Which Firewire 800 Hard drive

[bumzo1]

Hello,
I am deciding between 2 WD digital Hards drives the
Western Digital My Book Studio 2 TB FireWire 800/400 or the
Western Digital My Book Studio II - 2 TB (2 x 1 TB) USB 2.0/FireWire 400/FireWire 800
I plan on using it for time machine, storing media files, and most importantly as a scratch disk for final cut. Which one will give me the most speed and the best reliability? I see that the dual drive one is set for raid 0 but can I change that to Raid 1 or just have it show as 2 1tb drives? Also are there any other 2tb drives in about the same price range, up to $250?
Thanks

 

[spinnerlys]

I would go with the version with 2 x 1TB HDDs if it is possible to mount them as 2 x 1TB HDD without any RAID.
Then you can have 1TB for backup and data storage, and the other 1TB for video editing.

Also you will never get RAID 0 sped with the Firewire interface, as FW800 has 65-75MB/s, and even a single S-ATA HDD with 7200RPM can reach more than that.


PS: The WD MyStudio HDDs are quite good, we have over ten of them at work and only once they gave us trouble, which was due to a corrupt header, something easily fixed.

 

[Badger^2]

I would prefer the single drive over the dual drive anyday.

Have you thought about a 1TB or 1.5TB USB 2 for backup (I have seen 1TB for $80 and 1.5TB for $100) and then a smaller FW800 drive for scratch?

How big of a scratch drive do you need? How about an 64 gig SSD drive ($150-200 + case)? Might cost a few dollars more... but smokin fast...

 

[bumzo1]

well upgrading to 2tb is cheaper than buying 2 1tb drives and I just bought a new HD camcorder and in a little over a month I have eaten up 100gb.

 

[deep diver]

There are a lot of good drives from all of the major manufacturers in that price range. I just got 2 new 1Tb drives. I had been looking at the WD but then went with Seagate. All of the negative consumer reviews of WD complained of backup/utility software that is written into the hardware and insists on loading. If you mind such a thing, as some do, then you might want to reconsider the WD.

 

[spinnerlys]

There are a lot of good drives from all of the major manufacturers in that price range. I just got 2 new 1Tb drives. I had been looking at the WD but then went with Seagate. All of the negative consumer reviews of WD complained of backup/utility software that is written into the hardware and insists on loading. If you mind such a thing, as some do, then you might want to reconsider the WD.

Do you mean the software that came with the drive?

Once you put the WD through Disk Utility for a proper format session - needed Mac OS Extended instead of Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - the software was gone and never bothered us again.

 

[macjunk(ie)]

I am using WD Passport Studio and I have to say that the firewire controller on it sux big time....it is just not reliable enough. I am not too sure what the case is with the 'My Book' editions though...

 

[deep diver]

Do you mean the software that came with the drive?

Once you put the WD through Disk Utility for a proper format session - needed Mac OS Extended instead of Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - the software was gone and never bothered us again.

I was looking at the My Book line. What I read was that the software is written into the processing unit and cannot be erased. A couple of people said they reformatted and the software still tried to load. These folks said they never loaded anything from a disk. That is all I know since I never tried it myself.

 

[Badger^2]

I am using WD Passport Studio and I have to say that the firewire controller on it sux big time....it is just not reliable enough. I am not too sure what the case is with the 'My Book' editions though...

Can you define "not reliable enough"? What exactly does that mean?

I have a WD Passport 2.5" 400 gig FW800 drive that has been in constant use for over a year now. perfect in every way...

Reformatted wehn I got it and no software ever came "back from the dead". My brother has bought a couple of the USB 2 versions, same thing. Re-format, software gone.

FWIW -- 100 GB a month = 10 months to fill a 1TB drive -- IF you were to keep filling it at that rate... which Im guessing you wont.

the WD you linked to is still a good deal.

heres a 1TB FW800 drive for $99 AR -- but its a "green drive" which probably means a WD green drive inside? Its slower than the WD Black drives, but about the same as the WB BLue drives. Im betting that the 2TB drive you linked to originally is a blue drive.

http://www.macmall.com/p/Fantom-Drives-External-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~7816075~pdp.fejdjga

they also have a 2TB version for $190 AR: http://www.macmall.com/p/Fantom-Drives-External-Hard-Drives/product~dpno~7819677~pdp.ffadahe