Question about external hard drives

iMarco

iMarco

Member
I've been editing off a single hard dive on my Mac Book Pro. I'd like to get an external hard dive and use it as the scratch drive.

This is the one I want to get: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=698

It's what I can afford for now, is it any good?

By the way, I edit videos shot with Canon 7D and HVX200 camera's

Thanks all.

Edit: I'm also looking at this one: http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicati...ffiliateID=2URpmDXhqIw-SHoqEDSMQAWUNnbcZTnA0g

Both of them are USB 2.0, would that be a problem?
 
1) My experience that there isn't a significant difference between external drive boxes (etc.)
I'm now using raw (SATA) drives, and a plug-in "dock". No need to pay for boxes, power supplies, etc. for drives stored on the shelf.

2) I successfully edit both SD video and multi-track audio using external USB 2 drives.

3) Drive boxes that are powered from USB (vs. their own separate power supply) are quite possibly too slow for active editing. The would be OK for "archiving" or offline storage.

Note that no hard drive is a real "archival" media. The issue with hard drives isn't whether they will crash, the question is only WHEN will they crash.
 
Yeah USB drives are quite slow on Macs compared to FW400/800. And splurge a tiny bit for something a cut above the mostly junky brands they carry at Best Buy and Office Depot. That's your stuff on there....

Noah
 
David S. said:
Most people here do not recommend USB drives for video editing. Firewire 400 and 800 for externals are preferred along with eSATA.
Click to expand...
Depends on editing format. HDV/AVCHD are about 3 MB/s, and my USB HDDs can handle this easily, their sustained transfer speed is about 10 MB/s. These drives would have problems with something like Cineform or DNxHD.
 
iMarco said:
This is the one I want to get: http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=698

It's what I can afford for now, is it any good?
Click to expand...

My GF got me one of these for Christmas. Now, I'm on a mac, but she got me the "non-mac" version. No problem, though, right? My mac can still read from/write to it (with some *help* and care), plus, if I wanted to, I can reformat it (which I did). But... No. Here are my three gripes with that exact model:

1. It causes my mac to hang during start up, if I leave it plugged in. Properly unmounting it doesn't matter - even the manual boasts about not having to unmount on OS X before shut down. It's never seen a Windows machine, so no improperly unmounted volume issues there. I've a sneaking suspicion it's due to either that (IMO) useless, proprietary back-up software that comes pre-installed on the damn thing, or because it was originally formatted as NTFS.

2. You can't get rid of that friggin' VD software unless you have access to a Windows XP machine, or are a generally brilliant techie. FWIW, I think it's worse than Time Machine.

3. The supplied USB cable is 6" long. So if you're using it with a laptop, all is great. If you're on a desktop... worse still if you're on a Mac Pro, the cord isn't even long enough to have the thing sitting comfortably on either the top of the case or the surface that the case rests on - the cord will literally unplug itself. Not exactly a deal breaker, but still...

EDIT: Just saw that the OP went for a different brand. Oh well, hope my experiences help somebody else!
 
The reason for not recommending the MYBOOK is because the hardware of the enclosure is not *intended* for professional use. Its a backup solution. Editing puts quite a bit of pressure on a hard drive's enclosure, if the enclosure is not built to handle it...the enclosure will die at some point. You data will be intact as the hard drive is usually the same as others, albeit a little cheaper.

Marco, I recommend anything Wiebetech, Cal digit, and Glyph. You can also find great deals at
dealnews.com
 
thekeygun said:
The reason for not recommending the MYBOOK is because the hardware of the enclosure is not *intended* for professional use. Its a backup solution. Editing puts quite a bit of pressure on a hard drive's enclosure, if the enclosure is not built to handle it...the enclosure will die at some point. You data will be intact as the hard drive is usually the same as others, albeit a little cheaper.

Marco, I recommend anything Wiebetech, Cal digit, and Glyph. You can also find great deals at
dealnews.com
Click to expand...

Have you any evidence for that statement? What sort of "pressure" does editing put on the *enclosure*? I've never had an enclosure die. But I have plenty of dead drives.
 
I have been using inexpensive commodity USB2 external drive cases for years for SD video editing (including scrubbing the timeline, etc.) AND for multi-track (8-16) audio mixing. In fact I have been using $15 IDE to USB2 "adapter cables" and raw drives with no detectable problems.

OTOH, I don't think I will get away with that for editing HD video from my Sony PMW-EX1.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top