External Storage

D10S

D10S

Well-known member
What is everyone using and recommend for external HD storage? G-Tech Raid? Which one? How does the Data Robotics Drobo S compare? I have a G-Tech 3TB raid, and it works great. Now I need more storage and I'd rather not keep buying the smaller drives. I also like having eSata connect.

Any suggestions on what has worked best for you?
 
CalDigit
iStoragePro
and
OWC all sell good enclosures.

Unfortunately, the first two don't sell unpopulated enclosures.

Also try Stardom.

I just learned that G-Tech is using enterprise class Hitachi drives in some of its enclosures. Anything less for Hitachi I wouldn't be enthusiastic about.

Drobo is a consumer solution, at least to me.
 
Agreed with David S.

Drobo is a non-starter. Looks good on paper, but it just doesn't have the speed to work with FCP.

CalDigit is top of my list. I've got their 8TB HDPro RAID setup for my primary editing. Works like a dream. I wouldn't have any issue recommending any of their products.

G-Tech has been very good to me. Right now I'm using their G-Safe setup for archiving, and I've found it acceptably fast to edit from if needed.
 
Drobo is good for just backups, and if you really don't know how to set up and maintain a RAID. are you looking for backups or a work drive? Off the shelf pre raided drives, G Tech, is really good, I've used several OWC drives as well, and they work great. I even have their raid enclosure qx2, and threw in my own internal drives. for the dollar is really good.

Agreeing with Stephen, Caldigit is amazing. very expensive compared to your other solutions, but they offer some of the top quality products. Also look into firmtek, and sonnet.

Stephen i'm actually very jealous of your hdpro :)
off topic question, will their large scale raids work with other market raid cards like a atto680?
 
xmephestox said:
Stephen i'm actually very jealous of your hdpro :)
off topic question, will their large scale raids work with other market raid cards like a atto680?
Click to expand...

Honestly, I have no idea. I've only ever used the CalDigit RAID Card that came with the unit.


Sorry to make you jealous. :D
 
i'll find out one day! it's ok, I have to move into a new place before i get one, working out of the bedroom right now, I will get slain by my girl if I get another raid, we don't need to turn on the heat in the winter anymore ^__^
 
Stephen Mick said:
CalDigit is top of my list. I've got their 8TB HDPro RAID setup for my primary editing. Works like a dream. I wouldn't have any issue recommending any of their products.
Click to expand...

+1 Im using the Caldigit HDElement. Never falters, solid speeds and raid 5.
 
has anybody actually used the istoragepro's? It's tempting to get them for the low cost for on set raid for media offloads, 2.5 inch disks are a lot cheaper, and the option later on when ssds go down in price is tempting too... only reviews i see are for their basic drive setups, their bigger setups are another question.
 
I've seen reports of a number of Hitachi drive failures from some sources. It's purely anecdotal, but that concerns me.

Then Hitachi announced that they are putting in Hitachi Enterprise class drives in their high end RAID enclosures. Those cost quite a bit more than non enterprise drives.

Seems like there is a little smoke from a fire there.

But that's just what my view is.
 
It's funny, I think you could say the same thing with WD, Seagate, etc. I simply refuse to buy WD drives (except for the Raptor drives since no one else has such a drive), don't trust the regular WD drives though. Their MyBook series appeared to be "crap" with high failures either drive or bridge side but that put me off of that brand.

I have 6 Hitachi internal SATA drives that run great as they should, 1TB and 2TB versions. I have Seagates that are a mixed bag. Have had to get 2 replacements in the last year. I have 6 Seagate internal SATA drives from 750GB to 1.5TB.

Do drives fail, yes. Do certain brands fail more than others, truly no way of knowing. The failure rates are kept very tight and for good reason. The only place worth looking for statistical failure rates is from Google's own drive farms.

I just bought 3 more Seagate 2TB internal drives even though my Seagate drives have had the highest failure rate of what I use. But I keep triplicate of all data.

And all this is mostly outside what my OS drives are.

In all honesty, how safely drives are shipped can have a huge effect on drive reliability. Tiger Direct used to ship drives in the single clear plastic cover in a box with no stuffing of any kind. OWC on the other hand ships drives to the exact shipping specs Seagate demands when returning anything to replace under warranty or they simply won't even accept it.

Heat is the other major cause of failure. Plenty of devices out there with no fans cooling the drives.

My suggestion is purchase from a reputable retailer who ships drives in the most protective manner. That's the best start for a drive's life.
 
Just passing through, but for what its worth: I have been using a HighPoint 2314 Rocket Raid card and WD 1.5TB (black) drives in groups of 4 in 2 Probox enclosures. Not hot swappable but very very fst and reliable. I am NOT however an expert. But once I got things organized and setup properly the system worked like fire. I also have a CalDigit board in my other edit suite and it is simple and rock solid and still damn fast even in the old G5 dual.
 
everybody has different experiences with drives, my new favorites are the samsung spinpoint f3's. lightning fast, very stable, have 14 of these drives, they all work flawlessly, all in various raid configurations. dirt cheap too, you can pick them up for 64 dollars a pop! There is no drive that won't fail on you though, there are so many getting pushed out there, if you compare how many seagate drives are out there, and how many fail, the difference makes you think, oh that's not so bad. But a bad batch can really give a company a bad name.

WD is great for their green drives if you just need capacity, cheap, low voltage, quiet, and low heat.

performance wise, hitachi, seagate, samsung have taken the front lines, haven't seen much on the WD blacks though.

Hopefully in a few years time, SSD will be the dominant force, if prices drop enough, and capacities increase.
 
Zephyrnoid said:
Noel
Have I asked you to tell your complete NLE set up? I'd be interested. Thanks:2vrolijk_08:
Click to expand...

You havent.

Systems
Mac Pro 8 core 4,1 (OS drive and 3 x tb HDD @ software raid 0 and - 16gb ram)
Mac Pro Quad core 2,1 (OS drive and 3 x 750GB HDD @ software raid 0 - 8 gb ram)

Blackmagic Decklink HD Extreme 3

Displays for 8 core
30" Cinema Display
58" Panasonic Pro plasma with HD-SDI TH-58PF12W
JVC DT-V1710-GC with HD-SDI

Display for quad
23" Cinema Display x 2

Currently using Behringer audio monitors but theyve had a rough time and will be replaced.

EXTERNAL HDD's
Caldigit HDElement 6TB (beauty is I can add 2 more of these units as I need them and they go into the single raid card)
External FW 800 Backup drives (cant use esata or raid cards - all slots full)

INTERFACE
Euphonix MC color
Euphonux MC Transport
Intuos4

FCS
CS5

EDIT: I also use a tc electronic level pilot.
 
Well Noel, my hat is off to you mate. After diligently copying and pasting everything on your list into BH....I stand tall with a fine pint of St. Ambroise Stout and salute you on your excellent taste and selection of gear and your success in business. Nice stuff!!!!!

Brian
 
David Its the radeon 4870 - bought it just before the most recent mac update. I have considered changing it, and probably should as some people want to use premiere CS5 on it and its not mercury compatible. I am really trying to hold that one out however until we see the new FCS and what implications it may have. You would think thats not too far away now??
 
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