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Portable Hard Drive reccomendations?


George Ebersole

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I thought I posted this earlier, but I guess didn't hit the submit button or something.

 

I've got a project that I'm plannig to shoot in the Santa Cruz mountains. I'll be using a Canon HL-X1, but I want to use a portable hard drive instead of their personal format.

 

Can someone reccomend a good one?

 

Thanks much.

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I prefer Lacie, Western Digital, and Seagate, though often their innards are very similar (example my one Lacie Porsche drive was really just a Maxtor!)

 

Their innards are always similar. My personal philosophy is big and cheap. I have 5 portables (more over the years) and the only rule is buy the largest drive you can afford and the cheapest enclosure which doesn't disintegrate in your hands. I know some people feel a benefit from going with the more expensive lacies (sometimes twice as much if not more for the same size) but there really isn't much of a difference in functionality and the actual hard drive in them will be from a known manufacturer and its far more likely to fail long before the enclosure. I do however have one Lacie.

Unless you intend to get one of those excellent Raid in a box enclosures (which are well worth spending more money on) or need the enclosure to be ruggedized (is that a word?) in some way then I would spend the bulk of the money on getting the largest drive in reach and a small portion on a decent enclosure, 3.5 or 2.5 inch. You can even find Lacie knockoffs if you like the look of them.

They are, after all, all made in China and Taiwan...

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Thanks for the replies.

 

I actually do need a ruged enclosure. I'm tentatively planning on shooting in Big Basin, maybe Portola Valley. Either way it's going to be up in "god's country", and it'd be nice to have something that can take a little shock and withstand dirt and moisture.

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I would second solid state if cost is no option, though those drive, from what I've seen, can cost a pretty penny. And also they do have some issues still.. but for field recording.. not a problem normally (it's over their lifetime it can become problematic : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_drive) so perhaps SSDs for field and typical disks at home (backed up of course!)

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You pay a little more but a Western Digital is worth it.

 

 

That's debatable. The one I bought crapped out less than a year after purchase and now it costs $14.95 just to talk to someone to see if they might be able to help (warranty and live-help were good for 90 days.).

 

I've read about other issues with WD drives, just on this site.

 

I'll never go near another one.

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You should be thinking hard about how you backup your data - maybe another drive via a laptop or something. A hard drive failure and... :(

 

Have you considered nNovia mediapacs products? http://www.nnovia.com/products.php?categories_id=24 The solid state ones will be very rugged.

 

You might find this useful: http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/feature...?FeatureID=1836 The G-RAID3 looks good.

 

This subject is discussed thoroughly on the DVi forum http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/tapeless-video-...ding-solutions/

 

Happy reading! :D

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SonnetTech Fusion HD:

 

fusionf2_chart020409.png

 

Why on Earth is a 1T drive dramatically faster than a 640MB drive? I assume the percentages below refer to how full the disk is? And why the drastic falloff in speed? Is that due to the data being laid down in some random fashion? Even during writing? Haven't they fixed that yet? :unsure:

Edited by Karel Bata
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