ExtDrive Suggestions

Hi folks,
What are most important specs for an external drive?
Disk speed or data transfer rates? Anyone using a 5400 rpm? I thought I read that Apple recommended 7200 rpm, right? ATA, SATA?
USB2 work at all, would FW800 be best?
Thinking a 1 or 2 TB, does disk size itself have an impact on performance?
Oh, this is FCP 6 on an iMac and MacBook Pro, hence the need for an external unit.
I read one post discouraging WD products and another the Lacie's. How about Seagate, Iomega, Hitachi.

Thanks,
Rick

> USB2 work at all, would FW800 be best?

Never ever use USB drives for editing. They're okay for backups, but never for active editing access.

> Thinking a 1 or 2 TB, does disk size itself have an impact on performance?

Yes. The larger the drive, the less secure it is, especially with FireWire. If you're using external drives to store multiple projects which are being changed all the time, I don't recommend using one big one for all of them. You should designate a number of drives per project, use those drives only for that project, and budget them into each project. If you do want to store all projects in one drive or array, it should be a good, reputable RAID with protection ("data redundancy".


www.derekmok.com

Thanks Derek,

What about the drive speed or transfer rate? 5400 rpm useable?
This will be for storing one project. So you would recommend a 2 drive RAID?

thanks again.

> What about the drive speed or transfer rate? 5400 rpm useable?

I wouldn't use 5400rpm disks for editing, myself. I'd go with 7200rpm.

> This will be for storing one project. So you would recommend a 2 drive RAID?

Can't answer that question without knowing what the project is. Documentary? Feature? Series? What shooting format? What editing format? How long is the editing process? How long will footage need to be kept? Tape or tapeless?


www.derekmok.com