SATA drives- which one?

[bengineer]

Hello forum, I have a Mac Pro Dual-Core Xeon running PT 7.3 with OS X 10.4.11. I want to add a SATA internal drive. Is there one to buy or avoid? I'm thinking about a WD 1TB from Best Buy, but don't know if there is something in particular about a SATA drive I need to know about for PT.

comments appreciated.

Ben

[albee1952]

Personally, I would get WD Caviar BLACK. My second choice is the BLUE version. Don't buy ANY hard drive with the word "green" in the title(you don't want power management features slowing or stopping your DAW hard drives).

[bengineer]

Thanks for the response, and I was thinking the Green might be trouble. What is the difference between Black and Blue?

Also, as far as PT is concerned, are all SATA drives alike (meaning 7200 rpm models)?

thanks.

[albee1952]

Most are fine for Pro Tools(except the "green" drives). I own both the WD BLACK and BLUE versions and both are fine for me. The Black(and the BLUE AV version) are built like tanks with better bearings, better head protection and bigger cache memory(32meg). Having said that, no brand or model is bulletproof and you still need to protect your *****etts(ie, your data). I have clones of my system drive(including previous builds with older OS and versions of PT and copy my sessions to at least 2 drives(a 3rd copy is not a bad idea).

[aka21stCentury]

Dont' buy from Best Buy. Their latest version Seagates vs 6 (buggy firmware) while the electronic store (custom pc builders) across the street have OEM vs 12 Seagates -- latest. Still only 16 mBs cache verses 32mBs for the Hitachi (but the Seagates are a little quieter).

Hitachi 7,200 from Newegg is the best deal for a quieter drive (not 10K RPM). I am unfortunately hooking my 10k cheetah up for samples via LVD SCSI -- as I have an 8 ft cable to stick somewhere and a box with a fan to house the drive. However if I run into PCI error messages then all is for naught. Must go with a WD Caviar black SATA.

One good thing about the newer Seagates they use smaller bridge pins -- you can force the SATA mode into 1.5 if you are running a G-5. This is not well known, if you need advice how to do this post back. I did it successfully for a G-5 notoriously buggy in faster SATA modes.

Other than that I would go with WD 10k from Newegg SATA 6 (samples). Round Robin dual 7,200 Hitachi's for audio record and playback. But some swear by these new WD caviars. I actually have a WD it is fast. But again.

(Edit) Make sure journaling is on for your backup drive. Even if you backup audio. You just can't record with drives with journaling on. Otherwise you can lose your backup bit volume data and unless you are experienced all is lost -- drive recovery in Marin I think charges $600 but that is worth it in my opinion. However I've never had Pro Tools come back in folders. Thus what good are 10,000 audio files? This is mind blowing to me AVID hasn't released an app to scan for ID nos to reassemble audio folders)

[aka21stCentury]

SuperDuper if you are using macintosh to clone. It is free. Only certain Oxford chipsets will boot though (external) if mac-intel some USB drives will boot the box.

I lost my clone recently. There are a lot of bit volumes hacks out 'gone wild' thanks to our friends at Sony and in Nashville. Idiots. You hire experts to write sophisticated bit volume hacks that search for mp-3s, aiffs, toast images then think it won't get into 'the wrong hands'? Arrrg!

Sneaker net. Keep DAW offline. You can download Kaspersky or Norton offline and update def list if need be. Don't allow scripts (use NoScript and Firefox, again cookies erase when you shut firefox (setting or manually) enforce encrypted cookies in NoScript and only run bare minimum javascript on trusted websites. BBS boards are the worst for embedded javascript trojans (cached to hard disk)... so I don't allow HD cache even on a Macintosh I've been hit three times. Routers with HTML javascript setup are vulnerable to attack. No IRC. Block it. SIP firewall. Block anything you don't use (don't chat).

Worst thing is to loose the clone. I fixed mine believe it or not (I do have Disk Warrior) but a powerbook with OS-9 and Norton 6 -- firewire target disk mode. Then boot back to newer OS-X laptop and run Disk Utility repair. This is if the firewire cloned volumes refuse to mount. So keep older computers around and offline. Clean fresh installs from Apple Disks. Norton Six -- but do not use this other than as a utility. Don't run protect mode etc etc.

Because journaling must be turned off for audio recording... these drives are more vulnerable and Disk Utility may not fix them. One option is OS-9 powerbook and create a restore point target disk mode with Norton 6.

I lost a huge hard drive from a bug between Disk Warrior and Tiger... both blamed the other. Even though DW saved my sorry arse many a time... I lost over a dozen songs fully produced (MIDI and audio). Weird, Pro Tools folders emptied out. But remained. MP-3s gone (I own SoundJam Pro -- the original iTunes) etc. Don't know, but personally I blame Apple as both Panther and Tiger were notorius for damaging DIMMS etc. I lost a B&W G-3 after a tiger install.

They are at war against pirating music. We write music. Guess who loses?

[aka21stCentury]

WD Caviar 10k or Hitachi 7,200? -- seems to be dissension whether seek time is that much improved. I am looking for sample drives not round robin Pro Tools audio drives -- and my 10K Cheetah is LVD SCSI and too small (plus it whines). For just plain audio I would not introduce anymore noise into your Tower or work environment unless going LVD SCSI and then you deal with bandwidth shared by PCIe hassles. Or we did back in the old days. But Seagate sells SAS or LVD SCSI 10-15k enterprise units and you need the teflon twisted cable and a case with a fan to put the Seagates in a closet (or airconditioned room).

Audio Round Robin (no Journaling) WD black or Hitachi. But buy two backup drives and a firewire enclosure. SuperDuper I mentioned is a freeware deal for clones (it clones perfectly) but $39 bucks if incremental bu like the old Retrospect (a PITA) and tape drives (even a bigger PITA).

I don't believe in incremental bu's. I backup audio files (take snapshots, etc) manually. If you get hit with a bit volume hack then your bu goes too.

[albee1952]

My opinion only, but 10K drives cost too much, make too much heat. are noisier and offer no real improvement in performance. Also Round Robin is for experts that really have their "act" together as it spreads your audio files over 2 drives(if you are not paying attention, you can really shoot yourself in the foot regarding file management and backup).

[basslines]

Pardon my ignorance, but when you say use a different drive for recording, does that mean that ProTools is still installed on the system drive, but you save and recall all your work from the "secondary" drive?

[Dism]

Originally Posted by basslines

Pardon my ignorance, but when you say use a different drive for recording, does that mean that ProTools is still installed on the system drive, but you save and recall all your work from the "secondary" drive?

Correct. Your session folders should be on their own independent drive. Pro Tools stays on the same drive as your OS.