Bejeeber Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I need to dedicate another external drive for backup storage, and although I've been using firewire drives, heck since this'll just be for backing up, I figure why not go cheap, USB. As long as it's still as reliable as other regular hard drive solutions. I'm thinking 500GB oughta do me for now. Anyone else using the USB's? Any recommendations for great deals from US online retailers? Just a pinch between the geek and chum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I have an external SCSI 4-drive bay that I use for immediate studio backups...but I also have a nice little Lacie USB drive that I use for a second safety back up. That Lacie is so nice and small (it's the FA Porsche design)...that it fits right in my laptop carry bag.The Lacie goes with me wherever I go. I have all my studio projects backed up on the Lacie drive...so if some major catastrophe hit my studio, I would at least have a copy of my work that I could load on any DAW. Mine is an older one...so it's only 160 GB...but that's plenty large for my backup purposes. If I need to archive something...I just burn it to DVD (which I do anyway when I finish a project) Here's a 500 GB Lacie on Amazon....for like $120. Cant beat these prices! http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-External-Design-Porsche-301103U/dp/B000H6CBA4 miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Monkey Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Every sunday, they generally have great deals on Western Digital external drives at Circuit City, Best Buy, CompUSA, etc. Generally about 120gb for 80 dollars.. Its about the size of an Ipod Touch/iPhone except probably thicker ( not much) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stamplicker Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Grab a USB shell ( either sata or IDE ) connection inside the shell. Then put whatever size drive you want in the shell. USB hard drive holder will run ya about 15-35 depending on options/size you want. Then your just looking at the cost of a drive to put in it. MagicStomp Soundbites Soundclick Rambles Haunted Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Red 67 Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I want one with a firewire as well as a usb. Big Red's Ride Blog Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantasticsound Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 ...Here's a 500 GB Lacie on Amazon....for like $120. Cant beat these prices! http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-External-Design-Porsche-301103U/dp/B000H6CBA4 Actually.. you can! I just ordered the USB 500GB LaCie you posted from Office Depot for $99! I spent a half hour trying to find out what must be wrong with these drives but everything I read was positive other than the price! (It was an dated review from C-NET.) It's easiest to find me on Facebook. Neil Bergman Soundclick fntstcsnd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bejeeber Posted November 28, 2007 Author Share Posted November 28, 2007 USB 500GB. $99 OMG you gotta be kiddin me!!! Heading over to Office Depot right now.... Just a pinch between the geek and chum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bejeeber Posted November 28, 2007 Author Share Posted November 28, 2007 Ordered it ($109.24 after tax) Thanx! Just a pinch between the geek and chum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 ...Here's a 500 GB Lacie on Amazon....for like $120. Cant beat these prices! http://www.amazon.com/LaCie-External-Design-Porsche-301103U/dp/B000H6CBA4 Actually.. you can! I just ordered the USB 500GB LaCie you posted from Office Depot for $99! I spent a half hour trying to find out what must be wrong with these drives but everything I read was positive other than the price! (It was an dated review from C-NET.) Hey, that's great! I only did one Google search when I came up with the Amazon link. I really don't need another drive at the moment...but 500 GB for $100 ain't bad at all! miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Professor Monkey Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Woah.. Cheap.. but its heavy and huge... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fantasticsound Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 What do I care, Prof.? It sits with one computer, then I put it in a backpack and bring it to work for access to my own pics, etc. from there. Yeah, Miro... total happenstance that I was ordering stuff for work and found that drive. I was ready to pay twice that for a usable but cheesy build WD like the one I ordered for my boss 6 months ago. It's easiest to find me on Facebook. Neil Bergman Soundclick fntstcsnd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caprae Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 I got two of those LaCies. I'm not keen about how "chatty" they are. I had Seagate FreeAgent which was much heavier and quieter, but for $50 less on the LaCies I took it back. (Bad thing with it was it came with backup software pre-installed, but no disk in case you had to reformat the hard drive.) I've since learned I can't boot from them on my mac. Bummer. Just didn't want to pay the premium for the firewire drives. Even building my own with a case would have been much more expensive. I'll use this for backups and possibly the other for video work. Raise your children and spoil your grandchildren. Spoil your children and raise your grandchildren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluesape Posted November 28, 2007 Share Posted November 28, 2007 Grab a USB shell ( either sata or IDE ) connection inside the shell. Then put whatever size drive you want in the shell. USB hard drive holder will run ya about 15-35 depending on options/size you want. Then your just looking at the cost of a drive to put in it. Yup - I put a WD 250 gig in mine. A little pricier here, but the way to go. Never a DUH! moment! Well, almost never. OK, OK! Sometimes never! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miroslav Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I got two of those LaCies. I'm not keen about how "chatty" they are. How do you mean? Is the drive noisy? My Lacie is quiet as a mouse...but it does run HOT, and since I have my DAW computer inside an ISO box...whenever I run the Lacie for backups, I make sure to open the ISO box door if it's going to be backing up for a long time. ...but no disk in case you had to reformat the hard drive. ??? Why not just reformat it from your computer using the normal Format Drive command? That's how I do it on my PC. Is it the Mac that makes that process difficult with a USB drive..? Never used a USB drive on a Mac. miroslav - miroslavmusic.com "Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fumblyfingers Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Yeah I bought two 300 Gig Seagate Firewire400/USB2.0 drives for a very decent price as they were on sale at Fry's.......checked by pre calling tech support to see if they had the Oxford chipset in them which they do, as that chip is a Digidesign requirement. I get home to find they won't allow me to record to and they also have a go to sleep function built in that you cannot defeat. I was pissed. Anyway, so now with another backup I have and these Seagate's, I have a TB of storage and for that they work well. I see you can get 1TB drives now for a good price at Fry's. I don't like to go much over 250-300 Gig for my audio drives.....I don't know why......does it put more work on the system to have to search bigger drives for the data related to a specific task as the program runs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fumblyfingers Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Yes Miro formatting a drive in the Mac OS is simple as pie. You just go HD>Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility>Erase where you get the various options to format like HFS or HFS+...Mac Extended Journaled. Of course you lose all the data. Perhaps Caprae was meaning restore. Another cool thing is to Partition these drives and break them up into smaller "drives" on your desktop where you can name them.... like Digital Photos, Audio Files or whatever you want to call them. Older Macs and Mac's with OS 9 used to be require one to partition big drives over 200 gig, by Digidesign to speed up the drives ability to search for the data but now OSX does not have that problem...or so they say.....but I wonder with drives now in the TB's.......hence my earlier question and also because I do not know PC's well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A String Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Older Macs and Mac's with OS 9 used to be require one to partition big drives over 200 gig, by Digidesign to speed up the drives ability to search for the data but now OSX does not have that problem...or so they say.....but I wonder with drives now in the TB's.......hence my earlier question and also because I do not know PC's well. PCs used to have the same rules about partitioning. I've heard that it's not necessary anymore, but with drives now larger then 1TB, I'm unsure. It's probably just the old "YOU MUST PARTITION LARGER DRIVES" rule, stuck in my head. It was drilled in there enough that it's hard to get it out... Craig Stringnetwork on Facebook String Network Forum My Music Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWelcome Home Studios Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I need to dedicate another external drive for backup storage, and although I've been using firewire drives, heck since this'll just be for backing up, I figure why not go cheap, USB. As long as it's still as reliable as other regular hard drive solutions. I'm thinking 500GB oughta do me for now. Anyone else using the USB's? Any recommendations for great deals from US online retailers? I bought a couple of drive enclosures, dual firewire or USB, for about $20-25 each. Load in your favorite drive of choice. About the size of a smallish hardback book. I also bought an Apricorn EZ Backup, which also holds any drive you choose. It is a USB device which holds laptop-sized drives. Very cool for portability. I put a 160 gigger in mine. Bill "I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot." Steve Martin Show business: we're all here because we're not all there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caprae Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 Bill, where did you find enclosures for that price? Everything I saw was much higher if it had firewire. Nice thing about firewire is piggybacking one drive to another. These LaCies only have one port on them. I like to be careful with these because I had one of the FW ports go out on the last cheaper box I bought. Makes it a bear when you want that in the middle of the chain. Raise your children and spoil your grandchildren. Spoil your children and raise your grandchildren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caprae Posted November 29, 2007 Share Posted November 29, 2007 I got two of those LaCies. I'm not keen about how "chatty" they are. How do you mean? Is the drive noisy? My Lacie is quiet as a mouse...but it does run HOT, and since I have my DAW computer inside an ISO box...whenever I run the Lacie for backups, I make sure to open the ISO box door if it's going to be backing up for a long time. ...but no disk in case you had to reformat the hard drive. ??? Why not just reformat it from your computer using the normal Format Drive command? That's how I do it on my PC. Is it the Mac that makes that process difficult with a USB drive..? Never used a USB drive on a Mac. Yes, I meant you can't restore the pc software features once you format them for mac. All the special software they tout on the box is gone for good. (not that I have a need for pc software ). Piece of cake formatting drives on the mac, partitioning, etc. Even comes with software to write all 0s seven times (possibly more) in case you want to sell your drive. It can also format for pc or mac. I can't remember the last time i partitioned a drive. But I think I even have software that will repartition a drive without erasing it. Supposedly won't destroy any of your files either. By chatty I meant when it is reading or writing. I've only hooked up one of mine (the other might go back). I didn't realize my mac was Journaling the hard drive. It was sitting there chatting up a storm. Now that that is finished it is much quieter. Still not as quiet as that other one I had. Raise your children and spoil your grandchildren. Spoil your children and raise your grandchildren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWelcome Home Studios Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Bill, where did you find enclosures for that price? Might have been newegg, might have been ebay... I honestly don't remember. But they are just generic enclosures, the same ones that you see most anywhere. Nice looking boxes from extruded aluminum, black plastic caps for the front and back with a little bit of zooming on the shape. I just looked at the box that I kept for the dodads that come with these things, and there is no brand name, nor is there one on the manual. I also have IDE to USB adapters, and at least the box came from the same factory. Handy devices, too.. allows you to just hang any old ide drive off of a USB port. What I NEED is a USB to serial adapter... one that actully WORKS. I bought one of those cheap ones that you see on ebay and in all the stores and discussed on line, and it did not work at all for my purposes. USB did not see it., even after I oaded in the drivers. Point of reference... I NEVER chain devices. I have a LaCie 3x800 firewire adapter card. But chaining devices for critical applications in one-shot situations makes me as nervous as a cubscout at Neverland. Too many bad possibilities. Bill "I believe that entertainment can aspire to be art, and can become art, but if you set out to make art you're an idiot." Steve Martin Show business: we're all here because we're not all there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caprae Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Yes, for recording I wouldn't daisy chain. But for just general backup it works fine. I'll keep my eye open for some boxes. Raise your children and spoil your grandchildren. Spoil your children and raise your grandchildren. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stamplicker Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 Bill check PM MagicStomp Soundbites Soundclick Rambles Haunted Art Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zuben Posted November 30, 2007 Share Posted November 30, 2007 I picked up a 280gig USB & Firewire external about a year ago. It was a close out and it was pretty cheap. I use it for my Tascam and have a long way to go to fill it. I wish I have picked up a couple. Backups were never so easy. You could go crazy with a 1TG A String, it's been a long time since you have had to partition a PC HD. On another note, the new Mercedes Benz C class has a 40 gig HD for music storage, a PC card input that is only limited by the size of PC card you have. They have PC card HDs. AM/FM/WB radio. 6 CD/DVD changer and Sat radio and IPOD intergration. Oh, as long you are in park, you can watch DVDs on the NAV screen. You could own the car for 10 years and never hear the same song twice! Harmon Kardon Suround Sound w/ Dolby II. I think I'd live in the car! Peace And I thought my Learjet 8 track as hot sh*t when I put it in my 61 Valiant http://www.spotcheckbilly.com http://www.littlefeat.net http://www.bonnieraitt.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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