I’m looking to buy an external hard drive for my laptop (sorry, for my “portable desktop”) so that I can edit and store digital video files. The only problem is, I don’t know what I need.
I was also thinking about running image editing software like Fireworks or Photoshop from the external drive.
Advice? Recommendations? Warnings? Anyone…?
And yes, I plan on making porn, so y’know, try to hurry it up a bit. It’s getting drafty in here, and I keep knocking stuff off the coffee table.
Related: the UN continues to suck.
Well, if you have a USB port on your laptop…
http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/drives/5ad4/
http://www.everythingusb.com/hardware/Storage/Hard_Drives.htm
Or, you know, just walk into a BestBuy or CompUSA like everyone else.
I have a slew of USB ports and 1 firewire connector. Been to BestBuy and CompUSA, but the selection at both is disapointing.
Do I want USB or firewire or both? Do I want a larger cache, or will it matter? Why? What access speed should I be looking for? What size drive? Is it worth the extra money to have one touch backup? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop…?
Lately I’ve seen a lot of Western Digital drives on sale. Anybody have any experience with these?
Those are the kinds of questions I’m looking to have answered.
The porn I can do myself.
Oh, you’re one of those people. If you’ve got a firewire connector, great, but I still suggest USB as it’s more prevelant and the one day you actually sit down in front of a computer that isn’t yours where you want to plug in that external HD, you’ll be kicking yourself in the firewire for not going USB.
I usually look at space vs. price. The cheaper I can get more disk space, the happier I am. Secondary to that is speed, IMO. If I recall correctly, firewire is faster than USB, but USB 2.0 has bridged that gap nicely.
How much diskspace you need depends on how much porn you plan on making. (I’ve got just over 23GB of mp3’s and about 14GB or so of video.)
Anyways, I’ll let someone who knows more about PC/laptop hardware shed some light for you… I’m more the Cisco Router and internetworking type.
How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop…?
Three, duh.
first, go with usb2.0 over firewire. you won’t notice the speed differences, and you’ll be able to connect that usb2.0 drive in more areas than firewire.
second, cache isn’t as important as people say. however, if you can get a comparable price for 8mb over 2mb, go with the 8mb cache
third, always get more space than you think you’ll use so you don’t kick yourself when you run out.
stay away from store brands. WD is fine, as is Seagate. i prefer IBM, but that’s just me.
have fun.
Get an AcomData – compatible with both Firewire and USB 2.0, available at Target and Best Buy if you don’t like buying online. I really like mine, or did till I blew it up. Which event was entirely my fault and not in any way related to any problem with the drive. If you do like buying online, Smalldog.com is a good place to start looking – they have good prices on damn near everything, but I don’t know if they carry AcomData or not.
Hey, I have to put a word in for Maxtor! I do have a dog in this fight, though…
http://www.maxtor.com/en/products/external/onetouch/onetouch_usb/index.htm
Designed and developed in Colorado!
As others have said, go USB 2.0, although Maxtor and others make drives which will do both USB and Firewire. That flexibility could come in handy if you want to share files with friends and colleagues who run Macs. The average user probably wouldn’t notice the speed difference, but USB 2.0 is rated slightly faster than 1394-Firewire, I believe.
If your PC has a USB 1.1 connection, you will make transfers at the slower 1.1 speed, regardless of the rating of your USB 2.0 drive. It’s easy and fairly cheap to upgrade to USB 2.0 if necessary.
I have a Maxtor OneTouch drive on my desk, and it runs like a champ.
Real video people use firewire. The sustained transfer rate is better than USB 2.0, which is why it’s the industry standard. Or just get <a>both </a> For drive manufacture I’d go with Western Digital. Their drives are rock solid and stable.
Ditto lplimac’s comments. (Though USB might work well enough for your porn.) Editing software: Dave at Fotoslop recommends Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 for recreational image editing. Or you could get a bundle of Photoshop and the Adobe video editing software. (If you are university faculty or student the educational discount saves you about $600-$700 on the bundle.)
And you might as well install it on both hard drives. Photoshop 7.0 full version takes up less than 200Mb on my computer, Adobe Premiere less than 300Mb.
Firewire, baby. Dever’s point about kicking yourself when you can’t plug your new drive into an older computer is a good one, but when you plug your USB 2 drive into your buddy’s USB 1 port you’ll kick yourself anyway. USB 1 is slow, slow, slow.
I could be remembering incorrectly, but the last time I looked at the crappy prebuilts at Sam’s Club they all had a firewire port anyway.
I hate to be a jerk but….
(Don’t you love when people use that as an opening line)
I have never seen so much bad advice to such a simple question in my life. USB faster than Firewire? What planet are you people on?*
USB for video? OK everyone who gave that advice and has actually done video raise your hand…. I thought so.
Heavy sigh
You have 3 choices Firewire, Firewire and Firewire.
USB is fine for low speed stuff. Firewire was designed as a way to carry the load of DV. Use it.
I don’t know how much porn you want to make but LaCie has a new Firewire 500GB that is hard to beat.
Some people are so fixated with “compatibility” they will buy a products that is INcompatible with the solution they need. Another sigh.
OK if you want a real product get a LaCie. They’ve been around for about 15ish years now. For external storage, I’m not sure there is a better company out there.
If you have Firewire 800 make sure you have a drive that takes advantage of it. (though all the new big drives do)
OK sorry, we all get to go into “jerk mode” once in a while. Tonight was my turn.
Paul
* BTW I fully expect some spec sheet monkey to post that the NEW USB is “faster” than the OLD Firewire. If they want to believe that it works that way in real life go ahead and let them believe it. Then ask them how much experience they have editing video with the two. On paper, the bumblebee can’t fly.