Removable drive recommendations

[skylab001]

I am looking for a new hard drive solution for my HD rig. Preferably removable.....Until now I have been recording to a dedicated 250GB SATA drive in my quad core mac. When I fill this drive up, I back up to multiple DVD-Rs. I have only had to do this a few times as my session files aren't terribly large. So far they have ranged from between 2GB to 7GB.

I'm curious what other people are using for their work?

It would be nice to have some sort of external cartridge based system so I could keep things clean an organized for storage, as well as a systems that I can record/playback from directly. I was thinking something akin to the old zip disks but with HD speed capability. I would like something that I can treat like a reel of tape, where a session fit on a tape and I could just grab it from the storage closet, pop it in, and start working without transferring from DVD back to my hard drive. I'm also looking for something not too terribly expensive.

[Kenny Gioia]

Your wish has been granted.

I've used this solution for awhile and I couldn't be happier. No cartridges, no hassle, no chance of being obsolete or losing anything if the enclosure breaks. The disks work right in your mac. Uses standard SATA drives which are super cheap.

I still work off of my internal drive but back up to two drives with this method so I'm swapping out constantly. No signs of build quality failing.

RTX100-Q

http://www.wiebetech.com/products/RT...ngavailability

[hitshack]

I've been having good luck with this:

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Newer...gy/FWU2ES2HDK/

[Sean Russell]

Recording to internals is great. Great speed. Great performance. I also do a lot of work on Glyph drives. I have a GT-103 from a few years ago and a GT-308 from a few more years ago (!) which are 3 and 6 bay chassis that I can plug drives into (they're Firewire). Sometimes I have to run into another room and I grab my Glyph and I'm good. I can track to one (or two) of the drives, and backup to a third. I've been using these drives now for at least 5 years with no problems.

But if you have an open slot in the Mac,it's $50 for a 160 GB drive from MacSales.com. That place rocks.

[BradLyons]

I too use the Glyph GT103 system with their hot-swappable drives, in-fact I have (2) PTHD rigs each with one of these. I deal with LARGE sessions where I'm recording 80-channels of audio for 90-minutes straight, twice each Sunday---where I'm also making a live broadcast mix, so it just has to work. I've not had as much as a hiccup with these drives (knock on wood! LOL). I also record some pretty large concerts, again they prove to be reliable.

[skylab001]

well I've checked into both the RTX-100q and the glyph system. I think the RTX is closer to where I want to be price wise because it looks like you have to buy the glyph trays with the hard drive and that can get costly. I was looking to see if they just sold empty trays but it doesn't look like it. But you can definitely record to a glyph drive and I am looking for a removable audio drive.

The Newer tech voyager looked interesting too, can it be used as an audio drive?

Kenny I know you say you use the RTX-100 for backup only, but have you ever tried to use it as an audio drive?

[the dude]

if you have eSATA this rocks
http://www.firewiredirect.com/product/551/
just need 1 Chassis and then the additional sleds are available for $20 each
so all we do is just get a bunch of drives in the separate sleds, and swap them at will
and each drive is labeled
is just like a DVD but with Removable SATA drives and the speed that goes with it ( 1TB less than $89 on sale at frys )

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by skylab001

well I've checked into both the RTX-100q and the glyph system. I think the RTX is closer to where I want to be price wise because it looks like you have to buy the glyph trays with the hard drive and that can get costly. I was looking to see if they just sold empty trays but it doesn't look like it. But you can definitely record to a glyph drive and I am looking for a removable audio drive.

The Newer tech voyager looked interesting too, can it be used as an audio drive?

Kenny I know you say you use the RTX-100 for backup only, but have you ever tried to use it as an audio drive?

It works perfectly as an audio drive. A system drive too. I used it as my main drive to get Pro Tools 8 running until it became my default system. Then I put it in my mac.

I use it for backups just because it's more convenient that way. Kinda hard to make two backups from a removable drive to the same removable drive.

It's the best investment I've made in the storage department. I just love buying 2 internals whenever they're full. Beats buying 2 more Lacie externals each time.

[Carl Sealove]

Slightly Off Topic:
I would caution that DVD-R and CD-R backups are not to be trusted for archival purposes, especially if you only make a single copy. I recently transferred all of my cdr/dvr's to multiple SATA drives. I found several of the cd/dvd's that would not read or mount at all on any of 4 different computers and drives. I used only good name brand taiyo yuden and other media that were stored properly. In one backup set, disc #3 of 5 could not be read. The set of 5 was made at the same time on the same burner. Very SCARY! Until a truly trustworthy archival backup strategy is available, I'm backing everything up to at least 3 SATA drives, and hoping for the best. Fortunately, large drives are cheap these days. The WD Black Cavier 1TB SATA drives are fast, highly rated, have a 5 year warranty and can be found for as little as $100 at Dell, Newegg, ZipZoomfly and the like.