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External Hard drive advice?
Hi everyone. I’m a FCP/Motion graphics guy working on a iMac 3.06 (4 GB RAM). I’m looking to get another external hard drive, and I was wondering if you all had any suggestions/warnings etc.? I’ve been working with a 500 GB My Book Home that’s been treating me well, but I seem to find very mixed reviews. I was also considering upgrading to a 1 TB drive, but I’ve also heard that there can be speed problems. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
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9 Replies
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About the best you can hope for with that rig is any one of the FW 800 based RAIDS. G-Tech and LaCie make a bunch of these. I don’t think you can hook up a SATA array to that Mac. So it’s pretty limited to whatever the max throughput of your FW RAID is.
Have a wonderful day.
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I definitely recommend a Raid either of the brands Chris mentioned are good. I’ve personally had better luck with the G-Raids over the LaCie.
Steve Cohen
Senior Editor
O2 Media Inc. -
The only drive I have ever used is Lacie. Had a 250gb which is 5 years old (the one designed by porshe, yea made me laugh too) And now on a D2 1TB. Any time any one asks me for external drive advice, the answer is always Lacie, Lacie, Lacie.
One thing I would say though is avoid Western Digital like the plague.
Hope that helps.
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FYI I have around 8 Lacie units, including 2 Big Disk Extremes, but I have in the past lost 4 LaCie units including a BDE which fried one month after I bought it, so go figure…
Have a wonderful day.
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G-RAID 1TB firewire 800 raid 0 can now be had for cheap. eg:
https://www.videoguys.com/graid.html
I use these for DVCPROHD 720 and 1080. Last winter I paid exactly twice as much for the same drive.
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Hi there,
we used to use lacies, but the ones without the fans fried themselves, so we changed to Graid. Bix expensive though, so now I am using 6 iomega ultramax, 640gb & 1tb versions. They are Rock solid with constant use. i did die but Iomega offered an instant replacement, good customers service!best
nick -
Thanks for all the advice, you folks have been a huge help. I’m a little too tight to get the G brand drives, but I found:
LaCie 301199U Big Disk Extreme+ 1 TB Firewire800/Firewire400/USB 2.0 with RAID External Hard Drive
on amazon for $185. Do you think I should go for this. It seems to follow the basic idea of what you all are talking about.
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I wanted to toss the new CalDigit VR into the mix too. It has some advanced features that you can’t find in the other brands. It’s worth checking out.
https://www.caldigit.com/CalDigit_VR/
Jared Picune
Denver Final Cut Pro UG
Geeky Mac | FCP Tips & Tricks -
You will end up paying a little more for the G-Tech or CalDigit drives, but they are also designed to last longer. Beyond that the CalDigit VR has removable drives which allows you to upgrade, replace or archive drives. Remember you get what you pay for.
Jared Picune
Denver Final Cut Pro UG
Geeky Mac | FCP Tips & Tricks
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