advice on 500GB external hard drive for mac
 

hey there

I just got into video editting and I am looking for a 500GB hard drive for my mac. I currently have 2 internal drives in G5 tower and want an external one to dedicate to FCP files.
Can anyone recommend a good brand and anything else I need to know/consider about the specs when choosing one?
Someone recommended a SATA but it looks like that is only a type of interval drive --??

Thanks.

-Patricia

Brand wise, I have only ever used Lacie drives, like the ones here: http://www.dvshop.ca/drives/fwexternal.html

I have always been happy with their products and the drives themselves have stood up to more physical punishment then they deserve. But the standard "That's based on my personal experience" disclaimers reply.

My experience is that just about anything should work these days as long as you get a 7200RPM or better model.

I have 5 LaCie drives, 5 Maxtor drives, one Seagate drive and a couple unknown models. They are all 7200RPM. They are all Firewire 400. No problems editing or capturing with any of them.

When you first connect the drive to your computer, erase it using the Disk Utility application and choose MacOS Extended file system with journaling turned OFF. When I used drives with journaling turned on I had problems printing to video. I could capture and edit OK, but every so often the playback would pause when I was playing back.

Hello,


I have been using Accomdata external Firewire drives with my Mac, no problem.. I have 2 on Mac and 4 on a PC system running Vegas.. they work like a champ..They sell the drives at Comp USA..

Mike Moncrief

If you consider editing HDV material, now or in the future, you would be doing yourself a great disservice by using USB/Firewire external storage.

The only way to use external disks and still get reasonable response from your system is by using eSATA. Using Firewire limits you to about 50% of the transfer rates you get from eSATA, using USB would drop you down to around 35-40%. At the same time your CPU load is doubled or even quadrupled using fire wire or USB.

Get some good SATA drives, the Seagate 7200.10 come to mind, and a good eSATA controller and you are ready to roll.

I hate to contradict, but I'm using external USB2 drives with HDV quite successfully.

I have Western Digital MyBook drives, one per project, and they work fine with up to three or four streams of DV/HDV.

I also have a FW800 Lacie 500GB Big Disk (2 x 250GB drives RAIDED together), which works just great for more demanding projects.

Most single drives cannot deliver data at anything like the interface saturation rate, so there's nothing to worry about.