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tripletaker · Jan 28, 2007, 11:39 PM

I'm going to be on a video project in Cambodia capturing about 15-20 SD DV tapes. I'm going to be working on a 15" 1.67 GHz PowerBook G4 the whole time. Please recommend an external hard drive that will be best for me in terms of speed and size. Price is not really a problem.

I'm hoping for around 120-320 GB size.

Thanks!

cakey · Jan 29, 2007, 01:43 AM

2 of these and one of these. Done.

tripletaker · Jan 29, 2007, 08:48 AM

Wow, that is expensive. But looks good. Can I just get one WD Raptor HD and one cheap one and use the same case? What kind of bus type should I use? I'm not familiar at all with hard drives, so I'll have to learn how to set it up.

Also is there any other option right underneath that one? I wanna see what the next best option is. Thanks.

mduell · Jan 29, 2007, 10:10 PM

While the Raptor is the fastest (non-enterprise) drive on the market, Firewire 400 is going to be more of a limitation on speed than the drive is. Also the two-drive enclosure has a significant premium over single-drive enclosures.

15-20 DV tapes is what, about 250GB? Add some space for editing and you're looking at about 400GB.

400GB Seagate drive for $120 + Macally Firewire 800 enclosure for $65
Or go with 500GB for $190.
Or 320GB for $95.
Or 250GB for $75.

slpdLoad · Jan 29, 2007, 10:15 PM

Yep, definitely stick with FW 800. Besides that, just get something that's built well.

shifuimam · Jan 29, 2007, 10:21 PM

I'd recommend a Seagate drive over the other brands. They are more reliable, and when Maxtor and WD dropped their standard three-year warranty, Seagate upped theirs to five.

It's worth it when something happens and your drive is dying...

spice003 · Jan 30, 2007, 07:33 AM

powerbook has firewire 800 and MBP CD only has firewire400 thats bullshit. $2000 and no firewire800

tripletaker · 10:24 AM

It's okay, I have it. I think I'm going with the 400GB Seagate HD with the enclosure plus the miniStack v2 for storage.

Is the miniStack simply a external enclosure? Can I just buy the HD separately to save some money?

mduell · Jan 30, 2007, 08:13 PM

Originally Posted by tripletaker

Is the miniStack simply a external enclosure? Can I just buy the HD separately to save some money?

As far as I know you can only buy the ministack with a drive already installed.
Unless you're really looking for the ministack form factor, you can save quite a bit by going with a cheaper (USB or FW/USB) enclosure and separate drive.

tripletaker · Jan 30, 2007, 10:35 PM

miniStack

I was considering the miniStack for the added hub. There's an option to buy the miniStack without the HD included for $69.

tripletaker · Jan 31, 2007, 11:03 AM

What should I format the hard drive for? Would Mac OS Extended make it faster? What about Windows?

mduell · Jan 31, 2007, 07:48 PM

Yes, OSX is relatively slow with the other drive formats (FAT32, NTFS).
Windows can read/write HFS+ using a few different third party apps; if you don't want to buy one, then format the drive as FAT32 for native access from both OSs.

pwrmacg4 · 09:15 PM

duplicate post

pwrmacg4 · Feb 2, 2007, 09:11 PM

Originally Posted by mduell

Yes, OSX is relatively slow with the other drive formats (FAT32, NTFS).
Windows can read/write HFS+ using a few different third party apps; if you don't want to buy one, then format the drive as FAT32 for native access from both OSs.

Which apps can windows use to read HFS+? Also HFS is same as mac os extended file format? Why is the name different?

mduell · Feb 2, 2007, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by pwrmacg4

Which apps can windows use to read HFS+? Also HFS is same as mac os extended file format? Why is the name different?

There are a bunch: MacDrive, MacOpener, MacDisk, etc
Yes, HFS is the Mac OS partition format.

kcmac · Feb 2, 2007, 11:36 PM

The ministack enclosure is awesome and can be purchased separately at OWC. You get all kinds of ports, it is stackable, is well made and looks like a mac product. I got one with the hard drive cuz I am lazy.

I'm hoping that they also come out with one that stacks with AppleTv.

David Esrati · Feb 3, 2007, 04:08 PM

I'm not so sure what's so tough about this-
I'd buy one of Other World Computings elite raid's with their triple connection, USB 2, Firewire 800 and 400- the case is solid- and the drives are under $400 for 500gb now.
The only question I'd have is power sources in Cambodia?

mduell · Feb 3, 2007, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by David Esrati

I'm not so sure what's so tough about this-
I'd buy one of Other World Computings elite raid's with their triple connection, USB 2, Firewire 800 and 400- the case is solid- and the drives are under $400 for 500gb now.
The only question I'd have is power sources in Cambodia?

$400 for 500GB!?! FW800+USB2 (you can use FW400 with the FW800 port) enclosures are $64. 500GB drives are $200 with a 5 year warranty.
RAID isn't going to increase performance much (a single drive can almost saturate FW800), but it will more than double your chance of complete data loss.
Cambodia's electric system is 220V, so you'll need a small (~20W) step-down transformer.

tripletaker · Feb 5, 2007, 04:41 PM

Thanks for all your help.

Here is what I decided on:
500 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 16MB Cache HD
macally External Enclosure

AND miniStack v2 with a 400 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 16MB Cache HD.

Is the last enclosure compatible with the hard drive?

mduell · Feb 5, 2007, 06:22 PM

Yes, they're both ATA.

indigoimac · Feb 7, 2007, 08:52 PM

Simply because it's field work I'm gonna recommend going w/ an enclosures from OtherWorldComputing, pick a size or get an empty one and toss a drive in.

mduell · Feb 7, 2007, 09:31 PM

Originally Posted by indigoimac

Simply because it's field work I'm gonna recommend going w/ an enclosures from OtherWorldComputing, pick a size or get an empty one and toss a drive in.

Why would field work make you recommend a drive with a 2 year warranty instead of 5?