External Hard Drive

[swingadeus]

Hell. I'm new to this site and to home recording.

Need to buy an external hard drive. Can anyone reccomend brands and specs? I need something that isn't noisy.

[Baron]

Originally Posted by swingadeus

Hell. I'm new to this site and to home recording.

Need to buy an external hard drive. Can anyone reccomend brands and specs? I need something that isn't noisy.

Most 3.5" external drive cases are quiet as they do not have a fan. As far as hard drives go, I would suggest that you buy a good old Maxtor. I use lots of drives, in my day job, and the Maxtor’s have been the least trouble. If you are going to use this for backup purposes then a USB case is fine. If you want to use it for active DAW then you would be better off with a 400/800M Firewire case (you can buy the cases separately and put whatever drive you want in them).
If you are running a laptop then you are restricted to the Firewire speed of the internal port which is normally 400M. If you have a desktop you can install an 800M firewire card.

What do you want to use the drive for?

What is your computer?


Baron

[swingadeus]

Thanks for the reply! I'm using a brand new Mac Pro with a 2gig intel, 2 gig of ram, and a 250 gig internal hard drive. I think it has a firewire 800 port, so I'm sure there should be no prob. there.
Thanks again,
Jeff

[Baron]

Originally Posted by swingadeus

I think it has a firewire 800 port, so I'm sure there should be no prob. there.
Jeff

Cool. If you have an 800M port then google an 800M case and get yourself a 7200RPM drive. Be aware that you need to get a drive that matches the case ie ATA or SATA. A SATA II drive has the theoretically higher, continuous transfer rate but I have had no issues just using an ATA drive, and SATA II's cost more!

Baron

[Charlie_M]

I wouldn't purchase a Maxtor drive today. I'm sure they have been just wonderful in the past, but they are out of business now.

I'm not sure you'd find much from them out of the shelves today. If you did it would likely have Seagate components, and possibly their design (Seagate acquired Maxtor some time back, maybe it was 1 or 2 years ago). That's not such a bad thing at all but in that case you might as well buy a Seagate drive. Maxtor brand is unlikely to be around a year from now, if it is still even out there now.

A drive from either of the two major US makers still standing (WD and Seagate) would suit your needs just fine. Don't worry about noise so much, drives today are really good in that respect since fluid spindle bearings are used today (no more ball bearings, no more annoying whine from 7200 RPM and faster drives).

A 7200 RPM, SATA drive would be plenty adequate for audio. If you go for a 10k RPM drive, yes it will be faster but probably will be outrunning your interface anyway and since those drives are designed for high performance the seeks will be perceptibly noisier. Stick with 7200 RPM 3.5" SATA and you should be happy with that.

Charlie

[Baron]

Originally Posted by Charlie_M

I wouldn't purchase a Maxtor drive today. I'm sure they have been just wonderful in the past, but they are out of business now. Charlie

Hi Charlie

Well that sucks!

I have had too many Seagates fall over and more than a few DOAs.
I have not had to purchase any drives for a while as we buy a few hundred at a time. This might explain my lack of knowledge about the demise of the company. (having said that, I just bought a SATA Maxtor last month for my DAW....so I actually bought a Seagate?)

Do you know if Seagate has upped their game over the last couple of years?


Baron

[Charlie_M]

Hi Baron,

I use whatever comes with my comp when I buy it, but for external drives, in our house we use only WD drives. No failures yet so no plans to change that.

Any drive can fail so it's important to do backups no matter what kind of drive you have. But I have not heard of a DOA drive in a long long time. Sounds like a bad batch or run of bad luck. Drives are 100% tested for functionality before the leave their place of manufacture. I would guess the DOA drives you received were probably damaged in shipment somehow.

Charlie