Hi,

I'm now editing on Premiere Pro with an external hard disc from LACIE, 250 gigabytes, with firewire 400/800 and USB2.0.
I'm having a pretty big project now, and I'm not having enough space - or I want an extra backup, so I was thinking about buying a Western Digital external hard disc, called Digital Mybook Premium. It's 1terrabyte, and should have firewire 400 and 800 also.

Is it
1. a reliable brand? good for editing?
2. can I, as I do with my Lacie HDD, load my rushed on that disc and edit directly from the Western Digital HDD?
3. (this is less important but I would like to know also) Is is possible to connect my camera via firewire to the computer and directly stream it to the Western Digital HDD? (via USB2.0 or firewire from camera to hard disc and hard disc to computer) ?

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

See http://dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=73695

I use western digitals exclusively, but hate the idea of a smart drive.

I got a Seagate freeagent pro 500g. It features USB2.0, dual firewire 400, AND eSATA, which if you add a $25 pci card will give you 1.5Gb/s. Much faster than firewire. I dont know how much youll pay in belgium, but I got the 500 for $150 from fry's electronics. Hope this helps!

Thanks!

Robert, I don't know about that Seagate drive, because I need it quickly and we'll pick it up friday or saturday.
Thanks for the replies and the advice though, maybe they indeed have other drives there, we'll see, but I wanted to know if Western Digital is okay.

Steven, in the thread you sent, you indeed complained about the Western Digital Mybooks. I'll look into it. Maybe just get another Lacie. It depends on the shops a bit. I'll be reading some reviews too.
But I don't get it: what's a 'smart drive' and what was now exactly wrong with that Western Digital Mybook?

Thanks,

Mathieu,

When looking for an external disk, look first and foremost for eSATA, if you can't find one then consider fire wire, but it is a significant step back. USB should only be considered for back up purposes.

eSATA can be used with any brand, like Seagate, WD, Hitachi or Samsung, so you can also consider buying a good external enclosure and populate them with the disk(s) or your choice. Despite their effective marketing efforts, I would stay clear from LaCie. They have, according to posts around the net, a similar reputation as the IBM Deathstar disks in terms of reliability.

I have a MyBook 500GB to use for editing and it works great so far (had it for about half a year) with Premiere projects, including a 3x multicam project.

Yes, you can capture directly to it, I do it all the time via USB.

Hi everyone,

the company went for an Iomega 1 terrabyte, triple interface.
Well, it's their money... it seems like a great HDD, pitty I have to return it after the project. Wouldn't have mind an extra terrabyte of disc space :-D

Thanks for all the replies though, found it all very interesting.

A little late now since you already got the Iomega hdd, but I just wanted to add that I use the external Western Mybook Essensial 500GB hdd
(USB2.0 only!) to capture/edit video with my laptop.
Works great to me.

#3: Yes this is possible. I have done it several times.
(I use Premiere Pro 2)

A little late now since you already got the Iomega hdd, but I just wanted to add that I use the external Western Mybook Essensial 500GB hdd
(USB2.0 only!) to capture/edit video with my laptop.
Works great to me.

#3: Yes this is possible. I have done it several times.
(I use Premiere Pro 2)

Hi Trond,

yes it's late now, but your response is of course still valuable for other people looking for the same information, when they perform a search around here.
As I said: it was the company that choose the Iomega, and I have to hand over the disc back at them at the end of the project.
Best regards,

I love them so much, I bought a second one...

Well, let me re-phrase: I love their price! Microcenter has them on sale for $129 (the 500 GB variety). That's about 25 cents per GB - same price internal drives sell for.

I've been using 3 500GB WD My Books for well over a year on a laptop and they're great. Great price and fully reliable. I do have a desktop fan blowing on them when in use though.

I've got 2 WD My Books 500G running with a HP nw8440 laptop which has Firewire 400. It works great for complicated SD video editing, with no access problems so far. It's all at 7200rpm but I wonder when I'll run out.

In adding more My Book Premiums they now have USB2 / eSATA versions available. HD is next, so I'm looking at this Belkin external card which will interface all the drives with USB then eSATA.

I have the WD 500GB USB 2.0 drives as well, but I am editing HDV and they are too slow. I currently use the drives to hold the project folders and assest while i work on another project. Save space on my internal drives. So far, everything has worked out very well. As soon as i finish a section of the video, I always lay it to tape because everyone knows that Hard Drives don't last forever.

That's wierd, I'm using the regular USB2 version of the Western Digital MyBook for HDV and I have no troubles with speed whatsoever.

I've been using 3 500GB WD My Books for well over a year on a laptop and they're great. Great price and fully reliable. I do have a desktop fan blowing on them when in use though.

I've been working on an SD project. 75+ hours of footage and they've been good to me. USB2