Recommended External Hard Drive for editing?

R

ryvac

Veteran
Larry Jordan recommends you to edit your projects on a external drive.
I edit Gh2 footage and was woundering if my Western Digital Hard Drive w/ FireWire 400 was fast enough for this purpose?
If not, are there any recommendations?
or would you recommend an internal drive would be better/faster?
 
I like my eSata G-Raid(2TB & 4TB) drives.... they haven't failed me yet (knock on wood)....and via eSata, they are as fast as an internal drive.
 
I just picked up a 2TB Western Digital that has e-sata, firewire 800, and runs at 7200rpm, with raid 0 and raid 1 capabilities. Check it out here
 
No, FW400 won't keep up with HD video at all. FW800 will just keep up. Optimize the footage for best performance on a FW drive. eSATA or Thunderbolt are the two best options, but are more money. But a FW800 drive may be your only option on a MBP or iMac.
 
BenB said:
No, FW400 won't keep up with HD video at all. FW800 will just keep up.
Click to expand...

Really? I mean DVCPROHD is 100mbps and FW400 is very much fast enough to edit that footage. It does kind of depend on what you are trying to accomplish though, as obviously better speeds give faster performance.

I'm not disagreeing with your recommendations BenB, just saying that the statements here are not accurate.
 
We used DVCPRO-HD exclusively for years, and no, FW400 does not have the sustained rate to handle it, period. That's real life. FW800 works ok for small projects, and will fall apart doing multiclip edits, real life performance. Remember to rely on sustained data rates, not burst data rates, and not theoretical maximum potentials but on real world performances. Based on several years of editing DVCPRO-HD, HDV, etc, and on my twenty plus years as an IT engineer. What I say is absolutely very accurate.
 
DevonH said:
I just picked up a 2TB Western Digital that has e-sata, firewire 800, and runs at 7200rpm, with raid 0 and raid 1 capabilities. Check it out here
Click to expand...

+1
they are reliable. Have 4 2TB ones and one 4TB one and they are in working a lot. never failed me.
 
BenB said:
We used DVCPRO-HD exclusively for years, and no, FW400 does not have the sustained rate to handle it, period. That's real life. FW800 works ok for small projects, and will fall apart doing multiclip edits, real life performance. Remember to rely on sustained data rates, not burst data rates, and not theoretical maximum potentials but on real world performances. Based on several years of editing DVCPRO-HD, HDV, etc, and on my twenty plus years as an IT engineer. What I say is absolutely very accurate.
Click to expand...
Well, I think it depends on your editing needs. We've used FW400 HDs and devices to edit DVCPROHD without issue. I say without issue, as in most (90%) projects we were able to edit without problems. I wouldn't say that it keeps that sustained rate consistently and that you will experience hitching. Again, I think it depends on your needs. The more clips you've got coming from one drive, and especially if you are layering, it's definitely bad.
 
If you're editing single-camera style video, I think FW400 is sufficient. I wouldn't personally do it today, but I edited about 100 DVCPRO-HD or HDV projects on my old 500gb FW400 drive and it worked perfectly fine. Obviously the whole thing will grind to a halt if you're trying to do multiclip, but a lot of us don't utilize that style/workflow. Hell, I know a ton of people who somehow do their projects with USB 2.0 drives. It's not perfect or even preferred, but it can work.
 
FWIW, I edited DVCProHD footage off an external USB2 drive.

Only two streams, but it was just fine. FW800 is recommended, but I think that it is always necessary depending on your editing codec.
 
Thanks for the advice. I'll just use my FW400 External hard drive for storage then.

Btw, no one mentioned about the separete internal hard drives, but a separate internal hard drive would work too right? It won't affect the main drives performance would it?
 
I use the LaCie's Quadravexternal drives (with multiple interfrace). Never had a problem with them. RELIABLE... (but a tad more pricey...)
 
Well, I mostly edit on a PC with GrassValley Edius, and guess it's more efficient for for P2 pro. No problems with 2 streams of USB2. But, I use mostly eSata external drives, and find them excellent for P2 DVCproHd editing.

I also conform Mac boxes for editing for clients. I open up the mac and find the eSata connection on the motherboard, which Apple tries to hide, and connect a cable to a Antec slot with the eSata connectors. When I buy external Antec MX-1 empty boxes, they include that eSata metal slot and connector. Then I put in a 1TB or higher drive, and connect to the eSata slot. Those external eSata drives are just as fast as an internal drive. You can even buy a an external SATA box with RAID.

With the new USB3 and SATA 6, you will have no problem editing more HD streams.

LaCie's are good looking boxes, but save your money and buy a Antec MX-1, and pop in your own drive, which is very easy, and alot cheaper.
 
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Don't forget about the solid state drives. I use (2) Crucial M4's 500g each and love the performance.
 
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