hard drive chocies

[JES]

So I'm about to drop big bucks on the new dual g5 2.5 mac, and I'm wondering how my HD money is best spent. Specifically, if it's a dedicated music computer, is there any reason to upgrade the system drive from 160 to 250gb? I don't do much with sample libraries now, but there's always the possibility in the future. I'm especially eyeing the spectrasonics stuff. Is it best to keep that stuff on your system drive, or on a second drive (I usually use the 2nd one for recorded audio)?

 

Another option would be to not upgrade the system drive, but get two FW drives -- one for backup and one for samples, etc.

 

How do others handle it?

 

Thanks.

 

--JES

[ernest828]

Jes

 

I would suggest you get another HD.

 

My producer and I have multiple HDs in our MACs. One is specifically for audio, the other for programs. We also have an external we use to backup our audio data after each session. This makes it easier for us to share files especially when we are travelling between our two studios.

 

I just purchased another HD yesterday specifically for video. That makes 4!

 

Peace,

Ernest

[Anderton]

I pretty much agree with Ernest. What has worked for me is:

 

* The biggest effing system drive you can stuff in your computer. You'd be amazed how fast it fills up. When I got a 120 GB drive I thought it would last forever. Ha!

 

* A second big honkin' drive for samples and such (yes, Spectrasonics will let you put the samples on a different drive).

 

* A removable drive bay. This is the key. I have separate hard drive mechanisms for video, music, backups, etc.

 

Now, here's the reason why you want the big system drive: So you can back up your removable drive to it temporarily, put the backup drive in the removable drive bay, then copy the data from the system drive to the backup. You could also do the same thing with an external Firewire drive.

 

Just to put things in perspective, a huge hard drive that can hold a zillion things costs way less than a reel of 2" tape. More hard drives = good.

[Bbach1]

Crazy isn't it? When I was studying computer programming, desktop computers did not have hard drives. There were some dual floppys on the market. Then came the big "breakthrough" and a 20mg hd was introducted. There is no way you can fill that up I thought. Now I have two hard drives, and I'm still thinking I'm going to need more storage.

[Philip OKeefe]

I hear you - my first computer had 64 KB of RAM, and a floppy drive. My first HDD (a 10 or 20 MB model, I don't remember now - it's been so long) cost me $3,500.

 

My how times have changed!

 

BTW, I agree - go with as many drives, and the largest drives that you can get.

[Bbach1]

Originally posted by Philip O'Keefe:

I hear you - my first computer had 64 KB of RAM, and a floppy drive. My first HDD (a 10 or 20 MB model, I don't remember now - it's been so long) cost me $3,500.

 

My how times have changed!

 

BTW, I agree - go with as many drives, and the largest drives that you can get.

Yea the prices! It's insanity. It makes a person want to sit back and watch for a few years everytime some new technology shows up. The prices are bound to come down. I paid $1200 for a Directv one room system back in '95 and now they give them to you if you subscribe. I want my $1200 back.