Recording to external drive???

alefillman · 18th March 2006

Just wondered if people here thought it would better to record to an external drive vs. my internal drive on my laptop. I just bought a 300GB Western Digital external. If so can you guys give me some reasons. I know the speed of the drive is better in external. Any reasons besides that though? Thanks a bunch.

-Phil

manning1 · 18th March 2006

theres lots of bs about hard drives....
the only things important to audio applications are how fast can data be retrieved from and written to the hard drive. ...ie,,,,,the faster the better....the more rpms the better and the fatter the internal caches the better.
eg..16mb caches are better than 8 that are better than 2mb caches.

Lougarcia · 4th December 2009

Most of safe recording is done in internal hardrives. Otherwise if you use MAC computer with datas in external hardrive is ok!

Hope this one helps!

Lou Garcia Homepage
Kudos Events Management International

psycho_monkey · 4th December 2009

internal laptop drives are often 5400rpm drives - you can get faster drives in an external enclosure.

FW drives are generally better than USB - essential if you're using pro tools.

nothing wrong with using an internal drive, but generally better not to use your system drive - since the read/write head can only be in one place at a time, you can't write audio AND access parts of the program at the same time, so things can slow down.

Black Shadow · 4th December 2009

Whatever you decide on, remember to make backups regularly! External hard drives are prone to crash, whichever brand or model they are.

Side note: a few weeks ago I went by my bass player's house who was using an external HD for some of her projects. I asked her "How often do you back up your stuff?" and she replied "Oh, all the time. This IS my backup drive".

At that point we had a little talk about what "backup" actually means.

Dysanfel · 4th December 2009

I can't speak for PC land, but there is no need for an external for most moderate sized projects on an intel mac - even a 5400rpm. I recorded an entire album with 60+ track counts on a 320gig 5400RPM internal drive. Use that external as a backup.

18th March 2006	#1
alefillman Gear interested Joined: Mar 2006 Posts: 1 Thread Starter	Recording to external drive??? Just wondered if people here thought it would better to record to an external drive vs. my internal drive on my laptop. I just bought a 300GB Western Digital external. If so can you guys give me some reasons. I know the speed of the drive is better in external. Any reasons besides that though? Thanks a bunch. -Phil

18th March 2006	#2
manning1 Lives for gear Joined: May 2004 Location: canada Posts: 3,998	theres lots of bs about hard drives.... the only things important to audio applications are how fast can data be retrieved from and written to the hard drive. ...ie,,,,,the faster the better....the more rpms the better and the fatter the internal caches the better. eg..16mb caches are better than 8 that are better than 2mb caches. __________________ i'm just a dumb computer engr (ret'd)...."quantum computing is the future" running a native software studio daw...Powertracks and Reaper on amd. new cockney album released http://therockingbloodbrothers.blogspot.com/ my other little songs www.motagator.com/bmanning

4th December 2009	#4
psycho_monkey Gear Guru Joined: Jun 2006 Location: London Posts: 14,291	internal laptop drives are often 5400rpm drives - you can get faster drives in an external enclosure. FW drives are generally better than USB - essential if you're using pro tools. nothing wrong with using an internal drive, but generally better not to use your system drive - since the read/write head can only be in one place at a time, you can't write audio AND access parts of the program at the same time, so things can slow down. __________________ Shameless Plug: If I've ever helped you with a technical problem or provided you with advice you found useful, you can more than repay me by going here and spending 79p of your hard earned on this single, now available for purchase, by a singer I'm working closely with. It would be much appreciated! http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/fam...14?i=496923918 Album now available for pre-order: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/preorder/...an/id513648911 /Shameless Plug....

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4th December 2009	#3
Lougarcia Gear interested Joined: Mar 2009 Location: Singapore Posts: 15	Most of safe recording is done in internal hardrives. Otherwise if you use MAC computer with datas in external hardrive is ok! Hope this one helps! Lou Garcia Homepage Kudos Events Management International

4th December 2009	#5
Black Shadow Lives for gear Joined: Oct 2008 Location: Belgium Posts: 657	Whatever you decide on, remember to make backups regularly! External hard drives are prone to crash, whichever brand or model they are. Side note: a few weeks ago I went by my bass player's house who was using an external HD for some of her projects. I asked her "How often do you back up your stuff?" and she replied "Oh, all the time. This IS my backup drive". At that point we had a little talk about what "backup" actually means.

4th December 2009	#6
Dysanfel Lives for gear Joined: Apr 2006 Location: Tampa Posts: 1,570 1 Review written	I can't speak for PC land, but there is no need for an external for most moderate sized projects on an intel mac - even a 5400rpm. I recorded an entire album with 60+ track counts on a 320gig 5400RPM internal drive. Use that external as a backup.