Firewire/USB external hard drive better than internal?

[DanielPinho]

Hi,

Is it better to record directly to an external hard drive? If so, what port would work better, USB 2.0 or Firewire 400?

Thanks

[docbop]

I would say if you have an extra internal drive that would be your fastest bus to use for your audio drive. Then your external ports in order of fastest to slowest would be SATA. FW, and USB.

[barstool719]

an internal SATA is faster than an external FW400.

• USB 1.1 – 15 Mbps
• FireWire 400 (1394a) – 400 Mbps
• USB 2.0 – 480 Mbps
• FireWire 800 (1394b) – 800 Mpbs
• SATA 1.5 – 1.5 Gbps
• SATA 3.0 – 3.0 Gbps

mind you, these are burst throughput rates, FW400's sustained throughput is faster than USB 2.0. USB has more 'traffic flunctuation' than FW, which is why Digi doesn't support USB drives for recording.

bottom line, internal SATA is faster than external FW400/800.

[albee1952]

+1 for internal as the fastest option. Also, +1 for NOT using USB drives for recording.

[monasmee]

This thread may help....

http://duc.digidesign.com/showthread...+800+Mbox2+Pro

[DanielPinho]

Thanks a lot guys, I'm gonna save my money and buy a cheap external drive just for projects backup then

Also thanks for the port speed informations, barstool719!

Regards

[fil_mac]

Olá Daniel.
Mas não te esqueças do seguinte: Tens que usar um disco diferente do disco do sistema para gravar com o protools. Se grvas no disco do sistema ou numa partição dele terás problemas.
Assim, recomendo que compres um disco interno Sata para gravação, ou um externo (embora não seja tão rápido). Abraço.