timidi
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external USB or internal drive?
I was just reading some reviews at Newegg about some of the USB external drives.
Not too good.
So, I was wondering, why not just get an internal sata drive and one of those external adapter box thingys (which I think I have).
This would be just for storage for now. Any opinions
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Beagle
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/24 14:22:31
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Tim,
I'm not positive what you mean on the "external adapter box thingys" - is that an external USB or SATA box you're talking about?
for storage USB is fine. I have decided I would not use USB for library samples or for the Audio project drive. however an eSATA drive would be fine for either of those, IMO.
but your question about getting an internal SATA and putting it into an external box depends on what the box has inside for connections. for example, some external boxes will have only IDE connections while others will have SATA AND IDE. any internal drive will work in the box as long as the connections in the box match the connections needed by the drive.
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/24 16:08:31
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Anubis
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/24 20:42:18
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I stream samples from this USB 3.0 drive with no dropouts at all. 
X2Studio_Win7(64)_SamsungChronos_QuNexus_QuNeo_Axiom25_Saffire24Pro_Saffire6USB_EdirolPCR300_Nocturn Amplitubes_AmpegSVX_StylusRMX_SampleTank/Tron_Komplete7_AddictiveDrums_TRacks3_Wavelab6 miTunes
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/24 21:07:09
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Thanks anubis. I don't have USB3.
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Fog
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 10:18:12
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internal drive is preferable. I need to upgrade my laptop one from 360 mark to 1tb as yes external is handy.. it's just not got the transfer rate. if it's just for storage / backup and speed isn't an issue then usb 2 is fine.
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Beagle
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 10:38:48
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Hey, Tim - that first link you showed is a good enclosure. it will allow you to put an internal SATA hard drive into it and then connect it either eSATA (which is fine for streaming and audio projects) or USB.
that 2nd link is an external enclosure for the 2.5" disk size - the "laptop" hard drives. you can use that if you want for storage also, but you'd need to get a 2.5" laptop harddrive to go inside it. and if that is the EXACT model you have then you'd need an SATA 2.5" hard drive to go in it and then you can connect it via USB for storage.
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slartabartfast
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 13:23:01
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One problem with buying an external drive is that, in may cases, you have no idea what is in the box. It is uncommon for the spec sheet for an off-the-shelf external drive to include the make an model of the drive inside the enclosure. You can usually get that information once the drive is running via the OS, but without knowing the drive inside, it is difficult to judge its reliability speed etc. In some cases, the external drive manufacturer does not even tell you whether it is a standard or "green" (ie variable speed) drive. And you are not even certain that the same model of external drive contains the same hard drive in every unit. You can solve that problem by putting your own drive in an enclosure.
As far as the speed of the external drive goes, it may be limited by the interface. A fast hard drive can read and write faster than the data can be transferred to the box by USB. ESATA should be close in speed to an internal SATA connection, and is more than enough transfer speed to max out a 7200 rpm drive. USB3 theoretically can also outrun a fast drive. If you are just using the drive for archival storage, speed is irrelevant, since you can let your backup program run all night if you need to.
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Jim Roseberry
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 14:09:08
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Put the fastest SATA HD you can find in a nice external enclosure (eSATA and USB connections)... and you have the best eSATA/external USB HD you can buy.
Prebuild external HDs rarely use the manufacturer's highest performance HDs.
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Truckermusic
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 16:45:16
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Jim Roseberry
Put the fastest SATA HD you can find in a nice external enclosure (eSATA and USB connections)... and you have the best eSATA/external USB HD you can buy.
Prebuild external HDs rarely use the manufacturer's highest performance HDs.
Tim +1 to what Jim says......I have followed his advice several times concerning this and have had 0 Problems and 0 regrets. I have about four or five external drives in boxes I did myself.....very easy and inexpensive.. It is SO easy to do.....buy the box... buy the HD....open up the box .... Place HD in Box......make the the connection from HD to Box Port........close box (be gentle with this step)......Plug box in ....and away you go......... Clifford
http://www.soundclick.com/cliffordamundsen NZXT Phantom Case (in Black) Windows 7, Service Pack 1, 64 Bit OP Sonar X3 Producer, 64 Bit Asus P8P67 Pro Rev.3 MoBo 16 Gig of Ram 4.5 Gighz Intel i-7 2600k Quad Core Sandy Bridge Unibrain Firewire Card Edirol FA-101 Firewire interface Mackie Big Knob NI Komplete 8 Machine 2
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 20:18:49
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I've been looking around Newegg for a solution. And, geez, sure is a lot of negative feedback on drives, either internal or external, these days. I haven't bought a drive in like 5 years. what's up with that? Is it just the nature of the internet, or are hard drives a little more disposable these days?
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slartabartfast
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/25 21:16:12
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or are hard drives a little more disposable these days? Unscientific sampling. How many hundred bad reviews did you see for each drive? Hundreds have been bought, but I will guess that there is no drive on sale with a hundred bad reviews. Everyone expects a drive to work. If it doesn't they feel compelled to write a review because they are pissed off. If it just works, how many people will log on to leave a review saying "wow man, this drive just worked."
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Guitarhacker
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 07:40:35
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I have used and continue to use a USB drive for storage and samples. It works fine.
the samplers I have will load the samples to memory rather then streaming them, so loading time is not critical.
I do have a SATA drive in my new DAW and use it for storage and sample libraries now.... the 1TB USB is a backup drive on that DAW.
But, if I connect that 1TB to my lappy, it is the sample drive for the samplers.... and it works OK.
My website & music: www.herbhartley.com MC4/5/6/X1e.c, on a Custom DAW Focusrite Firewire Saffire Interface BMI/NSAI "Just as the blade chooses the warrior, so too, the song chooses the writer "
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Jim Roseberry
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 08:50:46
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Put a 1TB Samsung F3 HD in a nice external enclosure... - Extremely fast
- Reliable
- Relatively inexpensive
- Quiet
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Bristol_Jonesey
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 09:45:13
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I use one of these for sample streaming, and it doesn't cause any problems:  I should really go internal, but that's a project for another day.
CbB, Platinum, 64 bit throughoutCustom built i7 3930, 32Gb RAM, 2 x 1Tb Internal HDD, 1 x 1TB system SSD (Win 7), 1 x 500Gb system SSD (Win 10), 2 x 1Tb External HDD's, Dual boot Win 7 & Win 10 64 Bit, Saffire Pro 26, ISA One, Adam P11A,
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Old55
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 10:55:30
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External USB is fine for backup. I don't think I'd want to use it for sample playback or other high throughput data. I have a Seagate, that I use to listen to songs occasionally and it sometimes hangs up momentarily. It's an older setup, so I can't compare it to the latest and greatest. Still, it can be annoying. For me, it's not a critical issue. Mostly, I'm just checking out that I have the right song. If I'm going listen seriously, I'll move the file to an internal drive.
I don't know, but I do hope e-SATA works better than USB.
Good luck.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot--hey, who the hell are you guys? X2(X3 pending hardware upgrade), Emulator X2, E-mu 1212M, Virtual String Machine
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Beagle
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 12:00:33
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timidi
I've been looking around Newegg for a solution. And, geez, sure is a lot of negative feedback on drives, either internal or external, these days. I haven't bought a drive in like 5 years. what's up with that? Is it just the nature of the internet, or are hard drives a little more disposable these days?
slartabartfast
or are hard drives a little more disposable these days?
Unscientific sampling. How many hundred bad reviews did you see for each drive? Hundreds have been bought, but I will guess that there is no drive on sale with a hundred bad reviews. Everyone expects a drive to work. If it doesn't they feel compelled to write a review because they are pissed off. If it just works, how many people will log on to leave a review saying "wow man, this drive just worked."
+1 to what slart says. reviews are skewed in favor of negativity, especially in the case of something like hard drives where you just expect it to work. beyond that- DON'T get a "green drive" if you ever plan to use it for your PROGRAM drive (ie Sonar) or your AUDIO drive or your SAMPLES drive. for external storage/backup only they're OK, but green drives cause problems for streaming because they will power down or go into low power mode at inconvenient times and cause glitches in your recording.
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Truckermusic
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 14:06:12
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+1 to what Begale says.....
Like I said before......I took Jim's advice concerning putting an internal drive into an exteernal box four or five times now over the last four years.......
Never had a problem.....The HD Jim lined out for you is $60 plus a at most you need only spend $30 on a box and to put them together it takes less than 15 minutes.....plug it in.....do a quick format and BAM!.......ready to go....
Serioulsly....do it.....you'll be glad you did.....
Clifford
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/26 15:44:55
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/27 13:15:55
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Jim Roseberry
Put a 1TB Samsung F3 HD in a nice external enclosure...
- Extremely fast
- Reliable
- Relatively inexpensive
- Quiet
Thanks Jim. Any reason not to get a bigger drive (1.5- 2 gigs). ? Just wondering if the bigger drives are more prone to problems. I have an aversion to problems these days:)
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/29 17:49:07
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So, I got a Seagate 1tb serial ata HD 7200/32mb sata 6g.
And, a sabrent sata/ide box.
Is this all plug n play or do I need drivers and such?
Do I need to format the drive or anything?
Thanks.
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slartabartfast
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/30 01:46:06
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The drive enclosure should include all the drivers (plug & play). You will need to format the drive.
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timidi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/07/30 07:41:49
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Ok, I think it's working. I formatted and now have a "G" drive. I copy and pasted a 13 gig folder to it (from my data drive) and it took quite awhile to transfer. Maybe 30 minutes. Is that about normal? thanks
post edited by timidi - 2011/07/30 14:21:06
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Truckermusic
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/08/08 09:42:41
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Well....13 gig is a big folder.... Are you using a USB 2.0 or are you using eSata type of connection between the External box and the computer? USB I think will be slower to transfer eSata will be faster I've noticed that sometimes using copy and paste can be a slow way to transfer a file....however if I use the drag and drop method it is sometimes faster.....I do not know why that is or what the difference would be .....but I have noticed is all I am saying. Clifford
post edited by Truckermusic - 2011/08/08 09:45:23
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kevinandrew
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/09/06 06:23:12
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I used USB for transfer my data one disk to other disk, many laptop or desktop companys are given external or internal USB device.
I used my bluetooth, Pendrive, data cable, these are my external device.
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IK Obi
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Re:external USB or internal drive?
2011/09/06 16:18:44
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Personally I bought a Hard drive Dock. 2 slots that can hold 2 hard drives 2.5" or 3.5" up to a terabyte each with USB, eSata and Firewire. Pretty sweet deal for $50 when I bought it 2ish years ago. Since then I just buy hard drives!
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