Newbie on Firewire HDD's

[gujuguy007]

When it come's to external firewire hard drives, I know nothing. I want to purchase an external drive that is roughly 120 gb and spins at 7200 rpm. I do some video editing so I wanted the ability to carry my files around. That is why I want to purchase an external firewire drive. Plug and play. Simple.

Does anybody have suggestions as to what drives are good?
Is it cheaper for me to buy the drive and the external cage seperately?
Where would I look?

Cost is an issue for me, so I'm trying to find the best possible solution. A firewire port is a plus. I wouldn't mind if there was a usb port on it, just because it helps compatiblity. Additionally, I want to be able to transfer my files via pc to mac and vice versa. I know the two systems use totally different file formats. But, most of my files will be mpegs or avi's. Will I run into problems with the hardware detecting my hard drive, or will it be just fine?

Any thoughts or suggestions will really help me. Thanks.

 

[dodgybob]

Compatability should be fine and certainly both computers should be able to detect and use it. File system might be a problem though, probably best to format it as FAT32 to allow full access on the mac. However that file system has it's own issues. It only allows files up to 4GB in size. In addition there was a thread about a 32GB partition limit in using the windows cd to format a drive with that file system although I think someone said that it can do up to 4TB partitions. Might be best to format it with something like partition magic and see if you can get one 120GB partition. If 32Gb is the limit then I don't know how you would feel about multiple partions.

For best performance on a pc naturally NTFS would be the best bet but unfortunately I don't know about mac compatability. With video editing you might have to go down this road particularly as you are likely to have files above 4GB in size.

As to the drive itself I would definitely get an external enclosure and separate drive to get the best components suited to you. It is also often cheaper to use it this way plus you can get a much longer warranty on the drive if you go for a seagate as their internal drives have 5 year warranties.

As for the enclosure I like this one:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=112591

It doesn't have a fan, just made out of aluminium and acts as a big heatsink to keep the drive cool. In my house we have one with a 200GB seagate 7200.7 drive and it's very quiet and we have had no heat problems.

They go under a different name in the US. Here is a link to the USB2 only version on newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-155-211&depa=0

Since they are available with firewire in the UK it should be pretty easy to find one with that interface in the US.

In fact here it is on the US manufacturer's website:

http://www.ppa-usa.com/product_pages/enclosures/1912.htm

The blue neon tube may not be able to everyone's taste but as someone who hates these things I find it is actually implemented quite tastefully and is rather nice. Certainly you can get it without the neon in the UK.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Macs and PCs use many of the same file formats. .avi, .mpeg, .jpg, .png, .doc, etc. They all work on my Mac.

You'll have to use FAT32 for a filesystem though, and it's icky, especially with big files.