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I could use some help and recommendations on whats the latest and greatest in this category. Im in the market for one as my computer is getting filled up with all my footage. Help me out if you don't mind. +K to those who do
Well, over 200 companies were hard disk drive manufacturers at one time or another, now there's just three: Seagate, Toshiba and Western Digital. (Seagate also makes the Maxtor and Samsung drives and WD the HGST's) so as far as drives go there's slim picking.
The only real difference in external HD manufacturers is the small circuitboard and housing. And although the drive may be the same there can actually be a massive difference in throughput to your computer.
I mostly get LaCie's because their housings are sexy, fast and they offer good support, Seagate and WD proprietary brands are also good and so is G-tech.
Check reviews. Protip: bus-powered units will not have a crappy power supply that will die in a few years but your USB ports may not handle giving off that much juice.
How new is your Macbook? I'd go with the HD eheath linked above with the Firewire 800 if its an older version, however, if its a newer version with USB 3.0 id look for a hard drive working at those speeds (which is most), theres always the thunderbolt port but im not too educated on how many hard drives are made with a thunderbolt option
LaCie drives are so unreliable (100% fail rate for me in 2 years for 3 separate drives). Seagate or WD are the only reliable ones I have found in consumer-grade.
RileySnyderPhotoLaCie drives are so unreliable (100% fail rate for me in 2 years for 3 separate drives). Seagate or WD are the only reliable ones I have found in consumer-grade.
pussyfooterLacie uses Seagate drives... just saying.
All of the "Rugged" ones I had were Toshiba and super thick so finding new enclosures was tough. The enclosures were the first to fail then the drives even put into other enclosures failed. WD is still going strong 3 years later with no signs of letting up.
RileySnyderPhotoAll of the "Rugged" ones I had were Toshiba and super thick so finding new enclosures was tough. The enclosures were the first to fail then the drives even put into other enclosures failed. WD is still going strong 3 years later with no signs of letting up.
Oh ha maybe they use both? I though for sure they used Seagate.
RileySnyderPhotoLaCie drives are so unreliable (100% fail rate for me in 2 years for 3 separate drives). Seagate or WD are the only reliable ones I have found in consumer-grade.
agreed, just sold off all of my lacie's because they kept failing for me
RileySnyderPhotoLaCie drives are so unreliable (100% fail rate for me in 2 years for 3 separate drives). Seagate or WD are the only reliable ones I have found in consumer-grade.
I'm on 24/24 with my LaCie D2's 2/3 with my LaCie Porsche (I dropped it) did have a million power bricks fail but I always get free new ones after a call to them.
pussyfooterLacie uses Seagate drives... just saying.
Used to depend on the model, Seagate acquired LaCie in 2013 so any drives from that time onward are of course Seagate but before that they used Toshiba in mid-end and Seagate Enterprise stuff in the D2 line.
omnidataUsed to depend on the model, Seagate acquired LaCie in 2013 so any drives from that time onward are of course Seagate but before that they used Toshiba in mid-end and Seagate Enterprise stuff in the D2 line.
Didn't realize they switched but still not worth the premium for failing enclosures that were not badly treated. I actually treat my WDs a bit rougher and they have far surpassed the Lacies.
It is a mid 2010 macbook pro. Has a thunderbolt plug in so it would be sick to get one that I can transfer with thunderbolt such as the LaCie, I am just not familiar with them which is why I am asking. It will need to be able to take a beating, travel a ton whether its plane or car or ski trips. I travel a lot
SkiLefleyIt is a mid 2010 macbook pro. Has a thunderbolt plug in so it would be sick to get one that I can transfer with thunderbolt such as the LaCie, I am just not familiar with them which is why I am asking. It will need to be able to take a beating, travel a ton whether its plane or car or ski trips. I travel a lot
What size is your internal drive? Earlier you said you had non need for 500gb of footage, do you mean that you'd want a smaller drive for less money? or that you want to keep most of it on an external and not clogging up you mac.
If the former, I recommend you spend the money on an internal ssd instead. Samsung 840 evo's are great, I have one as my boot drive, and I just put one in my mom's macbook pro (I think she also has the 2010). They are a ton faster too, so you'd be giving your system a good speed boost. SSD's also have no moving parts, so they are much less susceptible to losing data if you drop them (you can still damage them, they are simply much more rugged).
With that said, I think everyone should use at least an external as a backup drive. Being a student, time machine on my mac has saved my ass on multiple occasions. I have a 2tb seagate goflex. It has a swappable baseplate so you can use (aka buy) different connections. I use the usb 3.0 one now, I think they also have firewire and thunderbolt.
If you just meant that you don't always want to have so much footage on your laptop, consider the file sizes you are dealing with. Thunderbolt is faster, but even if its is 20x faster, that might only save you a few seconds if you are dealing with small files. Also, with a single drive (as opposed to a raid array), you will never get close to the advertised speed of thunderbolt due to the max read/write speeds of the physical drive. Thunderbolt is a game changer with raid arrays, it allows you to edit directly from an external drive, but the speed may not be worth it on a smaller portable one.
p.hawksWhat size is your internal drive? Earlier you said you had non need for 500gb of footage, do you mean that you'd want a smaller drive for less money? or that you want to keep most of it on an external and not clogging up you mac.
If the former, I recommend you spend the money on an internal ssd instead. Samsung 840 evo's are great, I have one as my boot drive, and I just put one in my mom's macbook pro (I think she also has the 2010). They are a ton faster too, so you'd be giving your system a good speed boost. SSD's also have no moving parts, so they are much less susceptible to losing data if you drop them (you can still damage them, they are simply much more rugged).
With that said, I think everyone should use at least an external as a backup drive. Being a student, time machine on my mac has saved my ass on multiple occasions. I have a 2tb seagate goflex. It has a swappable baseplate so you can use (aka buy) different connections. I use the usb 3.0 one now, I think they also have firewire and thunderbolt.
If you just meant that you don't always want to have so much footage on your laptop, consider the file sizes you are dealing with. Thunderbolt is faster, but even if its is 20x faster, that might only save you a few seconds if you are dealing with small files. Also, with a single drive (as opposed to a raid array), you will never get close to the advertised speed of thunderbolt due to the max read/write speeds of the physical drive. Thunderbolt is a game changer with raid arrays, it allows you to edit directly from an external drive, but the speed may not be worth it on a smaller portable one.
I have two different drives, I have a boot drive and a hard drive. I really just want the external one so I am not clogging my computer with so much footage I don't need on it when I edit. I do a lot of drone flying so i deal with huge ass files from flying, like 15-25 mins long of just constant footage. Also will be exchanging it with a few other filmers hate dealing with dropbox. So i definitely want it to be durable for sure, But yea, basically need it so I can not clog my computer up. I already have like 120gbs of apps on here. haha
I like OWC. Whatever drives they're running in their enclosures have always been rock solid for me (travel and desk use). They're no-frills and reasonably priced. I have an array of internal drives I use for backup, as well as their standalone external. These drives have given me the least amount of trouble out of any harddrives I've used.
G-Tech is great also, but spendy. I use one of their portable drive and it hasn't given me any problems.
You couldn't pay me to use WD. Complete garbage. I've never seen one last longer than a year, and I couldn't get them to last more than five months.
I've heard both good and bad about LaCie (old and new). I've never owned one so I can't say, but I probably won't buy one.
SkiLefleyI have two different drives, I have a boot drive and a hard drive. I really just want the external one so I am not clogging my computer with so much footage I don't need on it when I edit. I do a lot of drone flying so i deal with huge ass files from flying, like 15-25 mins long of just constant footage. Also will be exchanging it with a few other filmers hate dealing with dropbox. So i definitely want it to be durable for sure, But yea, basically need it so I can not clog my computer up. I already have like 120gbs of apps on here. haha
1. 500gb is nothing assuming you're shooting an up-to-date camera
2. Use FTP or Wetransfer. I prefer FTP because you can stop halfway through and come back to it right where you left off; and there's virtually infinite storage/no file size limit.
SkiLefleyIt is a mid 2010 macbook pro. Has a thunderbolt plug in so it would be sick to get one that I can transfer with thunderbolt such as the LaCie, I am just not familiar with them which is why I am asking. It will need to be able to take a beating, travel a ton whether its plane or car or ski trips. I travel a lot
Have a home-raid setup and a rugged travel drive, one is big, bad and bulky and stores everything in a save Raid config the other takes a beating and since you aren't dealing with as much content since you will off-load that at home speeds matter less.
If you have copious amounts of bullion to spend, LaCie Little Big Disk T2, 1300 bucks for a dual 512GB SSD, encased in more aluminium then...well something, that makes you cry for it's faster then your internal SSD.
Of course that's excessive but if you do really want the drive to take a beating: do consider SSD, not a single moving part in there, but it jacks the price right up.
omnidataHave a home-raid setup and a rugged travel drive, one is big, bad and bulky and stores everything in a save Raid config the other takes a beating and since you aren't dealing with as much content since you will off-load that at home speeds matter less.
If you have copious amounts of bullion to spend, LaCie Little Big Disk T2, 1300 bucks for a dual 512GB SSD, encased in more aluminium then...well something, that makes you cry for it's faster then your internal SSD.
Of course that's excessive but if you do really want the drive to take a beating: do consider SSD, not a single moving part in there, but it jacks the price right up.
Damn I want one of those.
Maybe when I get a new comp with some more up to date ports, cause a USB 2.0 just doesn't cut it anymore. I wonder what advantages flash storage has over ssd, which the new macs have.
Doesn't matter what brand of HD you get, eventually all drives will fail. Obviously some fasted than others and especially if you're taking it on-the-go. Solid State drives will be the most reliable, but they might not have enough storage for you and perhaps you don't need that much speed.
My recommendation would be to get at least TWO of the HDs that others have recommended above and back your files up. There's nothing worse than losing your work, no matter if you're a novice or a pro.
I recently picked up a FireWire Drobo for my 2009 MBP and have a RAID setup. That might be out of your price range, but at the very least I would recommend spending the extra cash for a second, if not third HD. One for backup, and one for travel.
