External Hard Drives

rs02931 · Post by **rs02931** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:50 am

Is anyone using External hard Drives for their Video??? Either Firewire or USB2. I badly need additional storage , but not sure if firewire/usb2 is the best way to go? are there any issues with either? is there a problem using multiple firewire/USB2 devices at same time?

Thanks
Bob S

rwindeyer · Post by **rwindeyer** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:55 am

I have an external 120 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM HDD, USB connection; I use it for ALL video work - capture, rendering etc. No problems at all.

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 12:16 pm

I use both Firewire-A and USB2 external hard drives. They both work fine -- USB2 has a lower "sustained" throughput (even though it has a higher burst rate). But even with its lower sustained throughput, it's still fast enough for capturing DV .avi's (so if that's your source, then you would be ok).

The externals also give you some portability (one computer to another...)

George

jwarner · Post by **jwarner** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:32 pm

One consideration...

USB devices have to share bandwidth so if you are capturing to a USB drive, make sure no other USB devices are active. If your capture device is also USB attached you would likely have a problem!

rs02931 · Post by **rs02931** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:53 pm

would an EXTERNAL USB2 or Firewire Drive Be acceptable for CAPTURE ???? I would like the External Drive for CAPTURE as well as rendering files, storage, pictures etc. I use Firewire for Capture.
Thanks,
Bob S

Post by **Ken Berry** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:50 pm

I have a 180GB external Firewire hard disk dedicated exclusively to all aspects of video editing, including capture. It works seamlessly with the main computer.

deeker · Post by **deeker** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:31 pm

I got an ext. 200gig firewire maxtor and keep all my captured fottage on it (only about 50gigs now); no problem BUT BUT BUT when i try to burn a dvd vs7.01 warns me that i do not have enough disc space and that i MAY encounter problems. I have not kept going fearing filling up my HD completely and frying the system or permanently freezing it (i heard you never wanna totally fill up the HD so...). It is looking at my main HD which has only about 2gigs left on it and I guess VS wants to use the main hard drive for temp files, or what not, while burning to dvd. My point is I at least have not yet benefitted from the ext. hard drive since I am having this warning msg. that I am too chicken to pass...anyone got any ideas? Obviously what I want/need to do is tell VS to use my ext. drvie for all its wrting/operations etc..., is this possible? Have I watsed my money?

jwarner · Post by **jwarner** » Sat Jan 22, 2005 4:47 pm

You can tell UVS to use your external HD for temp space.

If it were me though, assuming your main hard drive is fairly fast (UDMA 100 or better), I'd move some of my data or backup files off the main hard drive onto the external drive to clear some space for UVS temp files.

That way you split the work load and keep the faster drive available where it's needed most.

Interestingly, I use my USB drive for system backups (TrueImage) and they go MUCH faster than they did when I used to backup to a different partition on the main system HD. Even though the main drive is faster than a USB drive, backing up from one area of a HD to another area of the same drive causes lots of head "thrashing" so slows things down.

62cwil · Post by **62cwil** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 1:00 am

I just went out and purchased an external drive and was looking at the Western Digital one and the Manager who I happen to know came over. The WD 120 was $179.00 and they also had a LaCie 160 2.0 USB one for 129.00 on sale. He told me he would not spend the difference in getting the WD one as the LaCie was an excellent one and had good service. Does anyone have any opinions. The WD one I just noticed had a8mgbuffer while the LaCie had a 2 mg one. Is that going to make much of a difference.

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Sun Jan 23, 2005 3:35 am

I agree, LaCie doesn't make their own hard drives, they incorporate another manufacturer's drives into their own products, so you aren't getting a second-rate drive. Plus, LaCie is not a second-rate brand anyway, so I would have no trouble recommending their products.

All things being equal, a bigger buffer is better than a smaller one, but the OS will do additional buffering, so it's not the end of the world, and the buffers of both drives will fill up in an instant during video editing. Spindle speeds (RPM) have a bigger impact on how fast the drive will be.

62cwil · Post by **62cwil** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 6:46 pm

Does anyone have opinion on USB 2 vs Firewire. Currently I firewire from my mini-dv to computer and have external HD connected via firewire. Have had several folks tell me since USB shares bandwith firewire is more dependable. On the other hand in calling tech service 2 different techs on different occasions have said just the opposite. One reccomends connecting external HD via firewire and the other USB2. Appreciate any feedback you have to offer including how you do it.

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 8:16 pm

My external drive handles both interfaces, and I always use FireWire when the drive is hooked up to my own systems -- the only time I use USB is when I need to connect the drive to someone else's system without FireWire support. I've timed disk operations during things like backups, and FireWire is definitely faster for my configuration.

USB 2.0 has a slightly higher peak throughput than FireWire 400 (IEEE 1394a) with 480Mbps vs. 400Mbps, but the sustained throughput for FireWire is higher, and FireWire is an intelligent bus and doesn't need CPU attention to manage data transfers. The last thing you need during video editing is a bus that leeches CPU cycles...

Update: Take a look at this review to see the differences that the interface type can make.

62cwil · Post by **62cwil** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 10:20 pm

Thanks for your detailed response. I suspected what you said but wanted to confirm and you did.

jwarner · Post by **jwarner** » Mon Jan 24, 2005 11:59 pm

This is the housing I have - it's very cool:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... u=ULT31310

It has both USB 2.0 and Firewire, contains a cooling fan and has lots of blinking lights!

With this drive in it, you get 200gb of fast, portable storage for $120.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications ... pNo=168422

Based on your feedback THoff (and my growing shortage of USB ports), I just switched mine over to Firewire to see how it compares in my world!

Alludo USER to USER Web Board

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