Do you keep your projects on a separate hard drive as opsed to your computer "C" drive? If so, what do you use to acess the second drive, USB 2.0, 3.0? I have recently been keeping clips on a separate drive and accessing via usb 2.0. It seems that my nle stops responding. IS it because of the 2.0 usb? I am editing HDV.

I absolutely keep everything off the C drive except the OS and programs. Everything else is on various ESata drives in my main edit box, although I do keep some on external drives which are firewire. Yes my system is older and I have the ability to use FW so I do.
You most definately want to keep any editing materials off the system drive as it makes for (generally speaking) slower render times, slower lod up times and IMO gives you more opportunity to have a major malfunction that can really be a problem.
I can't speak for USB drives as I don't use them but in any event keep all editng materials off the system drive.

First thing I do when I come back from a shoot is to copy the camera files to TWO external 2TB drives connected with USB 2.0 to insure they are safe.

While I now work exclusively with flash media I have edited HDV on an external drive with no problems, and I can edit the flash media from the externals but I usually convert them to something my system can handle better than AVCHD or Canon DSLR .MOV files.

The NLE you use can make a difference. The one I use is a known "resource hawg" so editing AVCHD or other H.264 files seems to require a FAST quad core processor.

HDV should not be a problem for a modern, fairly fast dual core based computer, but I would look at a newer quad core or second generation Core i7 machine for when you make the step to tapeless.

I use external usb 2.0 drives for my video files.
Works fine with Cineform avi-files, converted from the mxf files from a Canon XF300.

Ditto on all the above responses!

It may be that when your NLE stops responding, it is because Windows has put that drive to sleep. Check your power management settings.

Usb is not the best for streaming video files to a NLE as it sends in packets where firewire is far better as it sends the data as a constant stream.

Usb is fine for back-up but you need firewire or esata to get the best performance for real time file streaming on any system

Thanks for the input everyone.

Usb is not the best for streaming video files to a NLE as it sends in packets where firewire is far better as it sends the data as a constant stream.

Usb is fine for back-up but you need firewire or esata to get the best performance for real time file streaming on any system

Hi Gary. Just a question on USB. I also use firewire on all my hard drives since it is best for video streaming. However on my new computer there is a USB 3 port. I understand USB 3 is faster than firewire and I'd like to try it but I've had such good success using firewire I don't know if I should switch. Although I think if USB 3 is faster it should stream smoother and faster in real time. Let me know what you think. Thanks.

Larry Kropp
L&M Video
Green Bay, WI

Hi I am not sure about USB 3 as I don't know the spec but if it is like USB 1&2 it sends data in packets rather than as a constantly updated stream like firewire does.

It is not just down to speed but how the computer receives the data and that is why firewire is better for high data rates such as video, pro tools actually specifies firewire as its preference for audio streaming and esata is also a better option.

Personally I have two drive set-ups on my systems a raid 0 array of three 1tb esata internal drives on my mac pro and this gives me around 250mbs of disc speed.
I also have a g-tech raid 2 drive which has two 500g drives in a raid 0 array and connected via firewire 800 this gives around 50mbs of disc speed.

A single 7200rpm drive in another g-tech caddy gives me around 35mbs via firewire 800.