External Drive Help

[sarka]

Hello -

I'm looking to purchase another external drive to hold my video projects (I'm graduating soon and currently do some freelance videography. Hopefully I'll be able to make it a full-time gig once I'm out of school). My first drive was a LaCie Rugged, and it's worked pretty well. However, at one point it refused to mount for a while. It started working again, but it's full, and I'd prefer not to replace it with a LaCie, since I'd like something a bit more reliable. Though a film professor recommended LaCie.. so maybe I just got a lemon or somesuch?

The Specs.
I'm looking to go big. Like, I want to have one place to put all my unfinished projects (let's say 5-10 hours at least of raw footage on the drive, plus any finished projects). I'm not sure how much space I need, but I don't mind putting out $300 or a bit more (blah blah blah poor college student), for the right drive.

I'm looking for speed and quality.

I have a MacBook Pro.

Not sure if you need any other information..

Thanks for the help!

 

[bigbossbmb]

buy a single internal 1TB drive and pop it into a FW enclosure... will be less than $150

 

[ChrisA]

.... I'm not sure how much space I need, but I don't mind putting out $300 or a bit more (blah blah blah poor college student), for the right drive.

Lecie brand dose not mean much. They don't make the drives and they don't make the interface chips and those two things matter the most.

Seagate 1TB drives sell for about $100. Buy a quality FW800 aluminum enclosure from OWC for about $50. It takes a screwdriver and 10 minutes to put the drive in the box.

With your $300 budget you can buy two.
You might really want two. Your scatch drive does not need to be backed up as you don't care about that data but your project files and archives will need a backup, buy at least one additional external drive for backups

 

[2jaded2care]

I find an external drive with eSATA invaluable when dealing with multicam HD (DNxHD). Not that much more expensive, and you could always get an ExpressCard34/eSATA adapter for your MBP later... Just a thought.

 

[iPhoneNYC]

The two drives I use the most with FCP are 1TB LaCie and 1TB gRaids. The LaCies have been reliable for me. I just bought a new 1.5 TB for just under $250 at B&H today -- this HD footage eats up drive space like crazy.

 

[RatVega]

Seagate 1.5TB FreeAgent Desk for Mac
$189.95 (plus tax & freight) at bhphotovideo.com

Seagate actually makes the drive, not just the box.
USB 2 and FireWire 800, 5-year warranty.

works for me...

 

[Freewayjim]

Seagate 1.5TB FreeAgent Desk for Mac
$189.95 (plus tax & freight) at bhphotovideo.com

I picked one of these up at Frys a couple weeks ago for $159.99, I've also used the WD My Book Studio's (Red Box) which are pretty nice and there are deals to be had on those if you look around.

 

[PFNBlog]

LaCie arent that bad

My first drive was a LaCie Rugged, and it's worked pretty well. However, at one point it refused to mount for a while. It started working again, but it's full, and I'd prefer not to replace it with a LaCie, since I'd like something a bit more reliable.

You probobly just got a lemon they are actully quite good,

WD on the other hand, are rubbish they crash are slow and quite often just stop working