external firewire drive question

What do you plan to use the drive for?

I have a LaCie 120GB d2 FireWire drive that I use for video editing and I couldn't be happier. It's about 7" by 6" by 2" and is under 4 lbs. It cost $240. It could be portable fairly easy, though it has to be plugged into a wall outlet to work. LaCie has some smaller drives that are powered through the FireWire port in you want something to use while you're on the road. It all depends on the use. I do trust LaCie though, I have a 40MB SCSI drive hooked up to a Mac Plus that has worked for 10 years+, it's nearly twice as big as my 120GB!

http://www.lacie.com

For your budget question, YES if the bigger have to be plugged in kind, NO if the smaller powered by FireWire kind.

An iPod is tempting either way.

Hope that helps.

I have a 40gig Pocketdrive from LaCie and it is wonderful. It doesnt need to be plugged into a wall, which was the deciding factor for me. You might be able to find some brands that offer something similar for less, but I always trust LaCie. The ipod is too expensive to server just as an external hard drive in my opinion.

I've got two ext' drives, a 20GB (Portable) and a 80GB (Not).
On the 20GB I use it to transfer large files between computers or to import A/V onto.
The 20 is an active drive.

The 80GB is a non-portable which I use to store movies or audio files and back up things like docs and music.
I call the 80 a passive drive.

Also I've got my 10Gb iPod which I use for either my entire music library or other docs.

Video Editing

If you're going to do video editing I'd probally pick a drive that has to be plugged into a wall.

1.) They are a lot less expensive for more storage.

2.) They are 7200rpm drives, while the others are eithe 4200rpm or 5400rpm. I'm fairly sure a 7200rpm drive is much better for video editing.

7200RPM?

How important is it to have a 7200RPM external drive when doing video editing?

Can you get away with 5400 without dropframes?

This Applecare Knowledge Base article says to make sure your hard drive for video capturing is at least 5400. Other places say 5400 is the minimum, but 7200 is recomended.

http://docs.info.apple.com/article....alue=100&showSurvey=false&sessionID=anonymous|170385270

5400 will probally be fine. I don't have one to test that statement though.

Just make sure whatever program you use for editing, FCP/iMovie/Premiere/Whatever, is NOT located on the drive you are capturing to. When I got FCP I made the mistake of putting it on my external drive, along with random other programs and then trying to capture to that drive. I was getting dropped frames and all kinds of problems. Also, if you plan on using the external drive for things other than capturing video, make sure you partition it into two drives. One soley for capturing media and editing. The other for the finished project and whatever else. I made that mistake to. I apoligize if you already knew that.

I just woke up and am having a hard time thinking clearly...

It is better, but not absolutely necessary, to have a seperate partion just for video because a drive with other programs on it will get fragmented, which makes the hard drive have to work more to write a large file(like video). This can lead to dropped frames and other problems.

I have a 7200 A/C powered 80GB Lacie drive in an APSTech case.

I would not recommend anything less if you want to edit video. You will really see the difference once you start editing, especially in final cut.

Bus powered drives are usually much too slow to use. My internal Powerbook G4 drive is too slow for all but the most basic video. Definitely keep your video scratch separate, and wipe it clean after each use.

Video eats hard disk like nothing so dont say that 80GB will be enough. Jump for as much as you can afford.

I bought a firewire enclosure for $45 (Oxford 911 chipset) and a IBM/Hitachi 120GB 7200 rpm drive at Fry's for $99 bucks. cost me about 160 after taxes. this was 2-3 months ago.

I dont have one, but the ones that I have seen seem pretty small, and look like they would be easy to travel with. Heres a $200 80GB drive that I found.

LaCie also has a nice clearance section - 90 day warranty

http://www.lacie.com/clearance/products/?id=10007

lacie uses maxtor drives.

firewire drives are your friend.


peace.

Originally posted by Pancake
Just make sure whatever program you use for editing, FCP/iMovie/Premiere/Whatever, is NOT located on the drive you are capturing to. When I got FCP I made the mistake of putting it on my external drive, along with random other programs and then trying to capture to that drive. I was getting dropped frames and all kinds of problems. Also, if you plan on using the external drive for things other than capturing video, make sure you partition it into two drives. One soley for capturing media and editing. The other for the finished project and whatever else. I made that mistake to. I apoligize if you already knew that.

Click to expand...

I bought an external LaCie 200GB which I use exclusively for my import/iMovie. I have noticed with this that on 2 occassions iMovie has imported with one or two high pitch beeps at a random time in a scene (a re-import beeps at a different point in the same scene) - but I have no idea if that's the drive.

I have also found that if I separate the audio and move its position, iMovie will jump and miss bits while playing in the window, but largely be fine if it's full screen. iDVD will convert it perfectly.

To fix this I'm thinking of partitioning the external - booting from the external, and striping my 60GB internal iMac drive with a 60GB external partition to fix this - anyone think that would not work? (I'm VERY hesitant to play with this since it largely works anyway).

Originally posted by neut
lacie uses maxtor drives.

firewire drives are your friend.


peace.

Click to expand...

My Lacie 40Gb (couple of years back) came with a Seagate Barracuda...

I have a D2 - its great for expansion, but not for moving data from home to work, I use a pocketdrive for that (both made by LaCie)

I have also found that if I separate the audio and move its position, iMovie will jump and miss bits while playing in the window, but largely be fine if it's full screen. iDVD will convert it perfectly.

To fix this I'm thinking of partitioning the external - booting from the external, and striping my 60GB internal iMac drive with a 60GB external partition to fix this - anyone think that would not work? (I'm VERY hesitant to play with this since it largely works anyway).

Click to expand...

That is not your drive. That is most likely iMovie 3's crappiness. my 7200 FW 80GB drive has random imovie 3 playback problems as well. I think it is because of the window mode, that must take extra power to run, or force it to share the processor more. If i open the same project in iMovie 2 or Final Cut the playback problems go away.

Originally posted by zaphoyd
That is not your drive. That is most likely iMovie 3's crappiness. my 7200 FW 80GB drive has random imovie 3 playback problems as well. I think it is because of the window mode, that must take extra power to run, or force it to share the processor more. If i open the same project in iMovie 2 or Final Cut the playback problems go away.

Click to expand...

Thank you zaphoyd - that saves me a lot of time! (doing something that wouldn't help in the slightest!)

Originally posted by Funkatation
I bought a firewire enclosure for $45 (Oxford 911 chipset) and a IBM/Hitachi 120GB 7200 rpm drive at Fry's for $99 bucks. cost me about 160 after taxes. this was 2-3 months ago.

Click to expand...

Where did you get that firewire enclosure?
Thanks!