20 gig left on Internal Hard drive..

R

Robstene

Active member
Hello...

I need to edit a short film for a drama group that was shot on the DVX100b. The footage only takes up 1 tape...but I only have 20 gig left on the imac, and so I quickly went out and bought a WD 1tb external harddrive - but with USB 2.0 ONLY

Should I just return this ext HD un-opened and edit with the remaining 20 gig on my Mac...or will I need to risk buying a more expensive Firewire ext HD off the net and hope it comes in time for me to start the project..?

Many thanks in advance if anyone can offer any advise.
 
I have to say you are whistling by the graveyard to use anything slower than firewire to edit.

20 GBs of free space on an iMac isn't a good idea as a scratch disc.

Get the FW drive. Literally, you can buy a 500 GB FW drive for less than $75.00 if you shop
 
If you're editing SD footage, I don't think Firewire is that necessary IMHO.

I edit DVC Pro HD with USB, and it works fine.
 
I don't know about Macs but my PC edits FULL HD straight off cheapo external USB drives without a hitch.

I have a raid drive on my PC and always thought I would have to load the footage on to that to edit - but I tried it straight of the USB drive and I can't see a difference.
 
USB is fine for SD, especially DV, on any PC or Mac that was made in the last 6 years. If it has USB 2.0 that is. I have done 4 tracks of Multiclip in FCP off of USB drives. That being said since I got my Mac Pro I don't even use Firewire 800 anymore all internal for me please.
 
USB will be fine for DV.

However, it's not advisable to have your boot drive so full - it can will slow things down quite a bit. If I was you I'd do some thorough space-clearing. Render files from old projects can be a space hog so at least get rid of them, even if you want to keep the project. If you have all the original tapes and have done your log/capturing properly you can delete all your old source footage too and still be able to easily reconnect the tapes later on.

If you really cannot delet anything, then try to offload as much of it as possible to external drives. I think of my hard drives as being like a house. I'd rather a big hard drive/house so I'll have plenty of open space to move around quickly and comfortably - not so I can put twice as much furniture in it.
 
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