Best 100G portable FW Drive?
- Thread starter Bono
- Start date
filmmaker1977
Carbonite Member
So circa 6 minutes to each 4G card -- isn't it?
Barry_Green
Moderator
Ah -- well, that's a whole different question! You can get 3.5" drives much cheaper than 2.5" notebook drives. Notebook drives cost more per gig and are more rugged, but if you're just putting them on a shelf then you don't need to pay the premium for that.Bono said:
You can get Maxtors (some people hate 'em) at under $100 for 100GB, and a Seagate 160gb costs $90 at Best Buy right now.
Barry,
Why do you think you are getting 10 minutes per 4g P2 card using the USB on the go setup when Kevinm is getting 6 minutes? Do you think yours could be defective? I ask because I bought 2 USB2 drives in the past and one was blazingly fast and the other seemed like a dog. Yet they were the same exact model and manufacturer. They both worked but had 50% difference in transfer speeds.
Kevinm, what drive do you have in your enclosure?
If these new numbers are correct I will pick up one of these enclosures for sure.
Why do you think you are getting 10 minutes per 4g P2 card using the USB on the go setup when Kevinm is getting 6 minutes? Do you think yours could be defective? I ask because I bought 2 USB2 drives in the past and one was blazingly fast and the other seemed like a dog. Yet they were the same exact model and manufacturer. They both worked but had 50% difference in transfer speeds.
Kevinm, what drive do you have in your enclosure?
If these new numbers are correct I will pick up one of these enclosures for sure.
filmmaker1977 said:
I posted the question when this thread had only about 3-4 replies. I came back 2 hours later and I had a message on my screen saying the server was too busy and try back later. I clicked on submit reply before I realized the thread had continued on! And by that time he had mentioned times......but as it turns out because I asked he went back and double-checked and got us some mopre accurate numbers. So it worked out int the end!
Green Hornet
Veteran
Barry_Green said:
I just bought 6 western digital internal hard drives 100 gig 7200rpm for $59 each at staples.
http://staples.shoplocal.com/staple...090&pagenumber=1&promotioncode=staples-060212
I plan to use them in my desktop system I am building, where they will be swappable as my 3rd drive for storage only.
First drive will be the system drive.
Second drive will be the working file drive.
The third drive will be one that can be removed to supply footage to the system. One of the 6 drives will be placed in here.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Man, I sure wish I knew.icicle22 said:
Kevin, you're using the MWave "Magic Box"? And you're getting six minute transfer times?
I got 9-10 minutes and I tried two drives; I tried a Hitachi 60gb 4200rpm and I tried a new Hitachi 7K100 TravelStar 7200rpm 80gb drive. Same transfer time for each.
Barry_Green
Moderator
The G-Raid isn't rugged at all; it's a desktop raid designed to not be moved, right? (not sure, mine shows up Wednesday so no firsthand experience with it yet).
But I wouldn't expect a RAID to be a rugged field drive.
I know Lacie makes something called the Rugged Disk (or something like that) and it looks like you could throw it down a steep hill and it'd survive.
But I wouldn't expect a RAID to be a rugged field drive.
I know Lacie makes something called the Rugged Disk (or something like that) and it looks like you could throw it down a steep hill and it'd survive.
Ever tested one of these super-rugged Olixir drives?
http://www.olixir.com/product_2lx.php
I am looking at the 400G FW version. It's more expensive than the G-Raid at $1.93/Gig versus $1/Gig, but looks much safer to carry on the road and on film sets.
And how rugged is that G-Raid? I have one -- it's surrounded by aluminum, but no shock-cushion. How else can you determine it's "rugged-ness"?
http://www.olixir.com/product_2lx.php
I am looking at the 400G FW version. It's more expensive than the G-Raid at $1.93/Gig versus $1/Gig, but looks much safer to carry on the road and on film sets.
And how rugged is that G-Raid? I have one -- it's surrounded by aluminum, but no shock-cushion. How else can you determine it's "rugged-ness"?
Bono said:
These do look nice! They allmost encourage you to throw them around...
I've always used Lacie without any problems. And off course you should be carefull with a spinning drive, cushionned or not. Just because of the way they are built. The Olixirs like shocks better when they don't run aswell.
Barry_Green said:
Barry,
Here is the description form the Mwave order page:
ANYWARE ME-600 USB 2.0 2.5" / 1.8" ON THE GO HDD EXTERNAL ENCLOSURE w/BUILT-IN RECHARGABLE LI-ION BATTERY
I also bought the 60G 5200 RPM drive to put in it.
The direct link to it is earlier in this thread.
In my timed test I copied two full 4G P2 cards in just over 12 minutes total.
The camera is in USB Device mode and the Copy button on the drive starts the copy process.
Is the drive you have FireWire? Perhaps the camera's Firewire Host mode is the difference. You got me, but I used a stopwatch.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Ah, but are you sure it copied both cards? I doubt it did automatically; I've always thought that you'd have to eject one of the cards in order to get it to see the one in the other slot.
Did you get a DSK0000 and a DSK0001 folder on the drive?
Try it with just one card in the camera and see what it delivers...
Did you get a DSK0000 and a DSK0001 folder on the drive?
Try it with just one card in the camera and see what it delivers...
It did copy both cards into two different folders labeled DSK0000 and DSK0001. The drive copies them both automatically.
I checked both folders and all of the data was there. One folder contained 3.32G of data and the other had 3.46G of data if I remember correctly. I am assuming that the card formatting takes up the rest of the space on the card.
I will try to copy only one card tonight and tell you what I get.
I checked both folders and all of the data was there. One folder contained 3.32G of data and the other had 3.46G of data if I remember correctly. I am assuming that the card formatting takes up the rest of the space on the card.
I will try to copy only one card tonight and tell you what I get.
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I did the test again with only one card and it took 6 min 45 sec.
Both cards completely full took 13 min 36 seconds.
A little longer this time, but not much. The only difference is that when I did the first test, the power adapter on the drive was plugged in and this time it was running off of the internal battery. It shouldn't make a difference, but these are the results.
It still seems much better that a FireWire drive with the camera in Host mode. Needless to say, for the money, I like this drive. Even if the case design looks cheezy.
Both cards completely full took 13 min 36 seconds.
A little longer this time, but not much. The only difference is that when I did the first test, the power adapter on the drive was plugged in and this time it was running off of the internal battery. It shouldn't make a difference, but these are the results.
It still seems much better that a FireWire drive with the camera in Host mode. Needless to say, for the money, I like this drive. Even if the case design looks cheezy.
Barry_Green
Moderator
Well, all I can say is your drive's performance is way higher than mine. That looks like the exact enclosure I've got, but mine takes a good 50% longer to copy a card.
Tried with two different drives.
I've got no explanation...
Tried with two different drives.
I've got no explanation...
Barry_Green said:
Barry,
I thought your drive was a FireWire drive. The one I have is a USB2.
This is the link.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/viewspec.hmx?scriteria=AA30310
USB2 is not that much faster than FireWire transfer rates. The major difference is the way the two drives interact with the camera.
One other thought is the quality of the cable. I also tried one if those retractable USB cables hoping that I could use it instead of a 3 Ft one and the camera wouldn't even recognize the drive.
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I am getting mine tomorrow and I will verify the speeds. If in fact I get good results also then it is possible that you have a defective unit Barry. As I stated in a previous post I had 2 identical external USB drives ordered via the web. One is blazingly fast. The other is dog slow. Not matter what I do....switch drives, switch cases, swap cables.....it always follows the circuit board.
Both drives work mind you. It is just that one performs slow. It reminds me of the old days of Windows 95 when your drive would get stuck running in "DOS compatibilty mode".....yikes.
Anyway if I get good results and you are still looking for a solution I'd think you should exchange the one you have or even buy another one to see if it works. You may have gotten a lemon.
THanks
Both drives work mind you. It is just that one performs slow. It reminds me of the old days of Windows 95 when your drive would get stuck running in "DOS compatibilty mode".....yikes.
Anyway if I get good results and you are still looking for a solution I'd think you should exchange the one you have or even buy another one to see if it works. You may have gotten a lemon.
THanks