LaCie portable HD.

Hello All,

thanks to anyone for their help in advance. So far I have been using external lacie d2 Firewire 7200rpm harddrives for editing with my powerbook g4 on FCP HD4.5.

As I would like to get a lighter drive for travelling I am looking at the lacie portable harddrive with usb2.0 and firewire and 5400 rpm. (It is the small one in the silver case designed by porsche - which I dont care about but it is light and compact and does not need to be plugged into the electrical outlet.)

A friend of mine told me there are problems with transferring files bigger than 4GB, when transferring data from the 7200rpm to the 5400 rpm drive.

Q: So is this true that I cannot transfer files bigger than 4gb from a 7200 rpm drive to a 5400 rpm drive????


Thanks to all!
Best regards,
Robert

PS.

Q: would I be able to edit with the portable 5400rpm lacie drive??

thanks,
robert

Many folks on this forum don't like the brand LaCie, but a 5400 drive is fine. Especially if all you are doing is DV.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Type in "LaCie" in a forum search... & get some popcorn.

There's a lotta hate for LaCie's in here. I "hate" to say it...but I am one of them. The way I feel about these drives, even the logo pi$$es me off. Our department lost 3 LaCie d2 Extreme 250's last year after I suggested they to switch to G-RAID's. Saving a few bucks vs. dependable data storage...hmmmm...I'll go with door #2. Some folks have good luck with them. More power to 'em.

Since you are looking for light weight / portability, I never recommend fanless drives...ever...but if you are in a daring mood, my favorite portable drive company has something similar (recommended 4 DV footage only). If you haven't purchased yet, lookie here:

[www.g-technology.com]

...or the G-RAID also has a mini...but with a FAN!

[www.g-technology.com]

Joey

BTW...I never had a problem moving huge 10 & 20 gig files onto a G-RAID.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

>>Q: So is this true that I cannot transfer files bigger than 4gb from a 7200 rpm drive to a 5400 rpm drive???? <<

No. It's not true. You need to format it so that it can accept large files, but this is just a matter of a few minutes work when you first set it up, using the disk utility that comes with every Mac.

>>Q: would I be able to edit with the portable 5400rpm lacie drive?? <<

I would say that it's unlikely to be a very happy experience. The minimum recommended spec for DV is 7200 rpm. Also, for reference, using the USB port would not be a good idea either. This could be a good backup, transport or storage drive, but I wouldn't use it for editing.

Nah, 5400s work just fine with DV. Have used them myself many times internally and externally. Used them all the time back in my G3 days.

7200s seem to have heat issues with laptops unless used externally. I believe Barefeats did read/write tests comparing 7200s with 5400s. Not as much difference as you might suspect if I recall. Course a Raid is what you really want, but if its not in the cards and a 5400 is what ya got, then you'll be OK.

Michael Horton
-------------------

Well, if you say it's so then I believe it's so, but here's the word from Apple from this article :

Final Cut Pro: What Kind of Hard Drive Should I Buy?

" If you choose to use a FireWire hard drive, make sure it meets these requirements:

* The drive is the only device on the FireWire bus.
* The drive's speed is at least 7200 RPM.
* The drive can sustain minimum data rates appropriate for your video format (3.7 MB/s for DV).
* The drive uses a modern, high-performance bridge chip such as the Oxford 911 or 922.
* The drive uses its own power supply, and is not powered from the FireWire bus."

In my experience, some people get away with using externals connected with goat sinew and powered by gerbils on little wheels, and others can't get them to work reliably even with a stern note from their Mum.

My G3 350 was powered by gerbils and 2 5400 external drives by ProMax. Never skipped a beat.

Now that I think of it, if size is important to you, meaning you want a portable FW drive that fits in your pocket, then there are a bunch out there that are 7200. G-tech, OWC are 2 off the top of my head.

Michael Horton
-------------------

i highly recommend the bus powered OWC firewire dives. seen them used in the field and they are great

[* The drive uses its own power supply, and is not powered from the FireWire bus." ]

AMEN. Wayne... you live on the edge. This should have been covered in that 900-page "Optimizing Final Cut Pro" book from Peachpit and was entirely missed.

My experience with LaCie' D2s is pretty damn good-- only lost one in a lightning strike--but I only use 'em for DV/DVCAM, and to archve client media. That's it. All else is SCSI or SATA.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Set Video In & Out separate from Audio with Control I & O !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Wow. LaCie in a header - been a while

It does vary due to your own milage, but I would also vote for firewire over USB - nothing but issues recently with a (client's) USB2 only Lacie.

That and the fact I could smell it before he opened his bag. Seriously.

"You smell that? Do you smell that? Lacie, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that. I hate the smell of Lacie in the morning. You know, one time we had a drive go down, for a twelve hour show. When it was all over I walked up. We didn't find one of 'em, not one stinkin' video clip. The smell, you know that fear smell, the whole room. Smelled like... defeat."

(With apologies to Apocolypse Now)

Classic. Reminds me of a promo photo I sent out a few days ago, where all 3 of us were SMOKING. INSIDE. A pub!

Ahhhh....the memories. I can just see my kids going 'you used to SMOKE? cigarettes????'

Seriously, LaCies have a smell of their own sometimes.

Heh, yeah. I was doing a retrospective on Rally driving a while ago and here was this great shot of a guy driving a rally car in Africa in the 70s, plain clothes, no helmet, arm on the windowsill, normal seatbelt and a cigarette hanging out of his mouth.

Also, I remember *edit suites* at SBS where the cigarette smoke was so thick that there was actually like a 'tide mark' you could duck underneath. It's a bit amazing we're not all dead of cancer already, really.

I remember editing for a guy that smoked 3 packs a day. He had an ashtray in every room at the studio with a HUBCAP full of butts in the edit suite. Made it hard for me to quit at the time (early 90's).

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

A long overdue thanks to everyone!!
Cheers,
Robert