My 7 cents: All drives fail. External drives fail more often, usually sooner, and often with little warning. They all suck. All of them.
I have used so many brands, from Lacie Quadras to DIY cases with off the shelf drives. I had a Lacie last 7 years. I've had them last 5 months. Every other brand has similar variability. Lacie's weak spot seems to be the power supply (a drive shutting off suddenly is not good for the drive, esp. in an external). Does that mean I won't get another Quadra? No. At this point it's a matter of speed and price. They all have weak points. Some drives seem to fail due to poor/loose fw connections. Overheating can be an issue, though some fanless enclosures do a good job at dissipating heat (others don't). And yes, sometimes its the drive itself. eSATA can be a good thing and much faster, but in my experience its less reliable than firewire (which is saying something) - this may have to do with the particular expresscard adapter I use though. The drives don't seem to be the issue. USB is no go for editing unless you have no choice, even 2.0. FW400 is fine for DV. Go FW 800 or eSATA for HDV, AVCHD, DVCProHD. Beyond that you're best off with a RAID 0 system. I no longer stress about brands for externals because I just accept that they all suck. I worry more about performance and keep a second set as a backup (which you need to do if you go tapeless anyway). The only company that gets regular raves for externals is G-Technology, but their drives are usually significantly more expensive. OWC has gotten good marks from fellow editors recently but I've been wary due to my first under-a-year failures many moons ago occurring with their drives. But I'll probably try them again. Backup backup backup, even your media drives. And follow good firewire and esata hygiene re power on/off mounting/unmounting etc. Brook On Mon, Apr 19, 2010 at 8:19 AM, Cris Thomas <thomas_c...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > Couple of comments... > > If you are going to do actual editing on an external drive you will > probably need to go with Firewire800 and or SATA. USB will unlikely be fast > enough. Also get a fast drive, 7200RPM or faster. > > Some people don't like Lacie or OWC or whoever, neither of whom actually > make hard drives. If you have a drive failure and it wasn't the power supply > or the controller then it wasn't Lacie's or OWC fault. I use dozens of Lacie > Quadra drives at my office, I use them exclusively and have not had one fail > in almost three years. Of course your mileage may vary. > > For editing on my MacBook Pro I use this > > > http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=10055890&cac=Result > > It is awesome, triple interface (USB FW400, FW800), 7200RPM, bus powered. > It is great because it is portable and fast. I don't need an extra power > supply when I am on the move. When I am home I can daisy chain a FW400 drive > off the back when needed. There are several different versions of this, just > make sure to find the 7200RPM one. > > - C. Thomas > > > -- _______________________________________________________ Brook Hinton film/video/audio art www.brookhinton.com studio vlog/blog: www.brookhinton.com/temporalab [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/videoblogging/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: videoblogging-dig...@yahoogroups.com videoblogging-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: videoblogging-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
