I need a new hard drive...any suggestions?

[dustcoversmyheels]

i'm in need of a new 2nd hard drive.

i run all my programs on my main drive, and will be tracking all my audio files to the 2nd drive.

any suggestions?

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I like the Western Digital Black Caviar I just installed recently.

1TB for $99. Not bad. Quiet and I've never had a problem with WD drives. Seagates can be a bit shaky, as some WD other colors. "Green" Caviar supposedly has power issues in that it likes to sleep a lot (the green part) and access can be delayed while waking the drive. The WD Black C is fast and silent. Stealth comes to mind.

[HCMarkus]

Don't buy a new hard drive. Buy at least TWO and dedicate a big fat one to Time Machine!

Dude, you lost your audio files once already. When your system drive fails, there go all your emails and programs. Or maybe the new audio drive will fail first... who knows? There was a recent thread about failure rates for HDs conducted by some Google guys. Highest failure rate was for brand new drives, with a wave of failures coming at 2-3 years if I recall correctly. So don't think your new drive, no matter what brand, is immune to SSS (Sudden Sayonara Syndrome.)

You've got a Mac Pro. Easy as pie to slip three new drives - see http://www.storagereview.com/ for info - in that sucker! Do it.

[sourgrapes]

+1 on the WD Caviar Blacks

[newrigel]

Don't buy a new hard drive. Buy at least TWO and dedicate a big fat one to Time Machine!

Dude, you lost your audio files once already. When your system drive fails, there go all your emails and programs. Or maybe the new audio drive will fail first... who knows? There was a recent thread about failure rates for HDs conducted by some Google guys. Highest failure rate was for brand new drives, with a wave of failures coming at 2-3 years if I recall correctly. So don't think your new drive, no matter what brand, is immune to SSS (Sudden Sayonara Syndrome.)

You've got a Mac Pro. Easy as pie to slip three new drives - see http://www.storagereview.com/ for info - in that sucker! Do it.

And one of these: http://www.mcetech.com/
Bluray has come down in price considerably and you can't beat the capacity. One disc for all your sessions is really nice! For archiving it's a blessing!

[dustcoversmyheels]

is it possible to create multiple images for multiple disks on one hard disk?

for example....could i get a huge hard drive and have it contain an image for my system drive, tracking drive, and my macbook? or should i dedicate a backup drive for each?

[cuttime]

is it possible to create multiple images for multiple disks on one hard disk?

for example....could i get a huge hard drive and have it contain an image for my system drive, tracking drive, and my macbook? or should i dedicate a backup drive for each?

Yes, each drive image should exist on its own partition. SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner will create bootable drive images. You can create partitions with the Apple Disk Utility.

[HCMarkus]

is it possible to create multiple images for multiple disks on one hard disk?

for example....could i get a huge hard drive and have it contain an image for my system drive, tracking drive, and my macbook? or should i dedicate a backup drive for each?

Definitely. And when you think about it, you could actually have a very robust backup situation for two drives WITHIN those two drives by simply partitioning each and backing up each to the other. So you can have a System Drive that backs up to a partition on your Audio Drive, and vice-versa. With Time Machine's incremental backups, I'd prefer to dedicate a third drive to backup duties, but the aforementioned approach should work, too. I'd recommend keeping an extra boot partition on hand as well. So much quicker than a CD installation.

[dustcoversmyheels]

wow. this information is extremely helpful. thank you!

sometimes technology exasperates and astonishes me at the same time!

[newrigel]

wow. this information is extremely helpful. thank you!

Just better make sure that huge HD don't take a dump (and it's INEVITABLE) because you have to have the same size or bigger to salvage to he he...
Backup to high capacity optical (Bluray or DL DVD) that way your data is safe... HD's die!

[dustcoversmyheels]

what about a really big flash drive? haha.

[HCMarkus]

SSD!

[Phil O]

You don't hear about them much, but I've had really good luck with Samsung drives. Very quiet and they run cool. I've bought three from Newegg and all have worked flawlessly for years.

http://www.samsung.com/global/business/ ... o?group=72

Phil

[Eleventh Hour Sound]

I'm a big fan of the 2.5" 10,000 RPM 300Gig Western Digital VelociRaptors but just had 2 fail in a matter of 2 weeks, and then the 2 replacements failed too! Not sure what is going on here. WD is sending more replacements but it gets a little scary when stuff like this starts happening.

[HCMarkus]

I'm a big fan of the 2.5" 10,000 RPM 300Gig Western Digital VelociRaptors but just had 2 fail in a matter of 2 weeks, and then the 2 replacements failed too! Not sure what is going on here. WD is sending more replacements but it gets a little scary when stuff like this starts happening.

Check your HD power supply... especially if the Raptors are in external cases! When supplies get old, they sometimes don't put out rated voltage/amperage, and drives can't spin up properly. I posted awhile back about how I replaced a failing external drive power supply with a stock PC power supply, $40 at Fry's. It is now powering four externals, (including two Raptors) with plenty of headroom for more.