e-Sata External hard drives and MacBook Pro

Hi everybody,
This is just to share some episodes involving e-Sata External Hard Drives in case you are shopping for one.

Here is my experience while trying to find a good one (among the cheapest, it's true...): All the hard drives below have crashed frequently. No data was ever lost.

It could be that the problems described are all the same in nature, I just tried to be accurate while describing the facts.




Acomdata PureDrive 1Tb (1 e-Sata, 1 USB)

I have 3 Acomdata 1Tb: Two of them work fine, the third one has the following symptom: The drive works fine until it freezes while in use. It stays mounted in the finder, you open a window to see its contents and you can see the folders, if you try to see the contents of its folders, it just doesn't give you anything back.
You cannot read or write data anymore.
This failure occurs while the drive is been accessed (not idle, like the Western Digital, see below).
Usually the Finder crashes and I have to hard reset the machine.
Otherwise the drive seems quite stable using the USB connection.
Initially I had partitioned the Acomdata using Apple Partition Map. Did not solve the problem.
Since I am on an Intel Mac, with 10.5.5., I eventually Partitioned using GUID partition map. Did not yield any improvement.




Western Digital MyBook 500Gb (1 e-Sata, 1 mini USB, 2 Firewire)

This guy's e-Sata works fine as long as the disk does not goes idle. If it is not idle, e-Sata seems to work ok, if it goes idle, the leds on my e-Sata Express cards go ON for good and the system eventually has to be restarted.




Iomega 1Tb (1 e-Sata, 1 FW 400, 2 FW 800, 1 USB)

Also shuts down all of a sudden, much like the Acomdata, but this one actually disconnects and triggers a Device Removal alert. While using this drive as a media drive, when the drive crashes, the media clips disconnect, but FCP stays stable. If I reboot the drive, I can go back to FCP and save the project file, great!




Seagate FreeAgent XTreme 1Tb (1 e-Sata , 1 miniUSB, 2 FW 400)

This drive works fine on my system, but it simply doesn't mount on several other Macs. It doesn't mount using ANY of the connections (USB and Firewire were tested, the other systems did not have e-Sata cards). It just doesn't turn on, maybe it is as simple as that, there is no power switch though. Partitioned with Apple Partition Map.



I am using a Dynex 2-Port e-Sata ExpressCard Adapter, and driver provided by manucturer (Dynex).
The card works fine with two of my Acomdata e-Sata drives. Using Mac OS 10.5.5, Intel MacBook Pro, Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz, 2Gb RAM

Hope this helps someone.

Best, Eric

Wow, and I thought I was leaving this BS behind when I switched from PC to Mac! It might help if we can determine:
a. what brand of HD's are inside all these enclosures
b. what bridge chipset is being used between the HD and the ports on the back

It used to be that Oxford was considered the best or most compatible chipset used in a variety of enclosures. I'm not sure if an answer can be found, but it might establish a pattern to your problem.

good points! At this point the HDs still have warranty, so I am returning them (and crossing my fingers)

I know you were saying that you were "shopping among the cheapest" and this might illustrate the false economy of doing that. I'm not saying that buying the higher priced drives will always be better (read: LaCie and others), but you will eat up some of your "savings" by having to send/return these drives from whence they came.

Hey Eric,

Every drive on your list should not be used with audio / video editing IMHO. You get what you pay for when trying to skimp on drives that get as much use as A/V drives. RAID Array is a must...and a fan should be standard. Any unit without a fan is already dead... it just doesn't know it yet. Heat = death to hard drives.

If you want the latest in eSata RAID External, look into the CalDigit VR (quad interface) that is just being released. Even comes with an eSATA extender standard and they are VERY affordable:

[www.caldigit.com]

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

You're absolutely right. Thanks by the tip on the Raid, I've been using Raid every now and then, but I have to go back to more mobile solutions every so often depending on the project.

I heard a lot of people complaining about Lacie drives in the past. I do have to say that I never had a problem with a LaCie that wasn't foreseeable. (Like drives not mounting and eventually loosing data).

Although while writing this I just remembered a) a writer friend of mine lost his LaCie and all data, b) another editor had his LaCie actually catch on fire and c) I never used the portable LaCies on e-Sata

But I still think LaCies (and of course the other solutions you mentioned) are better than the drives I just used. Thanks again for the tip!

Quote

I've been using Raid every now and then, but I have to go back to more mobile solutions every so often depending on the project.

CalDigit VR IS a mobile solution (just get an inexpensive Express34 eSata card for your Macbook Pro). Good luck with the LaCies!

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.