External Hard Drive

[Brandon Donnelly]

I would say Lacie is the absolute best hard drive i’ve used. I have gone through well over 20 tera byte Lacie drives and never had an issue

[Alex Elkins]

Conversely I’ve heard stories of people saying the opposite about LaCie drives. I’ve always been warned to steer clear but if it works for you then it works.

[Taylor Hungerford] “The WD seemed like a pretty safe bet, but there have been complaints that it spins down too soon. A similar thing happens with the Seagate, where it actually dismounts when one quits final cut.”

Try downloading ‘Disksomnia’ – it’s an application that stops your drives from going to sleep when they’re not in use.

I’d suggest looking into getting an e-SATA PCI card (or Express 34 adapter if you use a laptop). It’s a much faster connection than Firewire800 and off the top of my head I think the two drives you mentioned come with that connection in addition to the FW ports. The cards are incredibly good value if all you need is the basic socket (i.e. no RAID controller built in) – I’m using one that cost me £10 and it’s performed perfectly.

All the best,
Alex Elkins

[Walter Biscardi]

I would avoid anything to do with MyBook for video editing.

G-Tech makes good smaller drives and RAIDs.

We have multiple LaCie units that have been rock solid.

We also run a nice 2 bay Maxx Digital eSATA box that can be set up as a RAID if we wanted to. I have two 1TB drives in there right now. They sell all manner of manufacturers there and that’s where I’ve been getting my products for a few years now. https://www.maxxdigital.com

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

Read my Blog!

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!

[Steve Cohen]

I agree with Walter. I would not use a My Book to edit with, you’re not going to have the read/write speed that is needed.

Definitely go with a Raid, I personally have had really bad experiences with Lacie, but these were older 500GB units, maybe the newer ones are better.

Really never had any issues with G-Raids.

Steve Cohen
Senior Editor
O2 Media Inc.

[Michael Orlansky]

We’ve had trouble with G-Tech drives. I’ve found that Glyph makes the best external hard drives.

Thanks,
Mike

[Nick Price]

I have a Gtech GRaid that has been working happily for 5 years now. But i also use 10 iomega 1tb drives, are excellent , and their customer support is amazing. One drive died and they replaced it after warranty free of charge. cant say better than that. (When i say the drive died, the actual drive was fine, i took it out and saved all the media, it was just the casing that died.)
Cheers
nick

[Nick Price]

I have a Gtech GRaid that has been working happily for 5 years now. But i also use 10 iomega 1tb drives, are excellent , and their customer support is amazing. One drive died and they replaced it after warranty free of charge. cant say better than that. (When i say the drive died, the actual drive was fine, i took it out and saved all the media, it was just the casing that died.)
Cheers
nick

[Taylor Hungerford]

Thank you very much for all your help! The most recent post seems to be the most convincing. I’m now looking at the Iomega Ultramax HD. It seems to be the best choice out of the lot. IT has a lower customer rating than the Seagate and Mybook Studio, but it had the most ports, and also supports Esata and comes with a cable to match. Also, it has an 8 MB cache, which the others don’t. However, one thing that is concerning me is that many people on the apple site have said that, like LaCie, it is having longevity issues. Also, people are saying that the fan is too loud, which may be a bad thing for sound editing. Anyway, I’ll wait for a couple more posts and see what’s up. Thanks everyone for all your help!

[Ron Lindeboom]

[Taylor Hungerford] “I’m now looking at the Iomega Ultramax HD. It seems to be the best choice out of the lot. It has a lower customer rating…”

I can’t say that I personally know one person in this site that has gone this way in this arena. (And as the guy that helped build this place, believe me, I know many of the people here.)

Personally, as someone who has been around for years and remembers Iomega’s track record over the last 10 to 15 years, I sure wouldn’t do it.

It’s your call but there is a GOOD reason that Iomega warrants the kinds of low customer ratings that they do.

Dear ole Dad always said: Don’t be penny wise, and pound foolish.

Ron Lindeboom
creativecow.net

[Nick Price]

I have had my first of my 10 Iomegas for 3 years, and it seems fine. The fan doesn make a noise, but i have it either under a table or behind me so the noise isnt a problem. I do prefer drives with fans in, they need to be kept cool or else they fry!

nick