[awcopus]

Need to expand my capacity given demands of current DV editing project. I use FCP with OS X and am looking for an external HD 7200rpm firewire drive that will be extremely reliable and a solid performer. Recommendations in the 120 GB to 200 GB range would be greatly appreciated as I am quickly running out of space.

Thanks in advance!

[Yodas Scrotum]

Just buy a hard drive and a firewire enclosure. It's DV so get a 5400 or 7200 RPM drive and an enclosure that supports Oxford 911 or later and you're set.

www.macsales.com

[Weezer]

check here for some current hot deals, Id go with the 180 gig 8 meg cache WD for $160 and then get a firewire enclosure on it.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=141433

[awcopus]

better than others? I'm looking for insights about specific configurations that work terrifically, have proven reliability. I can't believe how difficult it is to find a web site that deals with hard drives in an authoritative manner.

Anyone used granite digital solutions?
I'm especially curious about http://www.scsipro.com/catalog/pg33_...pjbodraid_.htm

[buddhabelly]

bit overkill no? all you need is storage. you can do it cheaply by getting a HD and an enclosure and doing it yourself (my preference) or you can get expensive and buy the granite. granted it does have some cool stuff w/ the diagnostics and lcd read-out, but do you really need it?

[awcopus]

Is a FireWire RAID overkill for DV editing? I don't think so. But then it seems that all FireWire RAIDs are driven by software, not hardware based. In which case, the only advantage of the Granite solution is the swappable drive bays. Otherwise, you can make or buy any number of drives and configure a software RAID for them.

I guess I was looking for feedback from people who have had positive and negative experiences with different external drives or with matching specific drives to specific enclosures.

Maybe there's just so much parity among HD manufacturers now that my question is "overkill" as you say. I'm just checking with my friendly Mac AV people to see if they can help me avoid pitfalls or grab superior solutions.

Meanwhile, I've left messages at Granite and hope to hear from them. I think the SMART tech is a bit too pricey for me, but I like their swappable drive mechanisms. I'm leaning towards putting four 80 GB Seagate Barracudas ATAT IV 7200rpm (at $110 a piece) into a $799 4 bay Granite enclosure. Just need to verify that they support this drive and that the RAID software is compatible with the latest version of OSX.