External hard drives, which ones to buy?

Okay - so what is a trustable, small, lightweight and phantom powered HDD that I can take on the road with me when filming?

I was planning on taking two LaCie 160GB Rugged hard drives, but it seems that might not be a great way forward (despite my personal experience w/Lacie, which is so far very good). It'll just be for storing data, no editing or anything.

So - anyone got some suggestions? Budget is $600AU ($550 US-ish)

Cheers
 
I'm using the OWC on the go 160G FW800/400's. I like them so far, but no long term use. Its 5400 RPM which uses less bus power than a 7200 but isn't good for editing. Very fast downloads though for P2. Nice little unit. About $170
 
After a bunch of research the two names that kept coming up were Glyph and Wiebetech - I decided to go with Wiebetech.

Wanted to make sure I had a 200g 7200rpm drive so I purchased the enclosure empty. Took about two minutes - five screws - to put them together.

Purchased two each off:

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/toughtech_mini.php

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822145160

On my first test I daisy chained the two together with FW800 and transfered and 8 gig card and then backed it up to the second drive - works great .

A little over $300 each.

I now work with two external 500g and the two new 200g laptop drives. Since most of my shooting has been native the laptop drives are more than enough to get through a day - and then back up to the 500g at lunch or end of day.

Very happy with this solution

good luck
 
martin aziz said:
I agree
Click to expand...

Well, I just ordered a G-tech 320 mini RAID. This is the first time I've changed my purchase decision directly due to the advice of complete strangers on the net. :tongue:

Looked the goods in the research I did though, too.

Should have it in a week or two.
 
GOOD CHOICE. I purchased the "rugged" drive in late 2006 for a trip to Kenya for use with Pro Tools at a ranch with limited (and fluctuating) power. Worked with a seasoned photographer and she complained that the same drive did her in twice. She learned the weakness is in the bridge(?) between the input and the drive, that is susceptible to the security xrays, which apparently are much more potent in 3rd world countries she frequents.
Sure enough upon my return I was only able to use the firewire connection as the USB2 will not fire up. Besides phantom power, I bought it to capture SD in the field with only 1 firewire port on this MacBookPro (Mac ditched the 800 connection for my 'consumer' model).
I have since bought the G, and love every aspect of it and will continue to ONLY buy forum recommended drives. Stick to the research here, it has been invaluable to me in every aspect since I purchased the HVX just a couple months ago.
 
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