External hard drive recommends?

[russellnollen]

More specifically, I work with a Pro Tools set-up, decent lap top and a few other tools/instruments and such. Methinks I could some extra drive space. Any recommends for an external hard drive (brands, size, when and how you use it?)? Thanks much!

[kclements]

Hello.

It might be helpful if you gave us some info on your setup. Mac or PC? What kind of connection do you have available to plug a drive into. What is your current drive size .....

There are a lot of options out there and a bit more info would be helpful.

Cheers
kc

[russellnollen]

Ah, yes. Thanks for the feedback! I know less than I wish to admit about computers - but learning. Thanks for any help! Much appreciated!
I have a Toshiba laptop (PC) that I bought back in 2010, runs on an Intel Celeron processor, Windows 7, has a 250 gig hard drive. I use two USB ports for my Mbox & m-audio key rig.
I hope that helps. By golly, if there's anything more you need, just holler!
Kind regards,

[andygabrys]

so there are a few things to consider when thinking about your setup:

Does your computer have anything besides the 2 USB ports? Likely not.
So everything is likely going to be daisy chained into those 2 USB ports. That is going to be less efficient than having more direct connections (USB, Firewire, or Thunderbolt) into your laptop. Without buying another machine, there is likely nothing you can do about that.

You could offer more info about what type of productions you usually do - do you use samples, or is everything live recorded? (didn't listen to your tunes). You will have different needs based on the kind of work you do.

Also - do you have budget to get a new machine? or are you stuck with this one for a while?

But without that info - here's what I would do:

1. buy an external hard drive of at least 1 TB size (2TB would be better) and if you can get one that has a 7200 Rpm speed.
2. before you do anything else, hook it up and make a copy of EVERYTHING that is on the startup drive of your laptop. Mechanical hard drives fail all the time, and I am surprised that yours hasn't died yet as its going on 5 years in age.
3. spec out a new hard drive to put in the laptop. These days Solid State Drives (SSDs) are cheap - most can be had for about $1 / GB of storage. Get the biggest one you can afford, make sure its as fast as you can get (most computers built in the last few years will run on a SATA III 6 gb/s connection - check to see that your computer has that, and buy that kind of drive). SSD's have numerous advantages - they are WAY faster than most mechanical drives, they have no moving parts so failure happens less often. There are a lot of good ones out there. the SAMSUNG 840 PRO is a good one (I have a 512 GB version of it for samples).

This is a bare minimum.

depending on whether or not you use any samples in your productions - you might invest in a second external drive to stream samples from.

most people in the past have followed this logic:

1 drive for OS and programs like your DAW
1 drive for recording audio to (where you actually store your DAW projects)
1 drive for streaming samples
1 drive for hosting videos if you score to picture (i.e. you do films)
1 RAID drive for backup, or 1 single drive plus online backup like Carbonite.

This was due to the way mechanical hard drives worked - when you tried to run the DAW, record audio, playback audio, and stream samples simultaneously, the drive head skipped all over the place and performance suffered.

Its better now with SSD's but usually most people have at least a couple drives dedicated to different things.

[russellnollen]

Thanks much! I don't often record live, but sometimes I do. I go mostly direct. It looks like I've got some business to take care of now!

[andygabrys]

Thanks much! I don't often record live, but sometimes I do. I go mostly direct. It looks like I've got some business to take care of now!

cool.

actually I mean live as in "any actual person" rather than using virtual instrument plugins like strings or other orchestral stuff.

[russellnollen]

Ha - yes. Got it. Thanks for your advice!