Hi everyone,

I've been looking around for a 1TB firewire hard drive for samples and recording duties, and the choice is limited to say the least!

I want to daisy chain it, plugging it into my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, then into my Macbook Pro, so I believe it will need to be FW400 for connecting to the Pro 40 (is that correct?)

The most reasonable solution I have found so far is a Western Digital drive, offering FW400, FW800 and USB 2.0 for just under £150. However this is really as high a price as I am willing to spend. (I'm a uni student, you know we like to scrape everything we can out of every penny we possess )

I just though I would post on here to check if anyone knows of anything better for me to look at? I'm very aware WD aren't exactly the most 'professional' of choices, but budget really is the big issue here, so please no suggestions of raising it as it's not an option.

Thanks in advance,
Dave.

Do you have to daisy chain it? You're right the Pro40 is firewire 400 based.

I take it you've not got any spare USB ports/firewire 800/Thunderbolt/Ethernet Ports (which you might have depending on the year/model of the MBP?)

You'll get a better deal on a USB based drive as the interface is more prolific / therefore higher competition - and I mean literally 1/3rd of the price for 1TB.

In terms of most storage for least money, technically you're better off sourcing your own HD's and then using a separate enclosure.

Example:
This plus this - gives you 2TB, expandable with another 2TB drive to 4TB, and you can access it via Ethernet as a network drive, which might give you more connectivity options. Not the highest performance, sure, and not massively portable, but you could source your own drives as you see fit - i.e 5400 RPM vs 7200 RPM and 16 vs 32MB Caches etc..

Western Digital drives are fine. Good even. Green = energy savers/quieter, lower performance, Blue = standard, Black = higher performance (but more energy/noise).

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Web Design ~
Drum Studio

Quote curly430:

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I've been looking around for a 1TB firewire hard drive for samples and recording duties, and the choice is limited to say the least!

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Really? There are *loads* of FW hard drives around...

Quote curly430:

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I want to daisy chain it, plugging it into my Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, then into my Macbook Pro, so I believe it will need to be FW400 for connecting to the Pro 40 (is that correct?)

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No, get a FW800 drive. Mac -> FW800 Drive -> Pro 40.

the interface will stay at FW400 speeds, but the drive will work at FW800 speeds if you chain them in that order.

Quote curly430:

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The most reasonable solution I have found so far is a Western Digital drive, offering FW400, FW800 and USB 2.0 for just under £150. However this is really as high a price as I am willing to spend.

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HD prices are still rather high at the moment, unfortunately because of what happened last year. I have a bunch of WD MyBooks, as well as a bunch of WD bare drives, and I tend to stick with WD where I can...

Quote Neokoenig:

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You'll get a better deal on a USB based drive as the interface is more prolific / therefore higher competition - and I mean literally 1/3rd of the price for 1TB.

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USB is *sloooow* for audio.

FW800 is the way to go currently, imo.

Iv'e got one of those dlink enclosures, quite good for the money, allows raiding of drives for extra storage/backup (i have mine mirrored so if a drive fails no probs) also doubles up as a usb print server that can also share usb flash drives/hard drives. Network performance may be an issue if used for high volume streaming, although, this does have a 1gbit/s ethernet and will work computer to drive without needing a crossover cable.
This, however, unlike other devices of this type, has no usb to computer connection so it's ethernet or nothing

Quote desmond:

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Quote Neokoenig:

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You'll get a better deal on a USB based drive as the interface is more prolific / therefore higher competition - and I mean literally 1/3rd of the price for 1TB.

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USB is *sloooow* for audio.

FW800 is the way to go currently, imo.

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Agreed. Gigabit ethernet also another option.

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Web Design ~
Drum Studio

Thanks for the responses, nice to hear good feedback on WD.

I already have a USB 1TB drive, and my aim is to put that into retirement on the audio front. Maybe just have it for other less-used files to free some drive space.
I want to partition the new drive into two 500GB partitions. One to use with Time Machine to back up my MBP, and the other to store my sample library and some sessions on.

I'll expand a bit more. Both USB slots in my MBP are being used. I have one Firewire port, and due to it being the ridiculous connector macs use my cable is the Apple connector to FW400. A Belkin model bought from the Apple store. I've never seen one to FW800...

I do have my ethernet slot completely unused, so that is of course an option. However, Firewire is preferable for my setup as I want it in my rack with the interface. (Less cables trailing out.)

Maybe buying a case and drive would be my better option...

+1 wot Desmond said - I have a Seagate external tb drive which came with various cables. Stick that before the interface, and you're fine.

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Veni, Vidi, Aesculi
(I came, I saw, I conkered)

+1 WD Firewire 800.

Use usb drives for quick short/medium term backup.

Just to let you know I've purchased a 1TB WD MyBook Studio.
Thanks again for all the advice.