external hard drive questions

  • Thread starter Thread starter tojo
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tojo

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Hi, I already searched the forums and I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for, so hopefully you guys don't mind helping me out. I was wondering what external hard drive to get for my mac... but I have some questions about external drives in general. here are some of them.
  • do i need a drive that's built specifically for audio like Glyph?
  • Is it a bad idea to use a hard drive that's bus powered when recording to it instead of having it powered by AC power?
  • does it really matter if I get a 2.5" or a 3.5" hard drive?
  • Does anybody have some suggestion or comments about which drive they use and why, which are not good etc?

my situations: I am recording from logic on my macbook... and I want to record to an external preferrably firewire because it seems much more reliable and faster... and I can daisy chain it to audio interfaces (I want to get a motu 8 pre or if not a firebox)... So does anybody have any suggestions? thanks a lot.
 
tojo said:
  • do i need a drive that's built specifically for audio like Glyph?
  • Is it a bad idea to use a hard drive that's bus powered when recording to it instead of having it powered by AC power?
  • does it really matter if I get a 2.5" or a 3.5" hard drive?
  • Does anybody have some suggestion or comments about which drive they use and why, which are not good etc?
.
Click to expand...

1. there's nothing special about the glyph drives... in fact they use seagate IIRC...

2. generaly it's better to use the ac... why put the extra strain on the laptop supply if ya dont have to...

3. get the 3.5... the 2.5 issue is only when mounting in the laptop...

4 i've got three seagates... 5yr warr is hard to beat... the drives for audio and sample library are both big onboard caches... 32meg... real low seek times.. these are sata's mounted in the rack case...
 
the 2.5 's were designed as a space saving thing for the internal drives for laptops...
 
I've used an external hard-dirve that I picked up off a buddy a while back but couldn't tell you the name or size of it, sorry. All I know is that it is 30gigs and it runs off firewire. At this point, the firewire is a must. I use a firepod (also firewire) into the imac, then to the external, then back to the imac and back to the firepod. This all makes for instentaneous playback so you hear what you're playing while you're playing it. So, firewire for sure. And, yes, do make sure it is AC powered, even if mobility is an issue, you will more than likely have an outlet somewhere. My set up is fairly similar to yours (even more similar with my new macbook) so this should work well for you. The only problem is, if there is a peak in the processor, like a glitch or something that seems small but eats up a lot of your processing power, it will throw whatever you are in the process of recording off. That is a long signal flow! It happens only very occasionally but is easily rectified.
 
tojo said:
i'm talking about external 2.5 " drives
Click to expand...

2.5" drives are slower and have lower capacity when compared with their 3.5" counterparts. If you need high portability, go with the 2.5", but otherwise you are probably better off with the 3.5".
 
Ok, but is there anything wrong with using a hard drive that's bus powered when recording to it?
 
tojo said:
Ok, but is there anything wrong with using a hard drive that's bus powered when recording to it?
Click to expand...

afik... only the added strain it puts on the supply...

i meant to say earlier that there's no reason for you to limityourself to the smaller form factor... to clarify...

and if it's a dual usb-fw so be it... but you'll want to use the fw for recording... usb just isn't designed for the constant strain we ask of them in terms of through-put...
 
I think i'll buy an OWC mercury et al pro or whatever it's called. They looks pretty reliable.
 
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