Jcpalmacarrillo
New member
Hey, I have a question
What's the function of an external hard drive on the studio?
What's the function of an external hard drive on the studio?
External Hard Drive
- Thread starter Jcpalmacarrillo
- Start date
And if you are going to have an external drive as a backup (rather than a fast FW or usb 3.0 read/write drive) DO get a NAS drive and put it somewhere safe.
I have had two bog s usb drives fail. One was definitely dropped but the other? We do not know. My 2TB NAS lives behind my chair in the living room.
Of course SSD's are pretty tough but also pretty expensive byte for byte.
Dave.
I have had two bog s usb drives fail. One was definitely dropped but the other? We do not know. My 2TB NAS lives behind my chair in the living room.
Of course SSD's are pretty tough but also pretty expensive byte for byte.
Dave.
PTravel
Senior Senior Member
I have two 3TB NAS devices on my LAN -- one automatically mirrors the other. I also have a 1 TB USB 3.0 portable drive that I use as an additional backup for my music (that I write, not that I listen to), and that I use for on-location recording. After a disastrous loss of data in the 80s, I don't take chances with my data anymore.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Plus, when on vacation, the external drives can go in a fire-proof safe.
I myself use two internal drives in RAID1 in case of failure, then two externals. One for audio files, the other to backup those audio files once a week.
Nothing worse than loosing treasure because of a failed drive. Well, maybe herpes.
I myself use two internal drives in RAID1 in case of failure, then two externals. One for audio files, the other to backup those audio files once a week.
Nothing worse than loosing treasure because of a failed drive. Well, maybe herpes.
witzendoz
Senior Member
My Studio is not at home, so all the work is backed up on an external drive that is taken away from the studio in case of theft, fire, earthquake etc.
Meanwhile at the studio, the computer has a software drive and a project drive (internal) there is also a NAS box connected to the network that everything is backed up on.
I also have a scsi multi track recorder, rack out drive for each project, and a common back up drive that again leaves the studio with me when I go home.
I also have a second software drive that is a clone of the main software drive in case of a software drive failure in the middle of a session, everything loaded and ready to go.
Drives are cheap, you can never have enough back ups.
Alan.
Meanwhile at the studio, the computer has a software drive and a project drive (internal) there is also a NAS box connected to the network that everything is backed up on.
I also have a scsi multi track recorder, rack out drive for each project, and a common back up drive that again leaves the studio with me when I go home.
I also have a second software drive that is a clone of the main software drive in case of a software drive failure in the middle of a session, everything loaded and ready to go.
Drives are cheap, you can never have enough back ups.
Alan.
Jcpalmacarrillo
New member
When I record, all the audio files goes to the external hard drive? my computer it's gonna be faster and more stable because it doesn't have a lot of audio files filling the memory? How do I save the audio files on the hard drive? Just saving the project on that hard drive? What kind of hard drive it's better for the job? (Characteristics: tb, rpm, FireWire or USB ) thank you for your answers 
Telegram Sam
New member
I back up all of my files at carbonite.com; too much to lose...
An external HD in a recording scenario adds the benefit of a second mechanical read/write head, so your computer can effectively be doing two things at once (such as loading software into memory via your C: drive while simultaneously recording musical data real time on your external drive). This makes everything run more smoothly.
Some people ask about partioning a drive to get the same performance.
This is not recommended because the mechanical resources of the one drive are then divided between tasks.
An external HD in a recording scenario adds the benefit of a second mechanical read/write head, so your computer can effectively be doing two things at once (such as loading software into memory via your C: drive while simultaneously recording musical data real time on your external drive). This makes everything run more smoothly.
Some people ask about partioning a drive to get the same performance.
This is not recommended because the mechanical resources of the one drive are then divided between tasks.
jimmys69
MOODerator
When I record, all the audio files goes to the external hard drive? my computer it's gonna be faster and more stable because it doesn't have a lot of audio files filling the memory? How do I save the audio files on the hard drive? Just saving the project on that hard drive? What kind of hard drive it's better for the job? (Characteristics: tb, rpm, FireWire or USB ) thank you for your answers
Yep, you just start/save your projects to the external drive. Well, maybe, at least there will not be a bottleneck caused by your OS and plugins taking the use of a single drive. You don't want a HD try to take care of multiple tasks at once. Separating them is what works best. As far as I know, audio files do not load into RAM. I thought they stream from the drive. I could be wrong here but no matter, your streaming your audio files from a separate drive is way more efficient.
Definitely a 7200 RPM drive. The are cheap. Firewire or USB don't make a difference.
Get a case that connects via USB or FW and get a HD to put in it. Beware of 'data' backup drives. They tend to be slower speed.
PTravel
Senior Senior Member
Not necessarily though, of course, you can. When I record, my audio files go to an internal RAID5 drive in my computer because it's a lot faster loading projects that way. However, you should be backing up your data files regularly. I use software that monitors some of my drives and folders and automatically backs them up as soon as the files are changed.
No, it doesn't work that way. Data storage has nothing to do with memory. Computers save recordings as data files, which reside on the hard drives. This has nothing to do with stability or speed, but with security. Back in the 80s, when I had my data disaster, I lost a show (I write musical theater) when the hard drive on my computer crashed, and I had no backup copy of the data. Fortunately, I had the audio on multi-track tape, but it's not the same as having the original, unmixed, unbounced, audio.
Your DAW's preferences allow you to specify where to save the audio files. However, that isn't what it means to back up your data. You need to either manually copy the files to another drive, or use software that will do it for you.
Project data is not the same as the audio files. Project data files should also be backed up -- they're what contain all the information on mixing, effects, bus assignment, etc.
Better for what? Backup? A RAID5 NAS on your network is the best local solution. Off-site backup safeguards your data in case something bad happens in your studio. I use two RAID5 NAS devices on my LAN, with one the mirror of the other so that I have two highly-reliable and independent repositories for my data, in addition to the RAID5 internal drive in my computer. On top of that, I backup to a portable USB 3.0 drive. I use USB 3.0 because it's fast and the backups take little time to create. In addition to all that, I have at my office a dedicated computer with a 3 TB USB 3.0 drive for off-site backups. I have a dedicated computer on my LAN that does nightly backups to the office computer via VPN. There are other approaches to backup as well, e.g. Carbonite, as someone else mentioned. Carbonite is a commercial off-site backup service -- you pay a monthly fee and get a program that runs on your computer and automatically backs up your data to the Carbonite servers.What kind of hard drive it's better for the job? (Characteristics: tb, rpm, FireWire or USB ) thank you for your answers
It's not a question of "which hard drive?" but, "which system and protocol?" that will afford maximum protection within your budget.
And finally, no offense, but from your questions, it sounds like you don't really understand how personal computers work. Get yourself one of those "Computers for Dummies" books, and learn the difference between RAM (computer memory) and hard drives (physical data storage) and how the computer works with the two.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Whoa!! A bunch of that flew right over my head, and I thought I had a grip....LOL!
Easy answer, save/stream audio and project folders to a separate or external drive. This keeps your computers drive free to do what it needs to do. Backup files to another drive to avoid losing data from the inevitable/eventual failure of any hard drive. If you can, backup your OS drive so that you can start from where you left off, and not have to reinstall/register all of your software.
Really simple and not that expensive.
PTravel
Senior Senior Member
Sometimes I get carried away.
You're correct, of course. I think, though, that the poster wasn't clear on the reason why we keep data on one drive and programs and the computer OS on another, versus backups. Using separate drives for data and programs does help the computer run more efficiently and faster. It's not related to backups, though. A backup strategy is solely for safety. That means two drives in the computer, one for programs/OS and one for data, plus some out-of-computer backup system. That can be a single, external USB or something more elaborate.
When it comes to computers, I sometimes think nothing is simple -- I had a nasty and inexplicable crash of Audition the other night and had a project file totally corrupted. I lost a whole evening's work (the auto-save files were corrupted, too -- thanks Adobe!). Expense is also relative. I've been working on my current project for the last 3 years or so. It occupies just under a terabyte of data right now. Losing that would be like losing an arm, so I'm paranoid -- I'd rather have too many backups than only one that failed, so I've got the mirrored NASes (one NAS is a copy of the other), the off-site backup, the portable USB drive, and a RAID5 array for data inside my music computer.
For what it's worth, and for anyone reading this who isn't a computer nerd, a NAS is "Network attached storage." Basically, it's just a bunch of drives that sit on the network, just like a file server. RAID is a system for using multiple disks -- the data gets spread across the disks and, if one drive in the RAID array fails, it can be replaced and the RAID system can reconstruct the data, no data gets lost even a drive dies. There are different levels of RAID depending on how many drives in the array and how the data is spread among them. RAID5 uses a minimum of 3 drives (my NAS devices use 4 each). NASes aren't too expensive -- the box that houses the drive runs from $150 to $400. The drives themselves are just regular SATA drives (like are used in computers). Four 1 TB drives can be had for as little as $160.
I use two programs, GoodSync and BeyondSync, for backups. They're cheap (under $50), very easy to use, and handle backup chores automatically. Both can monitor one or more folder (or an entire drive) in real time and, every time a file gets saved or changed, copy the file to the backup drive. They can also run scheduled backups -- every hour, every night, once a week, whatever you want.
Because these programs run in the background, I prefer that they not run on music computer where they would eat up CPU cycles and slow things down. I prefer that they run on a separate computer on the LAN, monitoring the folders on my music computer and backing up to a NAS. Very little computing power is needed for this. You can use an old laptop, an obsolete desktop or, as I do, a thin client. Thin clients are very small, self-contained computers that can handle all sorts of not-particularly-exciting-but-otherwise-essential computing chores. They're pretty cheap and there are lots of them on eBay which is where I get mine (I have seven, believe it or not). At one point, I put up a website about them here: The Thin Client Forum. There's also an article there on how to make one into a file server that would work perfectly as a NAS -- use connect some external drives, get a copy of GoodSync or BeyondSync, and you're ready to go.
jimmys69
MOODerator
Just to keep it simple... WORD. 
Great information PT, but looking at the OP's other two posts, I am sure he was just looking for a basic idea of what an external drive was for.
I myself learned a bunch, and may look into more elaborate means of backup. I really hate losing stuff...
Great information PT, but looking at the OP's other two posts, I am sure he was just looking for a basic idea of what an external drive was for.
I myself learned a bunch, and may look into more elaborate means of backup. I really hate losing stuff...
DD83
New member
Saving all of your shit! Storing samples etc.. And yes HD's will fail. I am currently trying to figure out how to recover years of work from HD's failing on me. But I now have a Glyph HD so I'm not as concerned as I was. You're going to pay for a decent one though, such as a glyph drive but it's totally necessary and worth it...
PTravel
Senior Senior Member
Try placing the HDs in the freezer for a while. Once they're really cold, connect them back to the computer and immediately try to pull your data off. You may have to do this several times.
witzendoz
Senior Member
I have done this several times over the years and have recovered about 80% of my files. I actually have a drive doc that you slot the dive into so the computer can see whats on the drive without having to re-boot the computer each time.
Alan.
tailored suit
New member
You should never use your system drive to record audio, much less video. The system drive is constantly in use with background temp files being written and read and this may slow your audio performance, or actually cause corruptions in extreme scenarios.
Ideally fit a second eSATA 72rpm drive inside your computer for audio recording or buy an eSATA PICe card and use it to connect to an external eSATA 7200rpm drive which will give you great performance. Thunderbolt is good too but you should avoid Firewire and USB because their system drivers are not optimised for real-time recording.
Ideally fit a second eSATA 72rpm drive inside your computer for audio recording or buy an eSATA PICe card and use it to connect to an external eSATA 7200rpm drive which will give you great performance. Thunderbolt is good too but you should avoid Firewire and USB because their system drivers are not optimised for real-time recording.
PTravel
Senior Senior Member
Sorry but, though that was true at one time, it is certainly not true now. Yes, at some levels of complexity, a drive may choke, but for casual use it is not a problem and, in any event, wouldn't result in corruption. Bus speeds are so great now that most modern computers can handle a huge amount of data transfer to drives. Seek times have similarly improved and, with a large enough buffer in the drive, simply aren't an issue. And, of course, with SSDs, seek times aren't a factor at all. Nonetheless, it is still good practice to keep audio and video data on a separate drive.
Oy. First of all, eSATA means "external SATA." You meant just "SATA," which is the standard in current computers. You also meant 7200 rpm (as opposed to 5400 rpm). However, rotational speed doesn't give a true picture of how quickly a drive can read and write data. Other factors include bus speed (SATA can range from 1.5 to 6 gbps), seek time and buffer size.
It might, depending on the factors I mentioned about. There are some 7200 rpm SATA drives that perform poorly compared to some 5400 rpm SATA drives. "eSATA" refers to the type of port, not the drive. And, as I mentioned "external eSATA" is redundant.
Ah, a Mac user. That explains a lot.
That is utter nonsense. Firewire was a video standard for more than a decade, and has lost favor only because of the additional costs associated with the interface. USB 2.0 is perfectly adequate for many applications, and USB 3.0 is faster than 3 Gbps SATA and only slightly slower than 6 Gbps SATA. All these interfaces -- SATA, Firewire and USB -- are stable, reliable and will function perfectly well for real time recording.