External Drive Questions

[paulguitar]

Hi,
I've just updated to an IMac 27" quad core i7 from an iMac G5. I'm using a Traveler and DP 6.03. I'm about to go into heavy audio recording mode and want to know how to back up my system. What drives should I have in my setup? I'm assuming: maybe a Glyph 1 TB for audio (OWC?), another 1 TB drive for system backup, and then a backup drive for my audio and also a drive for my samples. I have an OWC Neptune 320 GB that has my audio and samples now. I'm thinking on using that as a backup drive for my audio initially.
I need to get a drive immediately and backup either with Time Machine or maybe ProSoft that comes with the OWC drives.
Also, is there a best way to daisy chain the drives from the computer using my Firewire 800 to 400 cable?
Any help is appreciated and thanks.
Paul C.

[HCMarkus]

The biggest challenge imposed by the iMac is the limited i/o. You might consider going with a USB2 drive for your backup/Time Machine purposes, in the interest of keeping your Firewire bus as lightly loaded as possible. You will already have plenty going on with the Firewire interface and Audio/VI drives. Although Firewire drives have shown significantly better results for streaming applications than USB2, you might find a USB2 audio or VI drive to be a good solution. If you purchase drives with both USB2 and Firewire i/o, you will have options to explore. Hopefully the Firewire bus will hold up for you. My understanding is the whole bus drops to FW400 speed if there is even a single FW400 device anywhere in the chain. But this does not mean you won't have success... Experimentation will lead you to the best approach.

Finally, don't forget that there are only about 4 drive manufacturers in the world. Glyph, OWC, LaCie and all the other case companies fill their boxes with drives from either WD, Seagate, Hitachi, or Samsung. Of course, you could go SSD... Good Luck!

[newrigel]

I'd keep as few peripherals on that buss as possible! Your only going to get FW 400 speed because of the audio interfaces speed. That's why people use mac pros for serious audio. Just make sure you use the latest drivers and hopefully everything plays well with each other on that (1) FW buss.
When you back up, just plug in the BU drive and copy the files and take it off the iMac. The more stuff on that iMac the greater the bottlneck.

[paulguitar]

Is there much of a difference between using a Firewire drive and a USB 2 drive for backing up? I've seen some 1 tb drives for around $100 at Best Buy.
Paul