Portable USB hard drive for DAW ? ?

Instead of copying files to my 2 gig flash drive and going from my tracking machine to my mixing machine - I’m considering a 1TB hard drive purchase and slapping it into a SATA USB case to make it portable. Any thoughts?

I have. It’s a great idea :laugh:

Hi pop. I’ve paid close attention to your ‘two machine’ habit. I’m thinking along the same lines. What d’you think you’ll end-up bying?

I dunno yet. Something with a high RPM, but now I’m hearing about “green drives” from WD. So I’m asking.

Cool. I’ll keep an eye on this.

Quote: (Poppa Willis @ Oct. 15 2009, 4:45 PM)

I dunno yet. Something with a high RPM, but now I'm hearing about "green drives" from WD. So I'm asking.

Watch the "Green" drives Pops. They get "green" by spinning down and/or lowering the platter speed under certain "conditions". Probably NOT a good idea for streaming audio. I put a 1TB WD "Black" SATA-II in one of the drive caddies on my new machine. Disk throughput is not a problem. STuff one of those in a USB2 and/or eSATA case (if your machines have eSATA ports) and you can't go wrong.

D

I have a Seagate Free Agent XTreme 1.5 TB drive, which can run USB or Firewire or eSata. i never did find an RPM rating on it, though. seems to be plenty fast, esp. through firewire.

Quote: (john doe's evil twin @ Oct. 15 2009, 6:47 PM)

i never did find an RPM rating on it, though.

7200

I’m thinking a Gigabyte LAN connection to a machine loaded with SATA Hard drives may still be the closest setup to smooth streaming…


Glyph <<
spelling…
has been into something like that for some time…


Tried-and-True setups for audio freeks might be a good way of saving money…

There… I’m P*****g into the wind… :whistle:


Any thoughts ????




Bill…

I think I found the one I want, or two actually.

PortaGig, Or Quad500.

Anyone familiar with either?

That second one looks great…
in my opinion…

It’s a little bigger than the first one…
The only thing is…
I don’t see what the cashe size is on the one with the power supply…


These things don’t come cheep…


I have something similar to this…
I haven’t put it to work yet…
But I’ve copied hard drives with it…



Docking Station



Bill…

PW - the way I read this you will be substituting carrying a portable disk drive between machinces rather than a USB stick. I don’t see the benefit. I would suggest also that you get (possibly a new disk for the mixing machine) plus a wireless (or wired) LAN with access from your tracking machine to just the new disk. I tried to research whether there have been any viruses found in the various music formats used. I could not find any evidence or confirmation.

The Quad500 has a huge bonus you shouldn’t overlook Pops;

NO FRICKEM’ FRACKEM WALL WART! All you need in your laptop sack is a USB/FW/eSATA cable and a standard IEC power cord. DONE.

My big Seagate has a stupid in line lump power supply. You can’t imagine how many times I have cussed that thing.

Glyph’s warranty service is legendary as well. (Unlike Seagate…)

D

Quote: (sevenOfeleven @ Oct. 22 2009, 7:02 AM)

PW - the way I read this you will be substituting carrying a portable disk drive between machinces rather than a USB stick. I don't see the benefit. I would suggest also that you get (possibly a new disk for the mixing machine) plus a wireless (or wired) LAN with access from your tracking machine to just the new disk. I tried to research whether there have been any viruses found in the various music formats used. I could not find any evidence or confirmation.

Yep seven - just a workflow change... I figured why copy and transfer when you can go ahead and record on it then just pick it up and plug it in the mixing laptop or whatever and wherever. Convenience rocks!

Bill - that docking station looks like a cool tool!

Hi Poppa Willis:

I have an earlier version of that machine… It doesn’t have any StorageCard Readers on it… But this machine is pretty nifty…
It’ll take any SATA size drives and read all the storage cards down to and including XD Camera Cards and all…
Then when you have your project complete you remove the drive and replace that drive and you’re set to work on another project with it’s own drive… OR open another folder and new project…
ready-to-begin…



The Blac X machine I have is a USB rev 2.0 format unit…
But the new machine is a Fire-Wire format combined…
I think…
???
:p
Is that what you see ????



Anyway, the Price-is-Right…
as Bob Barker …
put’s it…



Computer freeks should have one of those things for each machine he’s got…
Yea don’t have to pull the side panel off your machine to look at a drive…


Also, you can use the machine to back-up “C” Drives and …
whatever…
That is …
if they are SATA compatible…
Well…
you know…




Bill…

[EDIT] Sorry… no Fire-Wire…

Toys…Toys…
Toys…


I see a nice video camera there…
The $208.00 one…


Somebody buy it for me …
QuICK…
:)
:p
:laugh: :whistle:



Bill…

Urhm! Is it/not conceivable to record to a stick?

Yea - I recorded 3 vocals on a stick the other night before I noticed it, but I’d be slow to try a whole project.