Hi all,

Was wondering if anyone has any suggestions about external hard drives. Since I have been editing approx. two years I have primarily used LaCie. I started out with a 300GB Triple Interface and have also acquired a 1TB Triple Interface. I use them both on Macs and PCs (via Mac Drive) running Windows XP and until recently I have had no problems with them however it seems that my original 300GB LaCie is beginning to worry me. I am currently in the market to purchase another large external to back up both drives and wanted to get some feedback on the topic from others with more years experience editing with Avid and external drives. 

What are good drives for backing up other drives? As well as which drives are good for direct editing?

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Anything by G-Tech .... seems to be the hot ticket around here.

Pretty much any modern external drive will work with Avid, as long as it's Firewire or eSATA based (avoid USB like the plague).  Most actual drives are made by one of a very few manufacturers.  G-Tech and LaCie, for example, source drives from another vendor, and just put them in nice cases.  I've heard people like the G-Techs, but I've heard stories of them crashing as well, so don't buy into the hype too much.  LaCies seem to polarize people as well--a lot of folks really like them, and a few say they're total garbage.  Again, I think it's just like any other brand.  Most people will have a good experience, some will have a really bad experience.  I've used all kinds and brands of drives with Avid (within arms reach I have about dozen internal and external drives from six different manufacturers) and with other computer systems in general, and I can't really tell the difference between them in terms of reliability, performance, etc.  I've had a few drives die on me--some due to old age, some due to abuse they suffered, and some that were just completely random--and I haven't been able to discern any pattern as to which drives tend to be better than others.

I say go with whatever drive works for you, but just make sure you keep your data adequately backed up if you don't want to lose it.  You'd be better off spending the money on two cheaper drives and being doubly redundant than dropping a lot of cash on a "premium" drive, which is probably just as likely to fail on you when it's least convenient.

G-Tech uses Hitachi Ultrastars. At this point I would just buy a port mulitplier and throw five Ultrastars in there.

Here is a great port mulitplier:

http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/

 Hi there,

Personally I have no problems with USB. It works fine but can be slow. It depends on what other USB devices you use on the same controller at the same time.

Firewire works better but in most case people do not have two firewire controllers. A firewire drive and a deck connected at the same time is a "no go".

External sata is the best.

I like the westerndigital 1T drives. They have 2x 500 gig drives and a small raid controller inside. You can choose between stripeset giving you 1T (raid 0) and mirror giving you 500 gig (raid 1). I have all my drives mirrored for safety. Then I also make 2 partitions of 250 gig so it is less likely to get into problems with windows explorer (gets slow) and avid maximum file/folder count. I have never had any problems the past 1,5 years. They have Firewire and USB connectivity. I connect them thru firewire most of the time but usb never gave me problems either. And they are not very expensive.