Hi everyone. I run Vienna Instruments on a PC. I've been using external Firewire drives for sample storage, but two of the three Lacie units I bought developed problems and lost all their data (one within the warranty period, the other not). As 500GB USB drives are now so cheap, I'm wondering if they might be more reliable? (I only need a single drive, I'm not interested in a RAID set-up.)
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Will a USB external drive work OK for sample streaming?
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I don't think that it's a matter of reliable, it's more a question of USB being too slow. I've had much better results with Firewire than USB. The best suggestion that I have is get a firewire case and drive separately and then you can change drives as often as you like, including backing up your sample drive. In this situation it is a matter of minutes to get up and running again.
DG
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to have that said: my experience with the current generation of (consumer) drives is that 50% will die within 3 years - if used for sample streaming maybe even earlier.
drive manufactures which have been forced to simply dump prices during the last years have noticed that and are offering now *pro drives* *raid ready* *server certified* whatever marketing labels there might exist .... fact is that these drives are alittle bit more expensive and have 5 years warranty ... so don't try to save money at the wrong place.
the second issue is that drives used for sample streaming are steadily and heavily used (opposed to consumers accessing the 2 or 3 times a day) - so make sure your enclosure is well cooled because heat is the biggest enemy for a drive ...
christian
ps: i'd also tend to firewire, wherever possible even sATA, instead of USB ... USB is for mice, keyboards, occasionally used scanners and printers, webcams and similar thingies ....
and remember: only a CRAY can run an endless loop in just three seconds.