Anyone tried external SSD for Pro Tools sessions?

[Humood]

Hi,
I'm currently using Lacie Rugged hard drive with the old thunderbolt to to store and work on my Pro Tools sessions.
I'm thinking of upgrading it to an SSD external drive since their transfer speed is much faster but I couldn't find any reviews from people that used an external SSD with Pro Tools.

So.. is it recommended/compatible to use SSD externals with Pro Tools? Anyone tried it who can share their experiences? Any specific brands that you recommend?
I'm thinking of getting the SANDISK EXTREME PORTABLE SSD but I'm open other SSD suggestions.

Thanks

[maltastudio]

Hi I `ve been working on an external ssd for 2 years now no issues so far.
But I backup every day on anther normal HD just in case......
I`ve been told that ssd do fail without showing any signs of problems sometimes.

Peace

[JFreak]

Any kind of storage can fail and nothing is backed up until it's backed up twice.

SSD are failing due to excess writes to individual transistors, but are virtually bulletproof when it comes to external shock; however, HDD are failing due to excess shock while the moving parts are on, being virtually bulletproof when it comes to amount of writes.

There are also tapes for long term backup, you know. The oldskool monsters that take ages to backup and an eternity to restore. But unless you backup your working storage to another place and have a backup of the backup, you aren't safe no matter what.

[nedorama]

Backblaze.com - monthly backup for $12.99 of as much data from as many drives as you own. Worth it to have it backed up offsite, and gives an excuse to add the old ones back in to get them spinning (Backblaze will remind you if a drive hasn't been connected in a while).

[Righty27]

Cloud storage options (such as Backblaze) are now so much more accessible due to low prices and faster upload bandwidth e.g. with fibre broadband.

If you have specific types of data you want backed up offsite (i.e. relatively small and not system drive + all connected drives) and have some spare cloud storage (e.g. Office365 subscription with included 1TB on Onedrive), Mac users can use Arq with virtually any provider, so easily achieved for a one-off app cost without adding another subscription.

Obviously, this is just as useful for full offsite backups with several advantages such as client-side encryption + your own choice of cloud storage provider + personalised support from Stefan, the developer, and his team :)

[Humood]

Thanks for the answers guys, but I don't want the SSD for backups, but for saving and running the pro tools sessions from them?

I am using Blackblaze already for backups.

[Southsidemusic]

We use external SSD drives all the way for recording to and now also for sample libraries and backups but mainly for recording to. We have Mac Pro’s here the trashcans and we need to use both USB3 and Thunderbolt casings for the SSD drives and both protocols works Great!

Every studio we work with use SSD’s for recording to so that will eventually be the total standard as the older spinners are getting replaced as recording drives although the better ones are still a-ok to record with.

We use SAMSUNG both 8XX and 9XX Pro series SSD’s for everything now as the prices has become reasonably better and better so go for a Samsung EVO or a PRO and you will be surprised and happily so

Just make sure you use either USB3 or Thunderbolt ports and cases for the drive. Not USB2 or FW.

[Darryl Ramm]

Well a quick peek at the OP’s profile: if you have a 2018 MBP the best thing to do is likely to just record to the internal very very fast PCIe 3 x 4 NVMe SSD. That gets you away from fragile, and often slow, external drives especially if recording on location. And the internal SSD is way faster than any external USB SSD (even 3.1 Gen 2, that are all crippled by USB and/or the slow SATA controller). You can then copy that session to any external drive for a local backup.

The best performing external SSDs for a Mac with Thunderbolt 3 are PCIe/NVMe drives like the Samsung X5, or Sonnet Fusion, that gets you close to the internal drive performance.

[originalscottyg]

I've had good experiences with the external Samsung T5 SSDs. I ran a 400+ track HDX2 session off of one when I was having memory issues on an older MacBookPro and needed to disable Disk Cache. It didn't break a sweat. I always make sure to keep everything backed up on t least 2 other drives, though.

[MBseva]

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

...

Just make sure you use either USB3 or Thunderbolt ports and cases for the drive. Not USB2 or FW.

Hmmm.... Not USB2, huh? I've been using an external SSD drive for recording my latest project, and have had persistent CPU interruptions, even though the usage meter says very low usage. I have done all the PT optimizations, and still it persists.

What is the issue with USB2? would it cause hangs of this nature?

I am wondering whether a standard HD would get along better with my late 2013 iMac.