Would like to add external SSD drive

spantini

COO of me, inc.
My PC : Windows 10 Home

Dell Inspiron 3847, 64-bit, i3-4130, 3.40GHz, 2 Cores, 8GB Ram, 1T Internal HDD (850GB free), 6 x 2.0 USB and 2 x 3.0 USB ports


I'm planning on buying Superior Drummer 3 later this year. I see that many of you here are using external SSDs for your music projects. I've got plenty of unused space on my HDD but thought of getting an external SSD 3.0 USB just for SD3. I don't know enough about this stuff to know what I may be getting into here.

I believe there's no problem with data transfer speeds. Are there any problems with drive reliability/durability? Is the SSD going to just stop working in 2-3 years and all my music, along with SD3, is lost?
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As 99% of product reviews usually relate to several days or weeks of usage, it's difficult to find long term testing and reliability reports on specific brands and models.


Further research turned up this: Are Solid State Drives / SSDs More Reliable Than HDDs?

Covers quite a bit, and leaves me a bit more trustful of SSDs - assuming I get a good product out of the box.

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More: This is basically the same stuff as the previous link but offers a bit more in-depth info and a few tools.

SSD Reliability: Can You Really Rely on Your SSD?

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Lots of SSD talk in here : Windows 10 "myths"
 
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Rule #1: everything fails. Sooner or later, everything fails. So the question is not if it fails, the questions is if you've established and sustained a proper backup regimen for when it inevitably does fail.

Rule #2: Well, there's really not much left. An external SSD has very little functional difference from a thumb drive or any other external drive. Plug and play.

Now, you CAN use an External as your Primary drive. I would not, but you can. I don't wanna worry about if it will mount, read, write, etc. Which is never a worry... until it is. Then you're suddenly worried about your USB driver and connector and everything else.

I'd stick to the tried and true, well proven, popular idea of using your plenty capacious Internal for all your work and an External for copies and backup.

Remember Rule #1 and you'll be fine.

L.
 
I have had a 240G SSD in a W7 desktop in my living room for over 4 years and that PC is on at 6/7 am EVERY day because I use it a a radio through a hi fi system to listen to BBC R3. Always boots promptly and has never a moments trouble that could be assigned to the system SSD.

Get an external SSD but, because they are now SO frigging cheap, buy a 2-4Gb USB 3.0 spinner. Thus you can load all your samples to the USB SSD, it will almost certainly be fast enough to run from that (but stuff is buffered through ram anyway)

The mechanical drive? Make a backup of everything AND make an image of your system drive. Then put the spinner away somewhere safe or keep it close and connected IF you can protect it, they do NOT like being dropped! (I have one effectively on the floor under a 6 core 3G AMD in the "stoodio")

N.B. When (not if!) you get a new Win 10 PC you really have to use an SSD because of the way W10 uses them. There must be millions in use by now...World has not fallen apart?

Dave.
 
I've just made the move to a Synology NAS drive with a couple of big Raid 1 drives and am starting to move my audio projects to it. I do keep backups of the projects - always have since Cubase SX, and I keep versions of my sampler packages up to the point when delivery on DVD stopped, and it went on-line delivery. I've never had a failure where I couldn't recover - but I have quite a few drives on shelves full of old stuff for and archive. I've had just two drive failure that were terminal - when they wouldn't spin up.The new NAS drive will centralise my storage. As for making it safer - I really don't know yet.
 
Thanks, guys. The external SSD option is looking good now. I would definitely not use it as my primary drive - just for copies and backup.
 
...

N.B. When (not if!) you get a new Win 10 PC you really have to use an SSD because of the way W10 uses them. There must be millions in use by now...World has not fallen apart?

Dave.

I was worried I'd have to get that new Win 10 PC this time around. I saw all the SSD descriptions of 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, etc. and figured I'd have to upgrade to connect. Then I pulled my tower out and discovered a couple of 3.0 ports.
 
I was worried I'd have to get that new Win 10 PC this time around. I saw all the SSD descriptions of 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, etc. and figured I'd have to upgrade to connect. Then I pulled my tower out and discovered a couple of 3.0 ports.
You're under no obligation to get W10.

Just like in the 90s, products are a bit deceptive in their labeling.
Back then, a hard drive would say "PC compatible" on it or "Mac Compatible". Of course, they were both, but they had to pay a small fee to use the trademarked label on their packaging. Some manufacturers didn't wanna spring for the Mac label, thinking the marketshare was too small to justify the fee. So a great many less-informed users bought more expensive units simply looking for the Mac label.
Right now "Windows 10" is a similar situation. They plaster that everywhere and it's essentially meaningless except to the least-informed: those who pay the most and get the least.
W7 works fine. I have 8 active computers in my business and studio. 2 Linux; 1 Mac; and 5 W7. I have no intention of going W10 and probably never will.
Don't think for a moment you have to, either.
 
You're under no obligation to get W10.

Just like in the 90s, products are a bit deceptive in their labeling.
Back then, a hard drive would say "PC compatible" on it or "Mac Compatible". Of course, they were both, but they had to pay a small fee to use the trademarked label on their packaging. Some manufacturers didn't wanna spring for the Mac label, thinking the marketshare was too small to justify the fee. So a great many less-informed users bought more expensive units simply looking for the Mac label.
Right now "Windows 10" is a similar situation. They plaster that everywhere and it's essentially meaningless except to the least-informed: those who pay the most and get the least.
W7 works fine. I have 8 active computers in my business and studio. 2 Linux; 1 Mac; and 5 W7. I have no intention of going W10 and probably never will.
Don't think for a moment you have to, either.

No obligation of course, so long as the computer stays off the internet (*probably). But all the experts say ( Pete Kaine of Scan, various top techs at Sound on Sound) that W 10 is a better OS than 7 and especially for audio). There is also the same scenario working through that anyone who has been through 3.1/95/98/98 se XP and of course BLISTA! will know, the gradual erosion of usage of legacy hard and software.

Not a bother for many of us. I have this W10 laptop but also 3 other W7 machines that will never have their hard or software changed and so will work for me as a I fade into ga-gaism! (My printer scanner is the most likely thing to go T'sU but I reason that next one will be a network wi fi machine and so run straight out of W 10 lappy?)

*In fact those 3 W7 machines still go on the net all the time and I have had no dire consequences thus far. I even get updates for seven! Had one just 3 days ago.

Dave.
 
No obligation of course, so long as the computer stays off the internet (*probably).

That is a lie.
Whether you're spreading it or someone told you, I don't know, but it's a lie. W7 works just fine as does XP and many others.
So slinging that out there is gravely mistaken and misleading.
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt considering your comments below.

But all the experts say ( Pete Kaine of Scan, various top techs at Sound on Sound) that W 10 is a better OS than 7 and especially for audio).

Again, you are both mistaken and misled by what you read rather than what you do yourself.
"Better for audio" is an irresponsible claim made by hype merchants.
What does that even mean?
That Cubase will run better? No. That Pro Tools will treat you like a human? No. That USB will have a new and magical protocol? No.
I can get 192K resolution on an old MacG4 from the 90s. W10 brings nothing to the table except some people like it, which is just fine, they can. And they like some of the new titles upgraded to W10, which is also fine.

But to act or think like the final audio product is in any way affected by W10, or any other OS, is voodoo and superstition.


There is also the same scenario working through that anyone who has been through 3.1/95/98/98 se XP and of course BLISTA! will know, the gradual erosion of usage of legacy hard and software.

Gradual erosion comes from chasing, not from actually doing.
Been down at least as long a road as you. I'm very familiar with the difference between perceived and real erosion.


*In fact those 3 W7 machines still go on the net all the time and I have had no dire consequences thus far. I even get updates for seven! Had one just 3 days ago.

By your own admission.

Please do as you choose. I'm all for everyone using what makes their workflow best.
That is why I phrased it as "you have no obligation to get W10".
It wasn't a contest except to the insecure. I'm one of those folks that can live peaceably with the fact that people use something other than I.

But I'm not peaceable with incorrect or short-sighted assumptions.
 
"But I'm not peaceable with incorrect or short-sighted assumptions."

I think the shortcoming of my one fully operational mince is not relevant to the discussion? I did not make assumption. My statements are drawn from people whose words I trust. I am not a computer expert in any way at all and know very little about them. I have had problems over the years and sometimes solved them with the the help of just a few people.

I will 'joust' with anyone in MY field of analogue electronics but have to take the word of those I have come to trust over the years. You might be right friend Ponder but I know not of you nor you of me.

But yes. Peace indeed.

Dave.
 
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