External Hard Drive Question at DVinfo.net

Matt Throop · July 25th, 2006, 02:19 PM

Well I'm about to get my first iMac soon. Should be ordering it within two weeks. But I'm going to be getting an external hard drive also. I'm torn between two choices.

LaCie 600GB Big Disk Extreme with Triple Interface, and G-DRIVE 500GB External Hard Drive.

Also I'm pretty new at the external hard drive thing. So if someone could help me decide. I'm more considered about stability, and speed of transfer with the hard drive.

Thanks, I really appreciated everyone's opinions on this board.

Also I didn't know where to post this so I posted it here.

James McEachern · July 25th, 2006, 05:46 PM

Either one would be a good choice I think. I haven't heard of the other company "G-Drive". Which one has the better price and reviews would be the one I'd consider getting. Hope that helps

James

Jeff Sayre · July 26th, 2006, 07:37 AM

Matt:

Read the posts in this thread. It should help you make up your mind.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=70024

Good luck!

Paul Cypert · August 3rd, 2006, 04:25 AM

Other folks have differing opinions but I'm against such big drives. You could save money and potential future problems with the one drive crashing by buying multiple rebate smaller drives. Possibly even a quality housing unit and you can just plug in cheap regular hard drives which can be stored by project...

Paul

Brendon Whateley · August 3rd, 2006, 11:32 AM

Paul, I guess I have a different opinion on big drives. My concern is over quality. For our storage servers, we use RAID 5 arrays of SATA drives hanging off of 3ware controllers. We are currently using 400GB western Digital drives, the model specifically designed to run in arrays. (Something about the drive to drive vibration can hurt other drives in the arrays.) The 3ware cards check the array daily - and we replace the drives when they get too old, before they fail. Too old is, in my opinion, about when the 5 year warrantee expires. We only by drives with at least 5 year warrantees, I like the manufacturer to have some confidence in the drives.

If a drive fails, we hot-plug a spare drive into the array and the array is rebuilt. Data we really care about is duplicated on a similar machine at a different location.

Smaller drives just require much more "other" hardware - controllers, machines, etc. The game is to balance the value of the data with the cost of keeping it safe.

Paul Cypert · August 3rd, 2006, 10:12 PM

sound like an impressive setup...my concern if for folks that will only have "one" external drive...almost all of my WD's failed within two years on me...I tend to be more single project based and will buy a hardrive specific to the project if it's a big project so I can devote the drive just to that and then archive if necessary...with internal drives as cheap as they are the external enclosure route has worked nicely for a more low key setup....

Paul

July 25th, 2006, 02:19 PM	#1
Matt Throop New Boot Join Date: May 2006 Location: Oshawa, ON, CA Posts: 19	External Hard Drive Question Well I'm about to get my first iMac soon. Should be ordering it within two weeks. But I'm going to be getting an external hard drive also. I'm torn between two choices. LaCie 600GB Big Disk Extreme with Triple Interface, and G-DRIVE 500GB External Hard Drive. Also I'm pretty new at the external hard drive thing. So if someone could help me decide. I'm more considered about stability, and speed of transfer with the hard drive. Thanks, I really appreciated everyone's opinions on this board. Also I didn't know where to post this so I posted it here.

July 26th, 2006, 07:37 AM	#3
Jeff Sayre Major Player Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: South Bend, IN Posts: 301	Matt: Read the posts in this thread. It should help you make up your mind. http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=70024 Good luck! __________________ www.SayreMedia.com

July 25th, 2006, 05:46 PM	#2
James McEachern New Boot Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: West Palm Beach, Florida Posts: 18	Either one would be a good choice I think. I haven't heard of the other company "G-Drive". Which one has the better price and reviews would be the one I'd consider getting. Hope that helps James

August 3rd, 2006, 04:25 AM	#4
Paul Cypert Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangkok, Thailand (work in US in the summers) Posts: 89	Other folks have differing opinions but I'm against such big drives. You could save money and potential future problems with the one drive crashing by buying multiple rebate smaller drives. Possibly even a quality housing unit and you can just plug in cheap regular hard drives which can be stored by project... Paul

August 3rd, 2006, 11:32 AM	#5
Brendon Whateley Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Fremont, CA Posts: 59	Paul, I guess I have a different opinion on big drives. My concern is over quality. For our storage servers, we use RAID 5 arrays of SATA drives hanging off of 3ware controllers. We are currently using 400GB western Digital drives, the model specifically designed to run in arrays. (Something about the drive to drive vibration can hurt other drives in the arrays.) The 3ware cards check the array daily - and we replace the drives when they get too old, before they fail. Too old is, in my opinion, about when the 5 year warrantee expires. We only by drives with at least 5 year warrantees, I like the manufacturer to have some confidence in the drives. If a drive fails, we hot-plug a spare drive into the array and the array is rebuilt. Data we really care about is duplicated on a similar machine at a different location. Smaller drives just require much more "other" hardware - controllers, machines, etc. The game is to balance the value of the data with the cost of keeping it safe.

August 3rd, 2006, 10:12 PM	#6
Paul Cypert Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Bangkok, Thailand (work in US in the summers) Posts: 89	sound like an impressive setup...my concern if for folks that will only have "one" external drive...almost all of my WD's failed within two years on me...I tend to be more single project based and will buy a hardrive specific to the project if it's a big project so I can devote the drive just to that and then archive if necessary...with internal drives as cheap as they are the external enclosure route has worked nicely for a more low key setup.... Paul