[Sean Alter]

Greetings:

I'm using a m-box to record onto my ibook 1.33 and understand that using an external hardrive is best for this. Will my computer automatically record directly onto the external drive during the session itself or does it have to be tranferred over from my computers internal drive after I"m finished? If not automatic do you select which drive to use depending on which application your using? This is important because my internal drive is 5400rpm and I like the faster rates of 7200rpm which is pretty standard now.
It sounds like usb2 is faster than firewire 400 with usb2 at 480 and firewire400 at well 400....so I should use an external with usb2 rather than firewire 400, because the ibook 1.33 has one firewire 400 and two usb 2.0. Also is the firewire connection a 4pin or 6pin on the ibook, would a six pin be compatible or do I have to get a 4 to 6 converter if the external drive is a 6 pin?
Any advice on fast, durable and portable external hardrives? I'm looking at the lacie 80gb or possibly the western digital 80gb at circuit city.

[mattsgotredhair]

With your Mbox, you're going to setup your sessions on the the external drive and leave them there. You won't ever want to move them to the internal drive, nor will you have to because running of the external drive will work great.
I will recommend Lacie drive soley because that's the only external drive I use on an everyday basis, and I think they work great. I'm sure there are better out there, but I am very confident that Lacie just works. Feel free to research it and find a better, or even take suggestions from other people, but we have about 10 of their drive in the studio I work at, and we rarely have problems.
Your iBook has a 6 pin connection, and this will work fine with a Lacie drive.

Oh yeah, don't get a Lacie Porsche drive. Those blow. Just get a D2, or something similar.

[analogika]

^^^ what he said, including the bit about the Porsche drives.

I like the LaCie D2 drives.

[Sean Alter]

thanks I think I'll prolly buy a western digital 80 gb considering I can get one of those for $50.

[mattsgotredhair]

Cool, I dont know if those are good or bad, but just remember that it could be 50$ for a reason.