Need a good external hard drive for Vegas movie files, $100 or less...
 

I just ordered Vegas pro 8 and I know I will need an external hard drive to save video files. There are two issues that prevent me from randomly picking a hard drive:

1. I have Windows Vista. Now my old printer doesn't work because it isn't compatible w/ Vista and there isn't a patch. I don't want to buy a hard drive that isn't compatible w/ Vista.

2. I've heard some hard drives transfer Vegas files really slow and some not at all. I'd like to stay below $100 and have enough memory to keep all my projects on the hard drive. I'd spend $140 tops, but like I said I'd like to spend under $100.

You guys are the experts so I'm asking here. If it matters it won't be HD footage for now, but I may be using HD footage in a year or so. Thanks in advance for any responses.

You're really going to need a Firewire or even better, an eSATA drive. USB is too slow for realtime editing. I've done it, but it's no fun. Now there are plenty of drives available in that configuration for under $140, but will your computer support them (does it have a Firewire or an eSATA port?) I wouldn't worry about them being compatible with Vista. The standards for USB, Firewire and eSATA drive access were established long before Vista. We're running Vista on three workstations and have connected several external drives, including some really old USB models, with no problems at all.

I'd pick up a drive that does all three - USB, Firewire and eSata. A quick search turned up several 500GB drives for $140 or less.

I have this one in the 750GB version: http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...k_Premium.html, it works very well.

Any drive will work regardless of OS platform so "shop away". Avoid those rated at 5400 rpm though... make sure it's 7200.

Edit: I have 5 USB external drives and can't tell the difference between firewire or esata during editing sessions. (Only when copying from one drive to another).

Why not add an internal drive?

I use a Western Digital Elements external hard drive and it's worked really well so far. I think so long as you're using USB2 it's fine for editing. Someone told me USB2 is faster than firewire. I had a Lacie before that, and I'd just say don't go there!

Firewire and USB2 offer about the same performance. eSATA is much faster than either firewire or USB. The biggest problem with external drives is cooling. Most external drive enclosures (and computer cases for that matter) are pretty lousy for that. Hot running HDDs tend to die early deaths.

Here's an external enclosure that looks to offer pretty good cooling:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173042

Combine that with a decent SATA drive and you should be in good shape. Spend $150 (total), and you can have a 750GB external eSATA drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148134

Maybe just my bad experience but I would avoid Seagate drives. I already burned 2 750GB drives out. They do run a lot hotter.

I agree with Robert and would recommend buildign your own. You will spend a little more money but get somethning that is much more reliable. The enclosure in his link is a very good enclosure. Antec also makes a good active cooling enclosure. If you want to go without a fan Thermaltake makes a really good Aluminum closure that goes USB 2.0, Firewire and e-SATA. I've got one of the Thermaltakes that I use with a 500GB WD and haven't had any problems with it. Samsung is making some very good drives now too. I got an OEM Samsung 1TB for $150.

Garrett

It's probably best to look at drive models too, rather than simply choose by brand name alone. There are big differences between different models from the same mfg. The only mfg I religiously avoid now is Maxtor. I've seen a lot of their drives fail. This is the best resource I know of, to get an idea how hot a particular drive is going to run (not factoring in how well the enclosure is designed):

http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/3...%2C1786%2C1842

USB 2.0 is rated at 480 Mbps interface while FireWire is a 400 Mbps interface. However, in real world applications, Firewire is always faster. This is because Firewire is an intellegent interface in which the peripherals negotiate bus conflicts. USB is controlled by the OS, adding additional system overhead.

Firewire is up to 70% faster when reading, and handles large files (such as video) extremely well. This is why all DV cameras use a firewire interface instead of USB.

My computer does have one 6-pin firewire port. I'm going to hook up my Canon to the computer through a 4 to 6 pin adapter I bought to get the video onto the computer and save on the external hard drive. There's only one firewire port on my computer though. I'm going to check the links you all posted. BRB...

The Western Digital 500 GB Firewire drive looks the best to me so far. I wanted a TB, but I guess that's out of my price range.

Just wait a few months! :)

I found usb hdds
 

corrupted my data if using as a actual editing drive, use usb for backup only as I believe this is a known issue, I vaguely remember searching the old threads here when it occurred to me.