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-   -   A new external hard drive for my new Mac. (https://www.dvinfo.net/forum/final-cut-suite/79506-new-external-hard-drive-my-new-mac.html)

Ben Jones November 13th, 2006 11:30 AM

A new external hard drive for my new Mac.
 
Right I have just ordered a Mac Book Pro. I have been advised to get an external hard drive and make sure its got firewire 800. Any recommendations? I've been told to get a Lacie, but I dont really know what im looking at? could I have some links to some models I should be looking at please?

Thank you

Steven Davis November 13th, 2006 11:34 AM

Don't by Western Digital MYBOOKS, they're pure crap. Lacie has a good rep, mostly manufactures use each other's stuff, such as Lacie using Western Digital drives. For example, you could get two externals that have the same drive, but the casing, connection etc be different. Lacie's have a good rep.

Again, don't buy a MYBOOK, or any smart drive for that matter, see my long post on the MYBOOKS somewhere in this forum.

I wonder if anyone from WD is following me anymore.

Ben Jones November 13th, 2006 11:47 AM

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-Formac-250...em320048079018

Any thoughts on this drive?

David Scattergood November 13th, 2006 12:48 PM

Hi Ben,

I've been recommended the G Raid external drive - 2x 250gb Firewire 800.
Once the pennies add up I'll be grabbing myself one/two of these. The lack of one has held me back editing HDV for the moment.

Take a peek:

http://www.g-technology.com/products/g-raid2.cfm

Ash Greyson November 13th, 2006 01:44 PM

G-Raid is the way to go... you can also check out Gryphon and other high end options. Lacie may have some good reviews by some but they have had MAJOR problems with some enclosures, it is hit and miss. Same with Maxtor and WD externals. The G-Tech, MiniG, Gryphon and other high end HDDs are going to be the ONLY ones with very solid reviews by users.

A quick visit to Cnet or other consumer review sites should make it easy to check all the low to medium end options off your list.



ash =o)

Mike Teutsch November 15th, 2006 04:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steven Davis
Don't by Western Digital MYBOOKS, they're pure crap.

I wonder if anyone from WD is following me anymore.

Are you speaking for everyone, or just your personnal experiance with one. I like to know what problem you had.

Thanks in advance.

Mike

Steven Davis November 15th, 2006 10:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mike Teutsch
Are you speaking for everyone, or just your personnal experiance with one. I like to know what problem you had.

Thanks in advance.

Mike


Both, my personal experience was in short, I had the drive, I put video on it, the drive went bad, specifically the drive would go to sleep or turn itself off without warning. So I transferred the content and took the drive back. Well, I was then stuck with the smart drive software on my computer, but I couldn't uninstall the software on my pc without the software on the drive. Well it was back at the store. So I contacted western digital for help, but I couldn't download the software without the serial number on the drive. Western Digital refused to allow me access to the software on thier site without a serial. I was eventually able to find a solution, no thanks to Western Digital.

I have a friend who does tech support for public schools, he told me that the school bought a bunch of mybooks and they had a lot of them die.

So that's the perspective I was speaking from. If you look at the price compared to what else is out there, I suspect that the Mybooks are cheaper, well, because they're cheaper.

Harry Bromley-Davenport November 16th, 2006 01:11 PM

Go for the G-Tech drives. I have two 1TB drives and the service in the LA office is great.

I understand from multiple postings on various boards that the LaCie's are to be avoided.

Best

H.

Tony Tremble November 17th, 2006 03:48 AM

Ben

If you've got a Macbook Pro (as I have) why not make use of the Expresscard slot?

Firmtek produce a eSATA Expresscard + 2 Drive enclosure for about £200+VAT. Add 2 x SATA drives of your choice and configure them as a Striped pair and you'll have an excellent portable Video RAID. It will be twice as fast as a FW800 solution and less expensive than those G-Tech solutions.

TT

You can purchase from WTS broadcast here in the UK.

Dave Lammey November 17th, 2006 08:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tony Tremble
Ben

If you've got a Macbook Pro (as I have) why not make use of the Expresscard slot?

Firmtek produce a eSATA Expresscard + 2 Drive enclosure for about £200+VAT. Add 2 x SATA drives of your choice and configure them as a Striped pair and you'll have an excellent portable Video RAID. It will be twice as fast as a FW800 solution and less expensive than those G-Tech solutions.

TT

You can purchase from WTS broadcast here in the UK.

Hi Tony: supposing one had this set up you describe, would it be possible to capture to one of the SATA drives from a camera that is connected to the Macbook Pro's firewire 400 port?

To the original poster: I recently bought a MyBook Pro (the one with the firewire 800 port on it), and guess what -- the firewire 800 ports did not work. The firewire 400 and USB ports were fine, but not the 800. So I returned the MyBook, haven't decided what I'm going to replace it with yet.

Tony Tremble November 20th, 2006 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dave Lammey
Hi Tony: supposing one had this set up you describe, would it be possible to capture to one of the SATA drives from a camera that is connected to the Macbook Pro's firewire 400 port?

Yes absolutely.

You do not have to use both drives in RAID configuration. They can be set up as two separate drives.

You have a choice of the following:

2 separate drives
RAID Mirrored Set
RAID Striped Set.

I have the two drives in the enclosure configured as a RAID Striped set with two Western Digital 500 GB RE2 drives.

The whole system couldn't be easier to setup and is very portable if you need >>100 MB/s RW on the move.

In answer to your second point I can't speak highly enough of my MBP 17" & FCS and Shake etc etc. I can do anything anywhere anytime. Cue Bond music..


TT

Dave Lammey November 20th, 2006 12:21 PM

Thanks Tony ...

Waldemar Winkler November 20th, 2006 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Bromley-Davenport
Go for the G-Tech drives. I have two 1TB drives and the service in the LA office is great.

I understand from multiple postings on various boards that the LaCie's are to be avoided.

Best

H.

I use LaCie Firewire drives exclusively and have never had a problem. Best drives I have experienced thus far. Of course, the jury is still out. My Maxtor external started to sputter after 4 years. The LaCie's have not met that time frame.

Gunleik Groven November 20th, 2006 07:07 PM

Just to confuse -;)

My 2 MyBookPro 500Gb drives have been flawless since I bought them.

Gunleik

Stephen Pruitt November 20th, 2006 10:21 PM

And, while I'll admit to being an absolute know-nothing on FCP, I have to say that the THREE MyBook drives I am using work flawlessly, as well. I bought two 500 gig drives and one 1,000 gig drive.

The fan on the 1,000 gets loud from time to time, but it works perfectly otherwise.

Stephen

Michael Padilla November 21st, 2006 10:48 AM

2 Attachment(s)
I'll throw my 2 cents in the hat:

Check out the miniG from Transintl:
http://transintl.com/store/category....egory=2597#top

I have used all the configurations; but own the 4 drive version (2TB) on FW 800 with Macbook Pro/ Mac Pro

Chris Hocking November 1st, 2007 06:20 PM

Firstly, Sorry to dig up an old thread!

For years now I have been using Lacie's exclusively. I've got six and have never had a problem. Until yesterday...

My 250GB Triple Interface wouldn't mount. The drive seemed to be powering up (i.e. the lights went on and the hard drive made it's normal noise), but the computer just couldn't detect it. As it's over two years old it's no longer under warranty. As it had some important stuff on it, I decided just to open it up and put the hard drive in another casing. That worked fine and I got all my data off. Then I did some testing to work out what the problem was...

The pin connection between the power circuit board and the firewire/USB circuit board was dodgy. All the soldering had started to detach itself, and it simply wasn't making a connection. After softly trying to fix it, the whole thing fell off. I believe the problem is that the weight of the power cord makes the circuit board lever up, putting pressure on the pin connection, and over time the pressure gets too much.

It seems to me like a really bad design. I'm not sure if the newer drives have the same circuits inside.

Anyway, I'm still a fan of Lacie (they have served me well over the years), but I need a new hard drive enclosure for my "new" Seagate drive. Any suggestions?

Also, looking inside the Lacie, it's really not that special. Is there any specific reason why Lacie is supposedly so much better than the rest? It's just a Seagate drive with an obviously badly designed firewire circuit board.

Looking around the Internet there seems to be LOTS of cases where the Lacie powers up but you can't access it via a computer. Everyone seems to presume it's the circuit board. I would suggest the circuit board is fine, it's just the connection between the power circuit board and the firewire/USB circuit board. If I was any good at soldering there tiny circuit boards, I could probably fix it!

Anyone else had similar problems?

Chris!

Chris Hocking November 2nd, 2007 02:14 AM

I ended up buying a cheap AUD$50.00 Welland Sun Bright 3.5" HDD Enclosure.

Works fine. I'm now wondering, apart from the hard exterior, what's the difference between a Lacie and a cheap enclosure? The insides look exactly the same! The reason I originally bought Lacie's was because people told me the circuit board inside them was the best - but that was the thing that broke!

I'm very confused...

Chris!

Dom Stevenson November 2nd, 2007 02:59 AM

According to pretty much all the pro's over at LAFCPUG, Lacie are to be avoided like the plague. They have a very bad reputation amongst video editors, though to be fair that's probably because so many people are using them. I have one and it has performed well so far.

If i had the money i'd be looking at the likes of G-tech and Caldigit.

These things look interesting too:

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go


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