External Drive help please

FlyFisher

FlyFisher

Member
I'm using FCP on a macbook pro and am looking for a suggestion on an external drive. What is the best drive at the best price? Thanks!
 
How much money do you have?

What type of video will you be editing?

How PERFECT (best) does it have to be? You care if you have a 20% chance of loosing everything or a 40% chance of loosing everything?

Open ended questions like this are impossible to answer... try helping us out a little.

CaptM
 
I'm pretty new to editing.

I'll be cutting HD shot from an hvx200. I certainly dont want a 40% chance of loosing everything. I have about $400 to spend on a drive.

Also, I'll be shooting to an fs-100. Do I need two external drives? One to archive the raw material and one for editing?

Thanks for the help.
 
Hi,

Don´t know about Caldigit hdds but I'm afraid you're a bit exaggerated with Lacie. Not even windows have a 35% of failing.

I worked with other models of lacie hhds and never had a problem. Maybe Caldigit ones ar better, at least they cost as if they were, twice more. I'll have a look at them.

Night
 
I have never had any big problems with lacie either, however, I do know many people who have. Every company I end up working for uses them so I end up using them because I have to. If I got to pick my own I would go with what Cap mentioned or I'd pick G Tech.
 
I have the CalDigit FirewireVR 1TB. You wont be disappointed.

I have a few lacie's but I certainly don't depend on them for important work.
 
Night said:
but I'm afraid you're a bit exaggerated with Lacie. Not even windows have a 35% of failing.
Click to expand...


Of course I am... but I do believe that they say they have a 10% failure rate and they crank out a LOT of drives. There must be a reason too why DRIVESAVERS offers a discount on LaCie drives when they repair them... and that I'm NOT exaggerating on.

CaptM
 
CaptainMench said:
There must be a reason too why DRIVESAVERS offers a discount on LaCie drives when they repair them... and that I'm NOT exaggerating on.

CaptM
Click to expand...
They're the ones that recovered my data from my LaCie drive. Of course, LaCie sent a replacement. As soon as I got it back from Drivesavers, I put it on something else. I won't go near a LaCie.
 
Thanks for the feedback. The FirewireVR 1TB is a bit more expensive than I was expecting to pay but I guess you either pay now or pay later.

When I'm shooting on the road and need to unload my fs-100 would this dive be ok to travel with?
 
Pay. More. Now.

Three simple words that will serve you well. The extra money is worth it if you don't ever have to hear that sickening sound of a LaCie (or any other brand) failing. I've got a Firmtek eSata two-drive enclosure that I set up in mirrored RAID configuration with 500 or 750GB drives, depending on the size of the job.

--Steve
 
eSata is a great way to go.

And to get back to point... if it's raided correctly a drive failure isn't an issue. I saw the CalDiget drives swapped mid edit without issue.

CaptM
 
What about seagate hard drives? I have had a few people say that they were great. Any thoughts? Thanks again for all the great info
 
To me buying a HD is like buying a car. You can mitigate some of the potential problems by buying a high end model. But all of them will die eventually. Some people like Fords, and some like Chevy's. That is based on their personal experience, and no amount of data will sway their opinion. LaCie screwed me with both their product and their service, so I won't buy their product. I know lots of guys who swear by them though. I also know guys that have bought no-name knock off HDs that have lasted for years with no problems.

I'd be more worried about connectivety than brand and go with a RAID, e-SATA or FW 800. I f you can't afford that, go with FW 400. I'd never buy a HD drive that was USB only, unless it was an absolute screaming deal and I was only using it to back up stuff; never to work from in real time.

But, that's just me.
 
Jim Brennan said:
I'd never buy a HD drive that was USB only, unless it was an absolute screaming deal and I was only using it to back up stuff; never to work from in real time.
Click to expand...
That's what I'm wondering about with Black Friday coming. I need a drive as backup only on Time Machine with Leopard. What do you think about USB for backup only? I've never used one. I've got 4, sometimes 5 FW drives (3 FW800 and 1 sometimes 2 FW400) hooked up. But I want to get something dedicated to Time Machine for backup only.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top