External hard drive?

Rob · #1 (**permalink**) 02-09-2007, 09:29 AM

I decided to get a new dedicated drive for video work as I'm finding it a bit slow working on my C drive (My only NTFS drive) - I guess it must be fragmented tp hell and back etc etc.

I spotted a 320GB 7200 RPM USB2 drive in PC wo4ld, (£80). Will this be OK?

Mark W · #2 (**permalink**) 02-09-2007, 10:19 AM

Yes, it should be fine but an internal drive would probably be better, I think. Not certain as all my drives are inside and my expirience of usb is limited - when you buy it make sure it is 'on approval'.

I am pretty sure other people who post here use usb drives with no problem.

Rob · #3 (**permalink**) 02-09-2007, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Mark W

.. an internal drive would probably be better

To be honest I haven't opened up a PC in years. I used to be a dab-hand at adding IDE hard drives, etc. But that was years ago, and now with all this serial ATA stuff, I don't know what I'm doing any more. I'm sure this new PC will have new connectors and stuff that I wont recognise. Maybe I'll take a look and re-familiarise my self.

It has the added advantage of being hidden from the wife

yeebsy · #4 (**permalink**) 02-10-2007, 09:41 AM

Mark, I use external USB2 drives and they're fine, (just don't do what I did and rest the drive on top of my big sub-woofer, after a few days it was a rather expensive paper weight). :0

0.

Mark W · #5 (**permalink**) 02-10-2007, 12:24 PM

Ah, now that makes me think -I have just moved my desk around and my pc is no on the floor next to my subwoofer. Took me hours to move everything - grr.

Yessby - did u send the drive back? In my expirience thay change them for things like this no questions asked.

Mihai · #6 (**permalink**) 02-10-2007, 01:20 PM

PC next to subwoofer??? Isn't that risky?

irishmark · #7 (**permalink**) 02-10-2007, 01:33 PM

Originally Posted by yeebsy

Mark, I use external USB2 drives and they're fine, (just don't do what I did and rest the drive on top of my big sub-woofer, after a few days it was a rather expensive paper weight). :0

While USB2/firewire drives do work for editing it is NOT advisable to edit that way. The reason for this is that the speed at which the data is transferred is not fast enough. For small projects it will be ok but once you start dealing with large projects the Edit application will become unstable and start to lockup.

Internal SATA/IDE drives have a faster data transfer rate and are therefore the better option.

Rob · #8 (**permalink**) 02-10-2007, 10:31 PM

Just a quick follow up. I took your advice and bought an internal SATA. It was £20 more expensive than the same size Ext-USB2 drive (why I do not know). It was a bit of a fiddle getting it in the case, but it all seems to work.

irishmark · #9 (**permalink**) 02-11-2007, 07:48 AM

it was more expensive? - Thats unusual! Was the USB drive on special offer or something? or were they diffrent sizes?

yeebsy · #10 (**permalink**) 02-11-2007, 11:21 AM

Ye they changed the drive for me but I lost everything that was on it. Pain in the arse and I will never do that again, move your subwoofer away Mark as it has 1 big mother of a magnet in it and could fry all drives in you comp.