Hi

I wonder if anyone owns the Freecom Hard Drive Pro USB 2 & FireWire? I'm looking for a 7200rpm external hard drive, Firewire. I only have 400 ports at the moment but 800 is good in case I upgrade my mac. This drive seems to tick all the right boxes, but it would be great to hear of some first-hand experiences regarding performance and noise.

Best solution is still either to stick for a known brand (like LaCie) to benefit of a warranty that works, or to build the drive yourself using enclosures and drives you choose (it's very simple: plug and screw in). I've only heard of freecoms thru articles and adverts so I can't be of much more help.

I would second that. There are some hard drives that are optimized for audio use Lacie and Glyph would be some great examples as well as Seagate. Make sure they at least have the Oxford 911 chipset. I bought an enclosure with the chipset from Tiger Direct (couldn't even tell you who made it) for a Hitachi drive I had lying around and really...it has been trouble free. I also hear that there are some really good drives from www.pacificproaudio.com. They used to make Pro Tools approved external drives and their prices aren't bad.


www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

I did a fair amount of research on an external hard drive to use with my iBook G4 and GB3, and ended up buying a 160 gig drive made by Pacific Pro Audio in Seattle. It has the PPA Oxford 911 chip, has ample cache, and operates at 7200. The Price was $135 plus shipping. I've had it a month and it seems just dandy -- quiet, does the job.

Just wanted to offer that for what it's worth -- no financial interest in Pacific Pro Audio.