Which external hard drive to buy??

[jimmy1]

I'm Looking for a external hard drive to store my footage to. I have heard that RAID +1 is a must and that G RAID is the way to go. My question is, are there alternatives to the G RAID that are as good?, lower priced?, better?, easier to use? I know about the p2 store and the firestore drives are those good for storage? I heard the firestore crashes? I was shopping them today and got a little mixed up...
Any imput?

[stephenmick]

Personally, I'd look at the CalDigit FirewireVR or something similar. G-RAIDs have performed okay for me, but the removable drives of the CalDigit are better (my opinion) for the work most of us do.

http://www.caldigit.com/FireWireVR.asp

[wgzn]

here is what i use, in order of frequency:

1. caldigit, any product
2. OWC, mercury elite (macsales.com)
3. iomega, ultramax quad interface - these are the ONLY drives that i trust that are available at stores like frys, office depot and best buy, etc...
4. glyph, any product
5. maxtor, BUT BE WARE - the newer generation seem better than the old stuff. but in 3 this year i have had one fail

[jimmy1]

Thanks keep the info coming...

[sheeep]

My WD drive just shat after about 2 years. Thankfully it was my backup drive.

Why are you guys opposed to G-Raids, they seem to have a good rep.

Check this thread out:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=80583

[JesterJJZ]

I'm Looking for a external hard drive to store my footage to. I have heard that RAID +1 is a must and that G RAID is the way to go. My question is, are there alternatives to the G RAID that are as good?, lower priced?, better?, easier to use? I know about the p2 store and the firestore drives are those good for storage? I heard the firestore crashes? I was shopping them today and got a little mixed up...
Any imput?

Do you want to EDIT off them or just STORE footage on them? I love my G-Raids for editing. I store my footage on bare sata drives when I'm done with a project. I keep 2 identical drives of everything just in case. I mean you can get a 1TB drive for $99 bucks these days. I include the cost into my project.

[Sneakle]

I've been using this:
Lacie, 1TB 2big Triple Interface 2-disk RAID.

It's 2 drives in one box so at Raid 1 it's 500g working to both.
It has a big blue on-light that will impress clients :)

[singleframe]

OWC Mercury Elite drives are rock solid. been using 'em forever!

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/1394/USB/EliteAL/

$229 for 1TB is great!

[slimchrisp]

i've been using western digital for years. you can pick up a 1TB fw800/fw400/usb drive for $200 on amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000J1HPJY

[jimmy1]

I'm mostly storing with the occasional self titled edit project. I'm mostly in the field so I need something bombproof. Thanks for the info. I think I'm going with the graid or the mercury driver.

[amsterdam]

I use the Lacie as well it´s a really good buy.

[stabsteer]

I've used probably 20 of every drive out there. ON a Mac I would definitely stay away from Lacie. They work great for 1 year until exactly after the warranty expires. This has happened to me 3 times. No more Lacie for me. I also can't stand Western Digital drives. They always seem to have some proprietary format issues, are slow, won't seem to show up, etc.

OWC is a good company. Their external drives are good and they have decent customer support. Seagates also have longer warranties than most of the others.

[sewolla]

I use 1TB Seagate "Free Agent" drives. They're great, as fast as my old Lacie, but not as rugged. I would not use one with a laptop that you will be transporting around because if you should "bump" it, that may be the end of it. That's what happened to me once. But it was replaced almost instantly by Frys, where I bought it.
On the flip side, if it's to back up a desktop, they are great, easy to find, easily set up, very reliable, very reasonably priced, and most importantly, have a 5 year warranty.

[David S.]

Anything you can buy at Staples, Office Depot and Costco I would stay away from for critical files, and that includes the Free Agent drives, Maxtors, WD drives, etc.

Not a fan of Lacies. I read too much at other discussions on failures.

I would suggest a solid Hitachi or 720.11 Seagate in a case from OWC or Granitedigital.

Takes about three minutes to install the drive with four screws and you have something far more reliable.

[dantewaters]

I recommend this case from a company called Weibetech... Just leave yourself a few days for them to build you one (unfortunately you wont get it the very next day if you need it).

https://www.wiebetech.com/products/toughtech.php

Also the Hitachi and Seagate's are great as David S said
if you need more storage you should consider this external casing from firmtek (houses 5 drives)

http://firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-5pm/

[Jordell Jarnell]

@StabSteer. Second BOTH of those observations. Also, Lacie is very computer agnostic: fails equally well on a PC. Seagate drives have treated me far better than either of those two brands.

[FRENCH22]

I've

[FRENCH22]

I've had two Western Digital drives crash on me.... stay away from them!