Recommendations for External Hard drive
 

Hey Guys,

I am needing to pick up another external hard drive. I was not trilled with my last one because it had FAT32 and would not accept file sizes larger than 4 gb, so I was unable to put some video clips on it. I am not sure if that is across the board. Does anyone know? What have you guys been happy with? I am looking for one that is compatible with Windows Vista 64bit, has backup software, firewire for sure, 1 TB, and is a good brand...Suggestions or recommendations?

Thanks!

Leslie

Hi Leslie,

I've bought several external hard drives over the years, and mainly use them for backups or archiving. (I've used an external hard drive hooked up with firewire 400 to edit on Premiere Pro CS2, but they were only SD files.) I have Seagate and Western Digital, ranging from 160G to 2TB. I also have a few drives I've bought external cases for (to replace old PC drives). Recently, I've bought two 2TB Western Digital Elements drives. These are USB only, and DON'T come with any backup software whatsoever (which I prefer):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/672787-REG/Western_Digital_WDBAAU0020HBK_NESN_2TB_Elements_Desktop_Hard.html

At work, we've used LaCie drives like this (running on a Mac, using Final Cut, hooked up via Firewire 800):
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/643635-REG/LaCie_301500U_2TB_d2_Quadra_Hard.html

If you want an external harddrive with a backup software, look into the LaCies or Western Digital's MyBook models.

As for your FAT32 issue, I believe you can format most external harddrives to either FAT32 or NTSF (which will accept larger file sizes). Or you can buy them pre-formatted as NTFS.

BTW, my wife and I have shot several times in your area. Recently, we shot at Sunland Peanuts; it's for a PBS show about agriculture (from NMSU). And a few years back, a video for the city of Clovis and for their Rock N Roll Museum.

Best,

Thanks Jeff! It always helps to know what other people are using and if they are happy with them.

Also, thanks for the info on the formatting of the external hard drive. I've been wondering about that for a while now. It's nice to have that question answered.

Wow, that's neat that you know the Portales area and have actually shot around there a few times. I hope you picked up some peanut butter at Sunland while you were shooting there. It's great stuff! I actually need to update my info because I've moved away from Portales and am now in the Abilene, TX.

Thanks again,
Leslie

Hi Leslie,

You're welcome!

I've recently bought another hard drive enclosure, called the Ultra Aluminus (USB2 & esata) to put in an old 1TB harddrive. Sorry I can't post a link, but I bought it at a local CompUSA store here in El Paso (and it has good reviews). So far it works for backup. Haven't tried it with the esata connection though.

And yes, I have tried and bought Sunland's Peanut Butter! Our favorite is the caramel :)

Best,

My new computer has an eSATA port so I bought a new Iomega Professional (7200 rpm) eSATA external hard drive. Got a 2 terrabyte for around $130. You have to be careful though becaause a lot of the Iomega externals are not 7200 rpm. The "professional" one is though.

I've got a 1.5TB Samsung Story Station that's i've been using for about a year now. I have the older USB 2.0 version and it's been fast enough to edit from, and they make them in USB 3.0 now.