External Hard Drives

[bassness]

+10 to the external Sata enclosures. I'm running 4 of them here. What I like about external drives is that the drive is only running when I need it. Otherwise, they're off.

 

[kevinmoore73]

could you please expain "why"? . . . or "how"? . . .

The onus is on you to explain your comments. To someone that knows how computers work, your statements don't make any sense.

You said, "it's MUCH faster looking for a file in a 35 GB partition than in a 250GB FHD," which is inaccurate. If you knew how hard drives worked, you would know this is not true.

You've said you partition for "organizational convenience". That is unnecessary, as your filesystem will do that quite nicely.

You said you partition to be able to do "sequencialized backups," which (aside from not being a real word) doesn't make any sense. I've never seen a piece of backup software that required any specific partitioning scheme.

You also said, "ALL external FirewireHD mentioned should, IMO, be partitioned into partitions of 20-35Gb," without any explanation why. Please explain this reasoning, as I can think of no reason whatsoever to do this on a single-user system.

and remember that ALL of my comments are based on my experiences working with ProTools Mix, ProTools MixPlus and ProTools HD3 (from 4.x up to the 7.3 that I'm using now) on Mac (G3 thru G5, OS8.6 thru OSX 10.4.10) for the last 10 years or so . . .

That reminds me of something my developers used to say. They'd say, "what do you mean this code is bad? I spent a lot of time on it!" My response would be that time spent does not equal quality work. Just because you've been doing something for a long time doesn't mean it's the right way to do it.

Don't tell me anything about PCs or PC clones, please . . .

Right there is the punch line for everything you've said! (Though it's not very funny.) Guess what? Mac and PCs are both computers! They have far more similarities than they have differences! All of the concepts discussed here about external drives, partitions, filesystems, and inode tables appy equally no matter which operating system you're running! (And I'm not sure what you mean by "PC clone", unless the year is 1982 and we're talking about reverse-engineering IBM's PC BIOS.)

If this were a thread about internal combustion engines, your comment would be the equivalent of saying, don't talk to me about Fords, I drive a Honda.

I don't care if you're running Mac OS, Windows, Linux, Solaris, or AIX. There's no reason to do the things you're saying need to be done. If you've got real technical reasons, please, please provide them.

 

[deaf pea]

The onus is on you to explain your comments. To someone that knows how computers work, your statements don't make any sense...

Understood . . . but you DID clear things up for me a bit with this post . . . thanks.

...You said you partition to be able to do "sequencialized backups," which (aside from not being a real word) doesn't make any sense. I've never seen a piece of backup software that required any specific partitioning scheme...

Huh? . . . WHAT back-up software?
I DID use something (about 8 or so years ago) that automatically backed up my work, daily . . . but it took WAY too long to do it (comparing what was there yesterday to what's there today and copying the new stuff to the back-up hard-disks . . . In 11 different SCSI HDDs for a total of 182 GB - I'm now using 8 different FHDs for a total of 2000 GB! And I AM starting to run out of space on the * dual * back-up 500 GB FHDs).
I DO use the automated backup feature of ProTools (set to every 5 minutes and keeping 99 back-up sessions), but I also save a copy of the PT sessions after I've finnished working with a song for that day. And I usually copy the audios to the back-up FHDs the next day after recording new stuff (THAT'S what I was refering to as "sequencialized backups").
And when the CD is finished (delivered to the record company), I'll do a "save a copy as"-type "save" that ONLY includes that actual instrumentation that ends up in the "final mix" - no "out-takes" or alternative ideas - that I'll deliver to the record company, too (usually on data-DVD).
But the studio's back-ups of the sessions are complete, with ALL of the alternate ideas and ALL of the various "takes" of EACH track!

...You also said, "ALL external FirewireHD mentioned should, IMO, be partitioned into partitions of 20-35Gb," without any explanation why...

It's the way I work . . . "IN MY OPINION" . . . I haven't advised people to follow my example . . . I've just said "this works FOR ME, with MY workload . . .

...Just because you've been doing something for a long time doesn't mean it's the right way to do it...

I didn't know that there WAS a "right way" (or even "right ways") to do random-access recording, editing and mixing/mastering . . . and that's ONE of the selling points for the professional ProTools systems - that they're VERY flexible . . . there are literally MILLIONS of ways to work, getting from those first few notes recorded to the final product . . . .

Oh, BTW, I HAVE been doing this (recording music) for a long time* . . . and I'm CONSTANTLY learning new stuff! It's a GREAT career!

* My 1st Grammy nomination (as a musician) was in 1970 . . . in the last 5 years I've (finally) won 3 Grammys and 5 Latin Grammys (both as a musician AND as a recording engineer) . . . AND my work is nominated for another one this year!

...Right there is the punch line for everything you've said! (Though it's not very funny.) Guess what? Mac and PCs are both computers! They have far more similarities than they have differences!...

True.

But AFAIK, MS-DOS and UNIX ARE quite different . . .

...(And I'm not sure what you mean by "PC clone"...

That's ANY MS-DOS/MSWindows running CPU that's NOT manufactured by IBM . . . that's probably MOST of the PCs out there!

...There's no reason to do the things you're saying need to be done...

I NEVER said that these things "need to be done" . . . what I HAVE said is that "this works for me" . . .

And thanks again, Kevin, for helping me understand MORE about this "computer stuff" . . .

 

[Johnny Crab]

I use my main drive for apps and TEMPORARY, IN-PROGRESS projects with consistent backups to a USB drive. Even family pics get at least backed up on an external drive.

 

[kevinmoore73]

It's the way I work . . . "IN MY OPINION" . . . I haven't advised people to follow my example . . . I've just said "this works FOR ME, with MY workload . . .

It still came across as providing wildly inaccurate advice. People providing technically inaccurate advice (whether in their opinion or not) is one of my pet peeves.

You may be a great recording engineer, with Grammy nominations and all. At no point do I question or dispute that. However, the computer engineering (and advice thereof) should be left to those with an actual understanding of computers.

It would be like me trying to provide music education advice here. I never do, because I'm just learning and don't know what I'm talking about. When it comes to computers; however, I have a computer science degree and over ten years' experience designing computing and storage solutions for Fortune 100 data centers.

I didn't know that there WAS a "right way" (or even "right ways") to do random-access recording, editing and mixing/mastering . . .

As with almost anything, there's more than one way to do it. Out of those possible ways, there are some that would be considered better ways to do it than others. For example, there are many ways to get to Cincinnati from Cleveland. Going through New York to get there wouldn't be a good way to do it.

Oh, BTW, I HAVE been doing this (recording music) for a long time* . . . and I'm CONSTANTLY learning new stuff! It's a GREAT career!

It undoubtedly is a great career. I don't dispute that one bit.

But AFAIK, MS-DOS and UNIX ARE quite different . . .

Sure they are, but only from an operating system perspective. I can take a machine I have over there on the shelf and install MS-DOS, Windows, Linux, Solaris, or even Mac OS X on it. (I will admit the OS X installation wouldn't be legal. That said, it would still work.)

That's ANY MS-DOS/MSWindows running CPU that's NOT manufactured by IBM . . . that's probably MOST of the PCs out there!

Again, 1982 was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then.

You said you have a G5 PowerMac. Do you know who made the processor in that machine? IBM did! Funny, huh?

What you refer to as PCs or PC clones are running processors from Intel (or from companies producing x86 Intel-compatible processors). Guess who makes the processors in every single one of Apple's current line of computers? Intel does!

It's this type of stuff that makes me ask that you keep the inaccurate computing advice to yourself. Please, however, provide all of the recording advice you can think of. I would love to hear all about that. Especially as I'm just getting started with my first mixer and firewire audio interface. There's a lot I need to learn in that area.

 

[deaf pea]

It still came across as providing wildly inaccurate advice. People providing technically inaccurate advice (whether in their opinion or not) is one of my pet peeves...the computer engineering (and advice thereof) should be left to those with an actual understanding of computers...It's this type of stuff that makes me ask that you keep the inaccurate computing advice to yourself...

OK . . .

...Again, 1982 was a long time ago. A lot has changed since then...

You're right, and I don't even TRY to keep up on "what's new" or "what's hip" . . . things change WAY too fast for me!
Once I find a software combination that WORKS (for me), I just use that set-up until I HAVE to upgrade (usually because of a new plug-in that isn't compatible with the versions that I'm using . . . "Melodyne" being the most recent example, about 6 months ago) . . .

...What you refer to as PCs or PC clones are running processors from Intel (or from companies producing x86 Intel-compatible processors). Guess who makes the processors in every single one of Apple's current line of computers? Intel does!...

I DID know that there were Intel processors in SOME of the products from Apple, but I DIDN'T know that the PowerPC products were no longer available . . . until now . . . (I just checked the Apple website) . . .

...As with almost anything, there's more than one way to do it. Out of those possible ways, there are some that would be considered better ways to do it than others. For example, there are many ways to get to Cincinnati from Cleveland. Going through New York to get there wouldn't be a good way to do it...

Help me here, please. Exactly HOW is it that I'm "Going through New York to...get to Cincinnati from Cleveland"?

I'm NOT trying to be confrontational . . . I'm just looking for some (more) free advice.

Please, however, provide all of the recording advice you can think of. I would love to hear all about that...

If you check out my other posts you'll see that I DO try to help out with info on mic placement, mixing, etc. . . . and I'll continue with that, too.

...You may be a great recording engineer, with Grammy nominations and all...

3 Grammys and 5 Latin Grammys awarded, NOT just nominated . . .

I haven't got around to framing the certificates, yet . . .

 

[seamonkey]

I've read that it is better to store your recording projects on a different HD than your main HD. So, I am thinking of buying an external HD.

Who here is using an external HD for this purpose? What size are you using? What brand? What should you look for in an external HD?

Few months back I picked up a Seagate 300mb ESATA with a controller for $100
ST3300601XS-RK. The 500mb version isn't much more.
I use a single partition - just my choice. I run streaming samplers and have tried Sonar, Reaper, ... And so far performance is great.

The drive will spin itself down if not accessed for a period of time. This hasn't been a problem for me.

Transfer rates are very high with this drive, but random access times are slower than you might expect (faster than USB or firewire I've tried, but slower than internal sata). This drive is set by default to favor low acoustic levels over access performance. This hasn't been a problem for me since audio and sampler stuff is streaming.
If access were a problem for your applications, you can pick up the Hitachi tools and change the "Acoustic" levels. Invalid Link Removed

 

[Chris Fitzgerald]

If this were a thread about internal combustion engines, your comment would be the equivalent of saying, don't talk to me about Fords, I drive a Honda.

I'll take my Honda over a Ford any day.