Advice on External Hard Drives

[nyycavo24]

I don't know if this should be in the buying advice or peripherals section, so I hope I picked the right one!

My question is basic:

There are more and more brands of external hard drives popping up online and in stores all over the place. I find myself doing a ton of video editing and I think after only a few weeks of it, its probably in my best interest to pick one of these drives up.

I know that I am looking for something in the $100-$150 (tops) range and a firewire hookup.

Which ones provide the best value? Will the cheaper ones carry an increased risk of my data being corrupted? Can anyone speak from experience on this?

I would hate to transfer all of this data from my MBP to this drive only to lose it all at some point in the future!

 

[parrothead]

I have been very happy with the drives I have bought from from Synchrotech.

http://www.synchrotech.com/

 

[evillageprowler]

nyycavo24: unless you plan to use FW-B, I would recommend you use USB2 external drives. Look for those that are silent, reliable and have sizable cache memory (to speed writes).

Of course, eSata drives are best in terms of performance...

EVP

 

[nyycavo24]

EVB,

Will my new MPB (bought two weeks ago) support FW-B?

What is the advantage of that versus regular firewire or USB 2.0?

Should I be concerned buying a cheaper hard drive that the drive itself may be unstable or more likely to corrupt or crash?

 

[evillageprowler]

EVB,

Will my new MPB (bought two weeks ago) support FW-B?

What is the advantage of that versus regular firewire or USB 2.0?

Should I be concerned buying a cheaper hard drive that the drive itself may be unstable or more likely to corrupt or crash?

I think the MBP does not support FW-B. (You can always go to apple.com and check.) FW-A has a rated throughput of 400Mbps, while USB2 is 480 Mbps.

As for quality of drive, go to Newegg and read the reviews. Less price doesn't always mean lesser quality. My favorite HDD brands are Lacie (which don't actually make their own disks) and WD. But, there are others. Look for sales of the good stuff, and be sure to think about the cache size.

EVP

 

[steeler]

I bought an enclosure (Macally brand) and Seagate HD at Newegg over a year ago and it works great. I personally like that Seagate has a 5 year warranty. That won't get your data back, but it says something when a HD manufacturer stands behind their product for 5 years. That's a lifetime in the tech industry.

 

[slipper]

My Lacie Porsche drives have served me well. I've upgraded to a larger unit, the Western Digital My Book and hopefully its just as good (time will tell).

Costco has these on sale, 500gb w/ FW400, USB2, eSata for $139.99

 

[Zeeinnm]

Firewire

I am looking at a new Imac and wonder if getting a FW800 is enough better to be worth the extra money(for timeline). I had also been looking at those on sale at costco.

 

[pkoch1]

EVB,

Will my new MPB (bought two weeks ago) support FW-B?

What is the advantage of that versus regular firewire or USB 2.0?

Yes, it will. That's the wider squarish port next to the FireWire 400 port.

It is twice as fast as FireWire 400. I'd definitely recommend FireWire 400 over USB because even though USB is faster on paper, FireWire 400 is almost twice as fast, and FireWire 800 is even faster than that.

 

[KJdanReuben]

I am looking at a new Imac and wonder if getting a FW800 is enough better to be worth the extra money(for timeline). I had also been looking at those on sale at costco.

Spending the extra for FW800 is definitely worth it. It is so much quicker.

 

[roland.g]

I am looking at a new Imac and wonder if getting a FW800 is enough better to be worth the extra money(for timeline). I had also been looking at those on sale at costco.

I would go FW 800 but it really won't matter after your initial Time Machine backup as the daily backups aren't that large and using a FW 800 vs 400 won't be noticable. However I have a FW 800 for Time Machine, but it is a RAID case with 2 independent drives in it, one for TM and one for video.

 

[digitalnicotine]

When purchasing a cheaper model external hard drive, one of the things I would look at is what actual drives are inside? Is it one that has gotten good reviews? Also, one of the biggest enemies to hard drives is heat. Make sure it has some sort of cooling options built into the design. You also might consider buying an enclosure and hard drive separately and installing it into the enclosure yourself. That gives you a few more options. Good luck!

 

[evillageprowler]

My Lacie Porsche drives have served me well. I've upgraded to a larger unit, the Western Digital My Book and hopefully its just as good (time will tell).

Costco has these on sale, 500gb w/ FW400, USB2, eSata for $139.99

I have a Lacie Porsche as well as a WD My Book - usb-only versions. The Lacie uses its enclosure as a heat sink, so it will feel warm/hot to the touch but is much cooler inside.

I am very happy with both models.

EVP

 

[aross99]

I agree that firewire 400 is faster then USB2. Obviously firewire 800 is even faster, but also more expensive.

I say go with a combo Firewire 400/USB drive for the best combination of performance, low cost, and longevity, and spring for the triple Firewire 800/Firewire 400/USB if performance is important, or the cost differential is low enough.

OWC (http://www.macsales.com) sells nice combo drives, and also sells the enclosures separately where you can use your own drive. Not sure how cost effective that is though unless you already have a drive to use.

My experience has been that the USB only drives are the cheapest, followed by comb Firewire 400/USB and then triple Firewire 800/400/USB...

The larger drive capacities (over 500GB) are more likely to have Firewire 800, but are also probably out of your price range...