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USB 2 vs. Firewire External Hard Drive

R

raya

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 19, 2007
3
0
I have just purchased my mac book pro and am about to start editing a doc project with final cut and an external hard drive. I have heard different takes on editing with a USB 2.0 vs firewire external HDs, and would be so very grateful if someone could clarify once and for all.

Is a firewire ext. HD truly more reliable for editing large projects?

I currently have a USB 2.0 Lacie / 250GB / 7200rpm / 8BM buffer. I would be very happy not to have to purchase another HD, but I would also like to avoid having to transfer all of my captured material to a new HD partway through the project.

Your tech-wisdom is greatly appreciated ~
 
Sure FW is better but USB 2 is 100% fine for DV and HDV. I have FW400 and USB2 on my HD, i use USB 2 because the cam is plugged into the FW port. Eventually i would like a Lacie BigDisk Extreme FW800, but it is certainly not required. So USB 2 will do just fine for DV and HDV. Anything with a higher data rate and you may want to look into FW800.
 
marioman38 said:
Sure FW is better but USB 2 is 100% fine for DV and HDV. I have FW400 and USB2 on my HD, i use USB 2 because the cam is plugged into the FW port. Eventually i would like a Lacie BigDisk Extreme FW800, but it is certainly not required. So USB 2 will do just fine for DV and HDV. Anything with a higher data rate and you may want to look into FW800.
Click to expand...

You can end up with dropped frames if you're using USB.

Just stick with firewire.
 
I have used USB 2.0 for many years, and I also have a FireWire Hub for my MBP and recently purchased a External Firewire drive. Both have worked fine for editing. I do have to agree that my firewire "feels" more reliable, but in reality I have seen no difference in editing.

Both are fine, use what you like.

In expert opinion though, firewire is preffered. Though USB 2.0 works just fine.

I use FCE, LiveType, and Soundtrack.
 
I've used USB 2 drives often on my PB/iBook/MBs with no adverse effect. That said, when available I always prefer FW.

my 0.02
 
a hd with FW 800 would be your best option although usb 2.0 is not far behind.
 
USB 2 vs. Firewire External Hard Driv

I recently bought a Rocstor 800 FW exteranl HD. It is very fast, and reliable. I use it as a duplicate backup HD, and it is exceptional.
 
ivi7 said:
I wasn't talking in terms of speed but yes your right its nearly double the speed of usb
Click to expand...

This has been discussed... soooo extensively. Go look at actual burst transfer performance statistics. Don't just believe the label that says 480MBPS.... FW400 is substantially faster than USB2 when transferring large amounts of data. FW800 is faster than FW400, but depending on the situation, possibly only by 20-30% (it could be a lot more, but certain other factors may bottleneck the system....)
 
Usually the FW400/FW800 drives cost a little bit more than ones with only USB2, but I think the cost is worth it. FW400/800 are faster for continuous throughput. I would by a drive that is USB2/FW400 and possibly USB2/FW400/FW800. Two advantages - 1) You never know when you'll want to plug your drive into your friends USB2-only PC; 2) In theory the FW400 interface could fail, but the USB2 or FW800 would still be working in which case you don't need to buy a new enclosure. Basically you have redundant interface options.
 
My understanding is USB 2.0 is 480 BURST, so it's not a constant flow of information, whereas FW 400/800 is a constant stream of information.
 
I went to Japan this summer on a missions trip. While there, I brought my video camera, MBP, and my firewire/usb 2.0 drive. Unfortunately, both firewire ports had died on the hard drive, so I was forced to use USB. "No big deal", I thought. Boy was I wrong. I would log and capture all the footage that I shot for that day (The total amount ended up being over 16 hours of footage). Since we would end the day late, and start the next early, I didn't have time to sit around and watch the log and capture process to make sure everything would be okay. So I would log and capture my video, then head to sleep. Let me tell you, there were so many times where I woke up the next morning, only to find out that only 10 minutes of the footage was captured because of dropped frames. I NEVER had dropped frames when I was running with firewire.

Even if USB runs perfectly fine for you, I'd just go firewire all the way. It's more reliable and more stable. And I think that's the best option to go for in the end.
 
eSATA is your best option if you're running multiple streams in HD

FW400 is fine for HDV and DV (about 4 DV streams?)

FW800 would be slightly better.

Don't let your cables run past 15 feet or so if you daisy chain your drives.

G-technology quad takes usb 2.0, fw4, fw8, eSATA...

great hard drives

bit pricey, but we haven't had one fail yet

(currently running 6 of their drives)
 
hayduke said:
Usually the FW400/FW800 drives cost a little bit more than ones with only USB2, but I think the cost is worth it. FW400/800 are faster for continuous throughput. I would by a drive that is USB2/FW400 and possibly USB2/FW400/FW800. Two advantages - 1) You never know when you'll want to plug your drive into your friends USB2-only PC; 2) In theory the FW400 interface could fail, but the USB2 or FW800 would still be working in which case you don't need to buy a new enclosure. Basically you have redundant interface options.
Click to expand...

I think this is really the way to go. Pay a little extra for the flexibility of all the connectors. I use Firewire all the way for video editing, but at home I have few Firewire ports to work with on a Mac Mini, so I swap the cables out and use USB 2 when I just need to copy data to the external drive. And like hayduke said, then you're sure you can hook it up to other PCs if need be.
 
USB vs. FW

The difference between USB and Firewire is that they were designed for two basic functions. Firewire is designed for a constant, steady flow of information, which is essential for video. USB is not designed for that and though they may have similar transfer speeds, Firewire is designed to prevent dropped frames whereas USB is great for general storage or transfer in which consistent time in not an issue.

IEEE 1394, or firewire has the advantage of being able to deliver data both asynchronously and isochronously. In asynchronous mode, transfers can be interrupted; in isonchronous mode, data is transferred without interruption. USB can only transfer asynchronously.

Typical USB devices can barely synchronise data streams on millisecond
time scales. This is only just good enough to synchronize the left and right channels of a pair of low quality PC audio speakers.

So IEEE 1394 is the way to go for video and other time sensitive applications.
 
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