Hard drive suggestions?

J

jaycanode

Active member
I have the opportunity to DP on my first long form project with my HVX. Can anyone suggest a bomber portable hard drive for the field? I am interested in double redundancy (raid 0?) and LOTS of storage in small pkg.

I am looking closely at Gtech's Graid 2 1 TB drive. Anyone have experience with it? I want something that has built in backup and is portable.

Thanks!
 
Portable is relative. If you want to manage that much data, I suggest having a data tech on set (like a dedicated 2nd AC).

Any RAID 0*correction:RAID 1* config will protect you from most kinds of equipment failure. You will still want another backup kept far away from your other drive, in the event of theft or disaster.
 
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jaycanode,
I have a stack of those G-tech Graid2 1 TB drives in my office. I dedicate one to ever project I do. They are solid and reliable and would highly recommend them.
Jim
 
I second G-Tech. I refuse to buy another external hard drive other than a G-Tech drive now. Reliable and fast.

-Kegan
 
What's the advantage about G-Tech? Aren't they just use Western Digital/Seagate/Samsung/Maxtor drives wrapped in their own case?
 
I have found G-techs to be far superior than other drives I have used.

The G-tech's cooling is probably the best of any external drive in its class. Comes in FW400/800/USB2 or SATA. Never spins down while you are using it (SBBOD). I dropped one out of a truck onto asphalt (ouch!) and it still works normally, months later.

Good option.


J
 
Second the DIT, DAS, Data wrangler what ever you want to call them/us idea. Would definatly recomedn G-Tech first and Maxtor second. Both better than others, G-Tech more expensive though not sure what for but it is. Maybe it is the better cooling system beats me, either way they are both highly recommended.
 
Until I have the cash, I'll stick with this and some Maxtor or Western Digital hard drives. It allows me to easilly swap different drives that I have. It has eSATA port as well as USB and since the hard drive is expose to outside vs. encased, I can use any kind of coolling system I want e.g. old fashion fan. :grin:
 
correct me if i'm wrong, but doesn't Raid 0 only stripe the drives, and NOT mirror them? Thus Raid 0 wouldn't really protect you if one of the drives fails...
 
Check this out: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/545310-REG/Sonnet_FUS_F2_640M5_640GB_Fusion_F2_Portable.html

It's bus powered and can do RAID 0 or 1. E Sata xfer makes it fast. No AC power! Price is a bummer though. On set where I have reliable power (no surges etc) I use a firmtech 2SE with seagate 500 gig drives striped for RAID 1. It's Sata and you can swap out inexpensive SATA drives. For editing I use the same enclosure but use two drives striped at RAID 0. Need the speed. I have the media files backed on another SATA drive and have the project files on both my computers internal drive and the RAID 0.

Don't do RAID 0 on set unless you have two. Alway make sure you have some sort of redundant system (RAID 1).
Another drive I like and always buy two for each gig are Lacie's Quadra drives. They got firewire 400,800, usb and e sata. No troubles with those yet. And I believe you must get metal casing. I lost a Western Digital I book drive when a baggage handle crushed it's plastic case. Also, check out Glyph. Reliable but expensive metal encased drives. Stay away from Cool Drives. I find them cheap and CS horrible.

Some people rented my camera recently and lost everything a few days later when their drive accidently got erased. Also beware of voltage dips on location. Recently, when xferring from p2 store to drive, the drive missed over 20 percent of my clips. No notification. No anything. I traced it back to the power of the drive - intermittent dips in voltage caused it to miss clips. A surge protector will not protect you from this.
 
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Kegan Sant said:
I second G-Tech. I refuse to buy another external hard drive other than a G-Tech drive now. Reliable and fast.

-Kegan
Click to expand...

While the G-techs are great, they DO fail. ALL hard drives eventually fail. This is where G-tech support is good, but that doesn't mean your data lost from drive failure is comoing back.

AND they aren't raid 1, so you are getting ZERO data protection.
 
Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Another question concerning the G-Tech. The 1TB drive has 2- 500GB drives in raid 0 config. So can i use those individually? I.E can I load identical data onto both drives one at a time thus providing data backup? Or will my computer only see one 1TB drive?
 
Not sure if your getting what I'm saying. RAID 1 to capture on set. RAID 0 to edit.
G TECH and Firmtek make great two bay drives that can be striped for either. I like the firmtek for location because it's the most compact of the the two bay set ups. Get another external drive to offload RAID 1 set and then to upload to RAID 0 set. And then warehouse your RAID 1set and fly with your RAID 0.
 
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