hard drive upgrade q's

[skybytch 273]

The two 40 gig HD's on the 'puter ain't enough anymore. It's time for more storage space.

As much as I don't want another box cluttering up the 'puter area, we're considering an external drive instead of replacing one of the internal ones. But before we do anything, a few questions for all the geeks out there...

If it matters, we're running XP. Firewire and USB 2.0 cards are installed.

A good sized chunk of the new drive will be used for video files, both for watching and for editing. Will there be any issues using an external for this? Are there any particular specs we need to be sure the new drive has?

I'm assuming it will be a simple drag/drop operation to move things from the internal drive to an external drive. If we decide to go with a new internal drive, is it possible to move what's on the current internal drive into the new one without having to back it all up on removable media?

Thanks

[incode 0]

You shouldn't have a problem with most generic drives that run on USB 2.0, if you decide to go with an external it will just be a case of drag and drop nothing else. If you decided to go with a new internal then you have 1 of 2 options, 1 is to backup the data on the primary then install the new secondary and move the data back, option 2 is to back up on an external source then move back to new secondary.

The fact that you running XP will not cause any issues with the new drives as XP is compatible with basicly all new hardware.

Hope this helps

[PsychoBroJosh 0]

You may have an issue if you are editing files from the external directly into the program you are using. Framerate will drop unless you move the files you plan on using for editing onto the internal drive before using them. You should consider moving word files, pics, and music onto the external drive and using the space you free up to store the vid you plan on editing. Even though USB 2.0 is fast, it isn't fast enough to transfer large video files that are being used in most modern editing software (Premiere, Vegas, Avid, etc). Hope that helps...

Josh K.
"Rice is great when you're hungry and want 2000 of something"
Mitch Hedberg '68 - '05

[bob.dino 1]

USB 2.0 and Firewire drives tend to "just work". I use two for storing jump video and for watching movies. No issues.

[bob.dino 1]

Quote

You may have an issue if you are editing files from the external directly into the program you are using. Framerate will drop unless you move the files you plan on using for editing onto the internal drive before using them. ... Even though USB 2.0 is fast, it isn't fast enough to transfer large video files that are being used in most modern editing software (Premiere, Vegas, Avid, etc).

USB 2.0 is 480Mbps. Firewire (IEEE 1394) is 400Mbps. DV footage is 25Mbps. What's the problem? There will be additional CPU overhead, but unless you're running very close to 100% just getting the footage off the camcorder, you'll not have problems.

My external drives have exhibited no problems.

[gravitational 0]

External drive - check out the Netgear SC101. I've deployed 23 of these without any serious complications. you can upgrade the hard drives as needed and it will old two.

------
Michael

[bob.dino 1]

Quote

External drive - check out the Netgear SC101. I've deployed 23 of these without any serious complications. you can upgrade the hard drives as needed and it will old two.

Requires special drivers, network connection, and a DHCP server. Not all IDE drives are compatible. Sounds like the wrong choice for this situation. A USB 2.0 or Firewire drive has none of these complications, and for a simple my-computer-is-running-out-of-space situation, it's ideal.

[kirrz 0]

I had the same issue so I got an external drive.. I have moved some of my files onto the external so I have some more free space on my computer.. everytime I edit video, I log and capture to my computer, move the files across to the external hard drive, set the scratch folder there and then start editing. Works perfectly fine for me.

Although it may logically work to log and capture straight to the external, I am too paranoid about frame skips to do that. I find logging and capturing rather tedious, I would rather not have to do it again.