Newbie question: What kind of hard drive for more memory?

teenyshell · Post by **teenyshell** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:15 am

Hi all. I am fairly new at this video thing and I have managed to get all the way through the process of editing and saving my video. I attempted to save the .avi file as an .mpeg file and got a message that I had insufficient disc space. I upgraded my memory to 1GB thinking that would solve the problem, but it hasn't. I know now that I need an additional hard drive, but I have no idea where to start with that. I need help figuring out what to buy that is not very expensive that will allow me to get this video onto DVD (NTSC). My current setup is: Windows XP, AMD Athlon processor, 1 GB Ram. If you need additional specs about my system, please let me know. I am still learning so your help is very much appreciated. Thank you.

rwindeyer · Post by **rwindeyer** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:33 am

Hi! Hard drive space is very important for video projects. If you are working in DV format (the best for editing, IMHO) you are looking at about 13 Gb per hour of video.

So lets say you return from holidays (as I did) with about 4 hours of tape. Load that in, and work with it. From the assorted bits you produce a decent video that lasts about 1 1/4 hours.

When you produce that video file, you are then looking at 65-70 Gb space minimum overall. Then to burn to DVD, VS will require "working room" on the drive - approximately double the size of the DVD you are producing. So add another 10 Gb to be sure.

I have a 120 Gb external hard drive; I suggest this is the minimum you should look at. The particular type probably doesn't matter too much; all the decent drives these days (internal or external) will run at 7200 RPM (also important) and you will have all the storage space you need.

See what your local computer shop can do for you. All the best!

jchunter · Post by **jchunter** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:47 am

First try deleting unnecessary files or uninstalling large programs and then defragmenting your disks. You might find that you have enough space.

Also note that AVI files require much more space than mpeg2 files, so you might try deleting the AVI file and capturing to mpeg, if the clock speed of your CPU is 2 - 2.5 GHz or more.

Otherwise, you will probably benefit by adding another hard disk.

For example, NewEgg has: "Western Digital Caviar WD1600BB 160GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM " for $74.40.

Adding a hard drive is not difficult if you take great care to power off the computer and keep yourself grounded when you open the computer (because static electricity can ZAP your computer chips). It would help if you have a computer geek as a friend...

You need to find out if you have a serial ATA or a parallel IDE interface inside the computer, then order the appropriate hard disk.

teenyshell · Post by **teenyshell** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:56 am

Thank you both for your replies. I have an IDE interface, but I am going to need an external drive. I looked at some websites and my main question is, shouls I go with the USB 2.0 or the firewire. I know I have firewire ports available and a USB port as well (is there a difference between USB and USB 2.0 ports)? I alos noticed that I can get an external USB 2.0 hard drive with much more capacity than the firewire drives. Any suggestions?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 3:59 am

teenyshell

Firstly please update your profile with your current system specifications and when you upgrade, please remember to update your profile.

There are 3 main parts to a computer.
1. Processor - you have said you have an AMD Athlon. However that is only a part of it you need to tell us an AMD Athlon what. Mine is an XP2400+ which I suppose by todays standards is now getting a bit slow, though it works fine for me.

If you are thinking of upgrading your processor you must firstly check your motherboard handbook to see what processors the motherboard will accept and then go for the biggest that you can afford that will fit.

The larger the number the more powerful it is. an AMD athlon xp3000+ is faster than an AMD athlon xp2400+.

The processor could be regarded as "The Computer." This is the part that does all the number crunching.

2. RAM. Think of this as your desktop.
If you were in an office you have a desk and you have filing cabinets.
You go to the filing cabinet and get out some files, place them on your desk and move them round, write on them etc.

The more RAM you have the bigger your desk and you can move things about quickly. I also have 1GB and find it sufficient. To chck if you need more RAM with Windows XP / Windows 2000 or Windows NT4 you press the ctrl-alt-del keys together (yes - all 3) then a pop up box appears called Task Manager. It has various tabs one of which is named performance. Here you get a graphical display showing how busy your processor is, plus how much RAM is being used. If you are using more RAM than you have installed, then its time to put some more in (or kill a few other programs that are using up resources.)

3. Hard Drives.
These are your filing cabinets (using the above Office analogy)
It is the place where you store all of your files, pictures, videos, music, spreadsheets, documents and programs. If you run out of RAM, the computer also uses some of your hard drive space to make up the shortfall (This is known as a pagefile - in the old days it was called a swapfile.)

The larger your hard drives the more stuff you can keep in your computer.

It is also better to have at least two hard drives in your computer.
If you do, then keep your operating system (Windows XP) and the programs (Video Studio, Microsoft Office, Games etc on your boot up hard drive - the one with the letter "C") and keep your videos, spreadsheets, music, photographs etc on the other Hard Drive(s) which probably have a drive letter "D" or "E".

The reason for this can be explained again as an analogy.
Think of an old fashioned record player. To listen to some music on the record you have to move the needle to the correct spot on the record.

Computer hard drives resemble this and so the "needle" has to keep moving back and forth between the program and the data (video etc) collecting bits to place onto your imaginary desktop (RAM)
It is obviously better to have two of these needles working for you rather than one doing a lot of moving backward and forward.

Hope this quick intro helps and I am sure a few more members will add some more meat to this.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:10 am

teenyshell

Even as I wrote my reply a couple of our colleagues got in first!
There are some articles on the web explaining the differences between and advantages/disadvantags of USB -v- Firewire.

USB2 is the more modern and faster version of the old USB.

here are some links:
http://www.digit-life.com/articles/usb20vsfirewire/
http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=1104
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0, ... 826,00.asp
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Storage/Q_20761432.html

teenyshell · Post by **teenyshell** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 4:31 am

Hi sjj and thanks for your very thorough and helpful replies. I have updated my profile to the best of my ability (I hope I did it correctly). My processor seems to be older than yours, but it is working fine for me. I would just like to add a new hard drive at this point. I guess I could eliminate the CDRW drive to make a slot available for an internal drive if that is a better option than the external drive. As far as the USB vs. USB2...if I buy something that is for USB2, will it fit in my USB port or are they completely different ports? Thanks again for all of your help.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 5:51 am

USB 2.0 is backwards compatible with USB 1.0. So yes, the device plug will fit the old one. BUT -- and it's a big 'but' -- it won't be able to transmit at the speed at which USB 2 is capable (max. 480 mbps compared to only about 12 Mbps for USB 1). USB 1 speeds are just not good enough for transfer of high quality video. But you can buy a USB card, with 4 or 6 ports, quite cheaply these days.

If you already have a Firewire port or two on your computer, you could of course go for a Firewire external drive -- though you can get ones with both USB 2 and Firewire connections. I don't know what the prices are like in your part of the world, but you can buy such a box here in Australia for around US$45. And I can truly hold my hand on my heart and say it is really very simple, if you buy an IDE HDD and the box, to put them together -- no more than opening the box, screwing in the HDD, and connecting the data cable and the power cable to the drive, then closing the box again. Definitely a cheaper option.

Be aware that Firewire external boxes, depending on the chipset used, may be subject to the occasional, but very annoying, delayed write failure. Reams have been written about that! So I would go for a USB 2.0 external box if you install a USB 2 card...

rwindeyer · Post by **rwindeyer** » Tue Dec 20, 2005 11:44 am

For what it's worth - my external drive is a standard Western Digital, the computer shop dropped it into a housing with power supply and miniature fan (it doesn't need to draw on the USB for power) and it runs perfectly on a USB2 connection.