Please recommend firewire drive!

[Colin McDonald]

Originally Posted by Liam Hall

Lacie are cheap and have a tendency to sleep a little too long for my liking but they're perfectly adequate for most DV/HDV applications.

They're not that robust, I've had three die on me for various reasons, but as long as you treat them gently and you back-up properly you'll be fine.

G-Tech are way superior, not sure I'd call them sexy but they are a professional solution - you get what you pay for.

Seconded. I quite like my LaCie drives, and none of them have given any bother though I've been warned about their reliability by a data recovery tech.
You've probably found this thread already:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?p=804986

I would go with G-Tech if those who have used both LaCie and G-Tech recommend it. But back up anyway, whatever you get.

[Robert Lane]

If you want the best possible solution for an external drive, you can purchase a bare FW enclosure from OWC (www.macsales.com) and install your own drive of choice. The enclosures OWC makes have the best, most robust Oxford chipsets, their customer service is the best in the industry, and when you pick your own drive you can select an "enterprise class" SATA drive which has a longer warranty and better heat-dissipation characteristics than the standard "consumer" drives.

Right now the Hitachi and Seagate TB drives have the best performance for money and you can get an enterprise-class TB HDD for under $400.

[David Tamés]

Originally Posted by Liam Hall

G-Tech are way superior [...] you get what you pay for.

If you really care about your data you will, first, buy drives that are designed to run cool with either fans or properly designed heat-sinks (G-Tech Drives qualify) and second, BACK UP YOUR DATA. Drives fail. Work as if they do. That's the reality.

I had a hard drive fail in the middle of a project a few weeks ago. I had a copy of all of the critical files. No sweat. No stress. A copy of your video on a second drive that is off line is good practice for important files, and if you're really careful, keep a third drive off site for the really important stuff. Drives are so cheap these days.

G-Tech Drives are backed by a 3-year warranty and they have good technical support, I know some folks who have had to get drives replaced and it's been done quickly and without hassle. I don't own any myself (being a fan of using bare SATA drives myself), but I did use several of them in a previous job.

As far as LaCie goes, there's no special love there. I've had two fail on me, they seem to run hotter than the G-Techs, maybe that heat sink at the bottom of the G-Tech drives really makes a difference. In the end, though, all drives are delicate electro-mechanical devices always on the brink of failure.