2 ??
	0

Feb 8, 2013, 12:28 PM	#4
jasonrhcp Thread Starter macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2010	I have a 15" rMBP so i am using usb3. Thanks for the info!
	0

Feb 9, 2013, 11:10 AM	#6
fastlanephil macrumors 6502 Join Date: Nov 2007	Nowhere does Seagate say what the spin speed is on this drive so I'm assuming it's a 5400 rpm drive vs a 7200 rpm drive. If it is then I wouldn't recommend it for audio recording. That's why I won't buy the Western Digital My Book Thunderbolt.
	0

Feb 9, 2013, 10:43 PM	#7
jasonrhcp Thread Starter macrumors member Join Date: Jul 2010	No moving parts. Its all flash.
	0

Feb 10, 2013, 07:15 AM	#8
Boyd01 macrumors regular Join Date: Feb 2012	Are you saying that the Seagate Backup Plus drive in your link above is a flash disk? $100 for a 1TB SSD? I don't think so...
	0

Feb 10, 2013, 09:57 AM	#10
Fishrrman macrumors 68020 Join Date: Feb 2009	My suggestions are probably different than those that most others will offer. I'd suggest you consider a USB3/SATA docking station, such as: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00APP6694?...SIN=B00APP6694 or http://www.amazon.com/Plugable-Docki...SIN=B003UI62AG If you'd prefer an actual "enclosure", get this: http://oyendigital.com/hard-drives/store/U32-M.html Then combine with a "bare" hard drive or SSD drive of your choice. For audio projects, an SSD could probably take anything you could throw at it. You might also consider partitioning an external drive, to create at least one or two "work partitions" that will be roughly 2x-3x the size of the projects you normally create. The advantage is that by "cordoning off" a partition of the drive, all your input is recorded to a small area of the drive's platters, reducing the time the drive has to spend "sweeping the surface" of the platters to find sectors to which to write. It also makes it easy to defrag the work partitions, to keep large blocks of free space available. That's what I do, works fine for me...
	0