External Hard Drive for Sample Libraries

[egiordano]

I compose with sample libraries like East/West, Symphobia, Outer Limits...

I use Kontakt 3 for pretty much everything.

I want to put all my sample libraries on one external hard drive. What are the minimum and ideal requirements I should be looking for. Firewire over USB? What should the drive RPM be? Transfer speed? Help please! Thanks

 

[TimOBrien]

Any drive you get for anything should be 7200rpm. No reason to get anything slower.

USB vs Firewire depends.
Are you using any other external drives?
Do you have any other devices on those chains?

Personally, I'm recording to a Glyph firewire drive daisy-chained to my Motu828mkII... but my sample libraries are on a Seagate USB2 drive (ZERO problems).

But a lot depends on how well your system manages its USB and firewire busses.

BEST ADVICE: Get a drive with MULTIPLE interfaces. Glyph and other manufacturers make drives with combo eSata, USB and Firewire ports. That way you can move it around to whatever works best for YOU and your system (and you're not restricted in the future if you want to move things around...)