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Topic: Usb powered external Hard Drives - Page: 1

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Is it better to go with a self powered hard drive or a usb hard drive, does it matter? Will it effect the performance on computers?
 
geposted Thu 23 Jul 09 @ 2:58 pm
most of us use an external powered unit
 

+1

Syberman
 
I have used both, but now use a 1TB Powered external Verbatim drive. Haven't noticed a difference, they have both worked well for me.
 
If your computer/laptop has a firewire port I also recommend getting a firewire hard drive. Its fast, reliable and also gives you that extra USB port for another device you might need.
 
i use western digital paaport usb powered hard drives and they are fantastic! easy to set up, and the best thing it, if the power drops out for a sec or your AC codr gets kicke dout, the music keeps playing with no delay in starting the hard drive again. though, my music video drive is powered through the wall.
 
hector27 wrote :
Is it better to go with a self powered hard drive or a usb hard drive, does it matter? Will it effect the performance on computers?




I have covered this in a recent YouTube video.





DJ RuDe
 
I use 3 western digital passports for audio. For video, use a powered external 7200 rpm Hd.
 
zeen, thanks everyone for the response. helps out a lot.
 
My recommendation...

USe External Powered Disks. Those are at least working at 7200 RPM, Read/Writes are faster and could get 2TB (or more if you do some arrange of disks like I do) up to 6TB or 8TB.

USB powered hard disks are laptop harddisk in an external case. Those usually are 5400 RPM harddisks (are slower for Read/Write) and also not all Laptops could handle the 5 Volt 500mA top USB limit. IN such case you could loose connection and got errors.

It's ok, if have one working. But when you have more than one USB Hard disk you could have problems.

I prefer to use FireWire to my Sound Card, and leave USB for my STORAGE. USB 2.0 handle up to 480MB/sec and FW 400MB/s.

Good Luck!

PS. PLease don't forget, HARD DISK COULD FAIL. So keep in mind to have a backup of ALL in other disks. So If you want to have 1TB HD. Buy 2 and one have it as backup. Both HD have the same files, so if one fail the other have all your info and precious videos, music and/or Karaoke files and database.
 
Thanks ACW, I pretty much covered that in my video if you watched it. Powered are always better, less strain on computer resources and they are 7200 RPM where as the Passports are only 5400 RPM and require power from the USB. two of the main issues with those. Laptop internal drives are only 5400 RPM , one reason why it's better to run an external rather than using your internal to store your content, keep your program running on the internal.


DJ RuDe
 
stay away from usb Powered External hardDisks
 

I used a USB powered external when I first started with VirtualDJ and I couldn't fault it really. It may took a bit longer to transfer files to it but it served me well and I didn't have any performance issues with it. I still have it now and it works fine, but I don't use it anymore.

If you want large disk space go with a external drive with it's own power source. It's the best way IMO.
 
DJRudeDoGG wrote :
Thanks ACW, I pretty much covered that in my video if you watched it. Powered are always better, less strain on computer resources and they are 7200 RPM where as the Passports are only 5400 RPM and require power from the USB. two of the main issues with those. Laptop internal drives are only 5400 RPM , one reason why it's better to run an external rather than using your internal to store your content, keep your program running on the internal.


DJ RuDe

Hey Rude,

Well yes, you point on that and other things too. That's why I want to highlight on some to keep clear what I think an IT user have to know. I have to say that I work in IT since 1988, so I will point some facts that I found on those years. Now my personal experience on this matter:

I prefer to use Seagate hard drives since long ago. Main reason, when those drives fail, you have some things going on before it will not work. For Example, files could not be read in some sectors of the drive, slower files transfers and reads that it usually have and do noises that it don't do before. If your drive do that then you could still backup 90% of the drive before it crash. Seagate drives have the largest lifetime than others without fail. Maxtor, Samsumg, IBM, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Toshiba, Western Digital don't do that way. Worst of all for me: Samsumg and WD, because fail without warning, one day are ok, and the other can't start without any advice. Seagate could fail yes, but I lost less files with those drives than other brands. WD is the one that I lost more, and that's why I would not recommend it and if so, do it with a backup all time. If your Seagate drive don't fail in the first month (or 2), you have 98% that it would not fail in it's lifetime (5 years or more).
The best warranty is the one you have not to use.

In the other hand, have to look for some specific things that maybe affect performance. 7200RPM (or some with 10,000 RPM) would transfer files faster that a 5400RPM HD. More RPM More heat. There are some HD for laptop that work at 7200RPM (I got one in my laptop) but keep in mind that faster HD in todays market have less capacity than the commercial ones. You could find 2 TB hard disk now, while 10,000 RPM are about 320GB. Also a Solid State HD could be 128GB but those last are faster, quieter and less power consuming than traditional HD. You found those on some Toshiba Qosmio (X305) models and really let you work fast.

SO keep in mind, all facts to have the right hard drive for you. and take precautions like backup and keep a copy of all your files at home or a safe place, just in case. Remember, warranties and replacements only cover for hardware, not for what you keep on those hardware.

Good Luck!
 
Just be aware that even the slightest power failure may cause the external hard drive to fail and whatever was playing will just repeat over and over and skip, and you will have to shut down and restart everything. A Maxtor hard drive will do this, for example. Sucks big time if this were to happen in the middle of a first dance at a wedding.

So you should get a UPS battery backup device if you get an external hard drive to prevent this disaster from occurring.
 

Good advice, a UPS could keep you safe on power failures. You can add a 400Watts for a few bucks and keep up to 30 minutes of backup time or more just in case to let you switch from power plant without worries.
 
ACW, I agree with you on Seagate hard drives. On my video I mentioned that I bought my 1.5 TB Seagate Free Agent Extreme without doing any research. I bought it based on the many excellent past experiences and because I've always trusted the Seagate name to provide an excellent hard drive. I too have been involved in IT and other aspects of business computing for at least 20 years and have come to trust in the Seagate brand. I bought that hard drive for 2 reasons, #1: At the Time (Jan 2009) 1.5 TB was the largest capacity commercially available and Seagate had it. #2: It was eSata compatible.

I started having issues with it right of the bat. First it would just shut off and my computer couldn't find it or it would cause my computer to crash. I decided to do some research and found that people are having issues with the eSata. So I switched to Firewire, same thing happens, I now use the USB cables and it still disappears periodically but not as often. When I say disappears I mean my computer can find it. I later found that there were issues with 64 bit Vista and there were literally hundreds of people who were having issues and Seagate was telling everyone they have no intentions on providing support or drivers for 64 bit Vista. After months of prodding by myself and these people (read the angry threads on their forums) they finally released 64 bit drivers.

Even with these new drivers, the change from eSata to Firewire to USB this drive still falls asleep or just shuts down without warning. My Western Digital 1.0 TB My Books never ever do that and have worked flawlessly for months and months without issue, not one, single, solitary issue! These 7200 RPM powered drives are excellent. I run 3 of them and they are backed up.

My laptop has a 7200 RPM 320 GB internal drive and it has a 128 GB Solid State drive as well. It's a Toshiba Qosmio X305 Q708. I do use a UPS, these things are a life saver!

Thanks.


DJ RuDe
 
Good to know Rude ;-)

Well 1.5TB external from Seagate maybe isn't as good as others (try internal Seagate 1.5 TB in other hd case). I do not use any external HD branded case, but built my own. Now I have a Single USB with 3 harddrives on it. 2 Seagate 1TB for vids and 1 Seagate 750GB for music & karaoke. The only problem I found is when you use SUSPEND on the laptop and try to return your harddisk connections. Some time Windows Vista show connected harddrives but can access the information on them.

Anyway, bullet proof systems are made by us (been cautious and having solutions on worst case scenarios),

Cheers !
 
I've used a firewire drive from day one, and it's been very reliable - never a problem ;)
 
i have the "rugged hard drive" works great!
 
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