External Hard Drive Advice Options

[percusski]

First post here.
I am running Logic version 6.4 off an Ibook G4 with an extra gig of Ram. I need an external hard drive that is relatively portable to hold music samples etc thus freeing up the Mac's hard drive.It should not be slower than
7,200rpm and have firewire connectibility, I would guess a minimum of 160gb.
Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[lepetitmartien]

Welcome

Should it be self powered or powered via firewire ?

Size wise, 160 GB right now is small, save if you're envisioning a 2.5" drive. Now Finding both 7200 rpm and a large capacity without making it yourself I see only Glyph which is expensive and most the hardware is available from other sources so it's a good source only if you're a professional and need the extra service they provide.

Have a read in this thread here and this one, when checking online, stick to Oxford (912, 922, 924) bridges especially if you work with Pro Tools.

I'll dive later on in the forums to find more hints, I remamber there was a thread with the dream drive for laptop somewhere…

[update]

A good enclosure can be as much as 20% faster than a LaCie equivalent (3.5" single HD porshe design, some members did the test). I'd check carefully the shops I gave in the threads and the shops you have access in the UK, eventually build your own one with an enclosure and choose the drive yourself.

Now in the LaCie range, the Little Big Disk is very sexy, as a RAID 0, the 5400 rpm is not an issue at all and it's powered by firewire, tripel interface…

Keep us updated, it's a difficult question with no perfect, eyes shut buy for now save for a premium price.

[percusski]

Welcome

Should it be self powered or powered via firewire ?

Size wise, 160 GB right now is small, save if you're envisioning a 2.5" drive. Now Finding both 7200 rpm and a large capacity without making it yourself I see only Glyph which is expensive and most the hardware is available from other sources so it's a good source only if you're a professional and need the extra service they provide.

Have a read in this thread here and this one, when checking online, stick to Oxford (912, 922, 924) bridges especially if you work with Pro Tools.

I'll dive later on in the forums to find more hints, I remamber there was a thread with the dream drive for laptop somewhere…

[update]

A good enclosure can be as much as 20% faster than a LaCie equivalent (3.5" single HD porshe design, some members did the test). I'd check carefully the shops I gave in the threads and the shops you have access in the UK, eventually build your own one with an enclosure and choose the drive yourself.

Now in the LaCie range, the Little Big Disk is very sexy, as a RAID 0, the 5400 rpm is not an issue at all and it's powered by firewire, tripel interface…

Keep us updated, it's a difficult question with no perfect, eyes shut buy for now save for a premium price.

Thanks for the response. Not too bothered about how it's powered, really just want something not too expensive to house all the samples i have that will communicate quickly with the Mac (firewire) and hopefully indirectly enhance it's performance. I looked around the net and rang a couple of places in the UK and have been recommended a Macally PHR100-AC enclosure fitted out with a Hitachi ID200 (200gb) drive.I am assuming that 200gb will be enough storage for the samples.
Oh not working with Pro Tools, just using Logic.
Will now read through the recommended links.
Thanks

This post has been edited by percusski: Thu 4 Oct 2007, 21:13

[lepetitmartien]

If you use the MacAlly in the end, give us feedback on it, it's a little gizmo around for some time and it could be helpful.

Sure for sample, the Little Big Disk is a bit over the head (more oriented into recording, heavy playback of tracks).

The little Western Digital in 2.5" external are cute too (fine drives, fine enclosure, but I don't remember if they are FW or USB only… and as my battery is about to end, I won't check just now)

[percusski]

If you use the MacAlly in the end, give us feedback on it, it's a little gizmo around for some time and it could be helpful.

Sure for sample, the Little Big Disk is a bit over the head (more oriented into recording, heavy playback of tracks).

The little Western Digital in 2.5" external are cute too (fine drives, fine enclosure, but I don't remember if they are FW or USB only… and as my battery is about to end, I won't check just now)

With my limited knowledge of these things, everything seems to work well and early indications suggest that it makes Logic run more smoothly (I have moved all samples/instruments onto the external drive). The MacAlly looks nice too, very compact with a nice blue light (obviously the most important part).
One thing though, in order to 'format' the drive so the mac could read it I used Disc Utility then clicked 'Erase' - i found this procedure somewhere on a forum. However after deleting some items from the external drive the next time I started it the Mac did not bring up the Icon on the desktop when the drive was connected, it was the same when connected to a friend's Mac. I had to use the same disc utility procedure to get it working again and this obviously meant erasing all the items on the external drive.
My question is, should this happen again, what is the simplest was to format an external drive without having to delete everything on that drive?
thanks in advance.

[lepetitmartien]

If you format, you "erase", in fact you don't erase the files but the way to find them (the tables), meaning they're gone. Now, a true erase is possible on some software but on PCs, the closest you can be of it is a round about by erase and write multiple times (there's the option).

So, if you format, you loose the data. But you can beforehand always try DataRescue to recover files, and DiskWarrior to repair the drive.

On your specific issue, I believe the drive had a problem, a go at DiskWarrior would have been a good idea… Something like a broken directory file. It happens when for some reason the drive has been disconnected the wrong way for example, especially when writing something at the same time.

Remember : always "trash" the drive, wait till it stops, then shut it down and/or disconnect it.