The Best Hard Drives For PT8 + Windows 7? Firewire? eSATA?

[AliGlenUig]

Yesterday I found that I was having this issue http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=292666
with my laptop running win 7 64 bit and pro tools 8.0.4.

It was rightly pointed out that I need to record to an external hard drive to rid myself of these pops and cracks as my internal drive is a rather pathetic 5,400 rpm.

Does anyone have any opinions as to the best connection type to go for? I understand USB 2.0 isn't powerful enough, but I've heard of people having problems with Firewire in general with Windows 7. Has anyone experienced this?
If needs be I am willing to get an expresscard34 adapter for either the firewire 800 or eSATA, as my laptop has an expresscard34 slot.
Does anyone have an opinion on firewire vs eSATA on Windows 7 or just in general?

Even better, can anyone reccomend a specific hard drive that they've had good experiences with for direct audio recording? I understand the basic criteria, but I'm sure some are still better than others.

[AliGlenUig]

*bump*

[Benoni]

If you have a recent Laptop, it may have another internal drive bay. Sometimes these are not easy to access, as in you have to remove the entire bottom tray to access the bay. Others have bays that are easy to access with just one screw on a dedicated bay door. So maybe check that out. And internal drive will generally always give better performance than an external, with E-SATA being an exception, internal or E-SATA will 'generally' perform about the same.

As you may know, PT8 does not support USB drives, however PT9 DOES support USB 2.0 drives, but does not support firewire drives on Windows 7.

Firewire drives are ok for PT8, but you would be better off using an E-SATA drive (or a 2nd internal if you have the option)


Here is what I like to use on my Laptop: (my laptop has a built in E-SATA port, so I usually use E-SATA, sometimes I record to the 2nd internal drive)

An External HDD case with E-SATA and USB 2.0 connections
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817173042

and put one of these drives in it: (Western Digital Caviar Black w/32MB cache)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136319

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136320

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136283

If you find you have another internal bay, then you will need a drive caddy which can be purchased from the Laptop manufacture, and these Laptop drives are good:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136692

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136835

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136280

Also, your OS drive should also be a minimum of 7200 RPM. So if you are saying your OS drive (not just your recording drive) is 5400 RPM you should get an internal 2.5" 7200 RPM drive to replace that as well. I link to one above.

Its not hard to transfer your complete current drive on to an approved 7200 RPM. Get Acronis Home True Image 2010/ or 2011. and clone the system drive to the new drive. If you have no way of connecting the 7200RPM drive to the laptop in order to clone the system drive to it, get one of these docks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817182197

[AliGlenUig]

Thanks for advice and links man! It's about 4.30am UK time so I'm going to bed but I will check out all these options and links tomorrow.
Good to know that eSATA is probably better than firewire, my laptop has a built in eSATA port too. Will check to see if there is a space for an extra internal drive. Replacing the current internal one scares me a bit - I'm not particularly experienced with such computer issues and money is also tight [hopefully I can stick with my slightly crappier 5,400rpm for running the program] but I'll certainly post to let folk know what I decide on/how it pans out.

[AliGlenUig]

Originally Posted by Benoni

If you have a recent Laptop, it may have another internal drive bay.
And internal drive will generally always give better performance than an external, with E-SATA being an exception, internal or E-SATA will 'generally' perform about the same.
[/url]

Have now checked out your suggestions/links.
As I expected, no space for an extra internal drive on my laptop.
However, having read reviews of the enclosure you linked to I've been impressed by performance reports of the eSATA connectors and cooling.

Unfortunately, I can't buy from Newegg as I live in the UK, and can't seem to find this particular enclosure on any UK sites.
You have started me off however, and I'll do a load of looking about for other good enclosures.

The WD 750GB drive you suggested is available on the UK amazon site, although the image shows it without the solid looking outer casing on the image you linked to. I have no idea if this is significant, I have no experience whatsoever with installing hard drives.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Western-Digi...pr_product_top

If you reckon that's a good drive to go with then I'll trust you - I have nothing else to go on! - have you used these yourself?

Bit disappointed that I can't get hold of that enclosure though..

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by AliGlenUig

If you reckon that's a good drive to go with then I'll trust you - I have nothing else to go on! - have you used these yourself?

Yeah I have 3 of the WD Caviar Black 32MB cache 750GB drives. They work great for me.

[AliGlenUig]

Originally Posted by Benoni

Yeah I have 3 of the WD Caviar Black 32MB cache 750GB drives. They work great for me.

Great. Thanks. I have heard some people complain of these drives being quite noisy, and I'd be recording in the room with the drive. Have you had any issues? Thanks again.

[Benoni]

Originally Posted by AliGlenUig

Great. Thanks. I have heard some people complain of these drives being quite noisy, and I'd be recording in the room with the drive. Have you had any issues? Thanks again.

Nope. My PC is in the room as well and the drives are not noisy at all. A noisy drive can be an indication the drive is starting to fail, so who ever told you their drive is noisy, you may want to suggest the do a "Check Disk" to be sure the drive is not failing.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...windows-vista/