Any reason not to buy a 750 GB external SATA drive?

[mhschmieder]

I could find no caveats in the few forums that showed up through Google searches, regarding avoiding 750 GB external SATA drives, but don't know which computer geek forums are best as I don't spend time on them, so thought I would consult my fellow Unicornationalists as at least I know our needs and usages of external hard drives are similar.

Having just purchased B.F.D. and its full suite of libraries, and having decided to hold off a bit longer on a Muse Receptor due to the majority of my everyday apps and plug-ins not being confirmed as working yet, I need to get another external hard drive ASAP.

I will definitely be buying a quad interface Glyph GT050Q drive, so do not want any advice on brand or type of drive -- I've already done my research in that regard and became convinced I am best off sticking with the brand that I have done so well by (I currently have a 400 GB Firewire 400 GT050 drive from Glyph).

I was told a couple of years ago by various sysadmin types that one shouldn't go past 400 GB and certainly not past 500 GB for a single external drive enclosure, both in terms of reliability and for performance considerations. But the entire GT050Q line maintains its specs consistently regardless of size, and I had read the the Seagate Barricuda drive that Glyph uses is unique in the nindustry in terms of the trustworthiness and performance of its top-sized 750 GB drive.

I was originally going to get a 500 GB drive and use the current 400 GB drive as my backup drive. But I am leaning more towards the 750 GB drive (no need to backup the sample libraries, so in both cases I could use the current 400 GB drive as my new backup drive -- for now).

Even once I go Receptor and offload the humongous BFD libraries, I know I will eventually fill a 750 GB drive to within 20% (the recommended maximum). This is because I am also a semi-pro photographer and just went digital recently. The photography will actually grow my disc usage more quickly than the audio.

Anyway, although the 750 GB is slightly cheaper per gigabyte than the 500 GB, my main concern is whether anyone here has experienced any issues with larger drives -- in particular from the more reliable brands (Seagate, Western Digital, Hitachi -- regardless of the enclosure/vendor).

It seems to make sense to go for the largest drive as long as there are no issues. And the research I did on partioning external drives strongly recommended against, so I also am wondering if a 32-bit computer would perform better if the external drive were organised at the top-level directory structure in such a way as to avoid cross-writing between far-apart sectors (maybe disc-writing is smart enough by now).

I suppose I should be concerned about the future of Seagate now that they have abandoned the concept of whisper-quiet drives (which all of us here need desperately), and now that they have swallowed up Maxtor (one of the worst brands, which often are used inside LaCie enclosures).

[monkey man]

My 2 cents, mhschmieder:

I've a policy of waiting 'till new "size standards" have been on the market for 3 or more years before buying into them.
Sure, everyone knows the latest, largest drives will work reliably today.
It's tomorrow that concerns me though.

If storage/archiving is part of the scenario, I'd be even more concerned.
As track widths narrow and head precision becomes ever more critical, long-term performance projections carry ever less weight in my book.

[HCMarkus]

If storage/archiving is part of the scenario, I'd be even more concerned. As track widths narrow and head precision becomes ever more critical, long-term performance projections carry ever less weight in my book.

Good point Mr. Monkey. Redundant DVD for long term backup and a second HD for short term is my custom and practice.

[azusa749a]

I have 2 - 750 GB Maxtor One Touch III's, bought them from Fry's for less than $300 each.
Although One Touch III is firewire, but I believe the disk inside is SATA.

They are quite and so far never give me any troubles.