External HD Suggestions?

erock1 · Post by **erock1** » Fri May 20, 2005 4:45 pm

Until I purchase a new computer I want to add an external HD to capture & edit my video footage to. I have 3 available firewire ports.

Any suggestions/feedback on brand, does & don'ts would be appreciated.

TIA,
Erock

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Fri May 20, 2005 5:15 pm

Whatever you do, get a drive/enclosure that supports both FireWire and USB 1.1/2.0.

I have an external Maxtor 5000DV drive that's a couple of years old (120GB used to be large in those days), and while I use FireWire exclusively when connecting the drive to my own computers, the ability to connect it to older systems or laptops with only USB connections has proven to be invaluable.

Besides buying a whole external drive, you could also pick up an external drive enclosure, and then drop in the hard drive of your choice.

erock1 · Post by **erock1** » Fri May 20, 2005 5:56 pm

THoff, you did it again! I didn't think about an enclosure. I can get an internal HD much cheaper than a dedicated external and use the enclosure

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Fri May 20, 2005 6:13 pm

while you are looking at enclosures (I have 5 of them), get a 5.25" enclosure -- you will be able to put in an optical drive later if you need/want to (like a dvd burner or something).

Make sure the enclosure supports large HD's (160gb and above). Some don't do large HD's.

erock1 · Post by **erock1** » Sat May 21, 2005 3:00 pm

GeorgeW wrote:while you are looking at enclosures (I have 5 of them), get a 5.25" enclosure -- you will be able to put in an optical drive later if you need/want to (like a dvd burner or something).

Make sure the enclosure supports large HD's (160gb and above). Some don't do large HD's.

Thanks GeorgeW. I started researching enclosures and I wasn't sure about size. I'm definately looking at 160 or larger HDs.

Regards,
Erock