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Slightly OT: Cheap External Drives
Hey gang…
I’m looking into doing some side work for someone and don’t wish to spend alot for an external drive firewire drive.
Can someone give me their suggestions for a good reliable edit drive?
I’m not doing anything using Uncompressed. As a matter of fact, it will be DV video so I know just about anything will work. But what are your experiences?
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Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
https://web.mac.com/schazamproductions
sc****************@*ac.com -
6 Replies
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How cheap do you need? In the very cheap category, the WD MyBook Studio Edition (with FW800) should fit the bill.
I mainly use them for backup, but I have edited with them in a pinch (including DVCPRO-HD and 8 bit Uncompressed) and have not had any problems. Should be fine for DV.
Apple Store has the 1TB model for $200. You can find them cheaper if you look around on the web.
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…and there are better deals than that.
You just have to look around on the web.good luck
David
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Cheap is not a viable solution so be sure you have a way to back up your media. The issue with cheap drives, as far as I can tell form a friend’s numerous failures, is the housings and power supplies are not designed for media production. They’re meant to be used intermittently for small files or backup operations, not for many hours of constant read-write without pause. He’s spent three times the money on cheap drives that he would have on a good set of robust media drives and he’s had to rebuild RAIDs several times so add that cost, too.
Just have a recovery strategy in place BEFORE you start work.bogiesan
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Personally I have a G-Raid 2 and an OWC Mercury Elite AL Pro and both have been great with DV, DVCPro HD & XDCam.
A friend has started a simple DV project using a NewerTech Voyager Quad Docking station. Its a little box that can sit just about anywhere with Quad interface and an internal drive inserted into it. I laugh every time I see him editing on it, but it works for him for about $100 and whatever size drive you want to use with it.https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/NewerTech/Voyager/Hard_Drive_Dock
Victor
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As David says, Backing up your stuff is a must when using inexpensive drives.
Victor
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I have had good success with the WD MyBook drives until recently. I took my HVX200a, my laptop and an external drive as my carry-on items for a recent shoot in Colorado. I shot for a day, and went to off-load my P2 cards to the WD drive. When I plugged in the drive, which contained lots of P2 backups, it kept wanting to format the drive. Since I needed the footage that it contained, I was in a bit of a pickle. Luckily, I had enough space on my laptop to dump off to. I went to the closest Wal-Mart and bought another drive. When I got back home, the drive seemed fine. About a month later it did the same thing. BEWARE!
JPD
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