Using an external hard drive with Traktor

[djrosco]

I always use an external drive. Had no problems so far...
Havnt noticed any lag loading songs or such and dont try to move the drive while Im working
I use sync toy to back up to another drive about once a week and have a playlist on the internal drive as a safety

[TreTuna]

I've used an external drive practically my entire time gigging with Traktor. I've always just had too much to store on my main drive with the way I splice things up. Also, I just have a thing about using externals for media and internal for programs only on my laptop. Lets the computer run the program off one drive and read/write media to a different one with less stress. Trick you'll find when most people are recording/mixing tracks in a DAW like Pro Tools or Logic.

Just buy a good drive with a good warranty. I use a G-Tech 500GB 7200RPM portable drive as mine. Powered off of FW800 port. Honestly, I've had issues with Western Digital drives, and their service staff is practically non-existant.

I'd go with Lacie, G-Tech, or Glyph for dependability and warranty. Seagate has had some nice little portable drive out for a good price now too.

[decon]

I've been using ex. hdd too. I recently broke my old one and replaced it with a new USB 2.0/3.0 disk instead. After some reformatting (I'm also using the HDD to watch video on my PS3 and 360) the disk stop working properly. I couldn't copy files to the disk, and after talking to support I was told that I had to connect both the USB 2.0 and 3.0 plug, as the disk wouldn't get enough power through just the USB 2.0 connection (I don't have USB 3.0 but I wanted to be future proof). The disk I'm talking about is the IOMEGA eGo Portable HD USB3.0 500GB, which is nice in size and build quality, but the USB problem (I still have problem believing their story, but I got a refund so whatever) is a deal breaker. I've never heard of this problem before.

I'll be getting a HD Passport Ess SE/750GB 2.5 USB2.0 as soon as I have the money!

I've set Traktors default music dir as the ex. HDD and it works like a charm. It's great if you DJ on both a desktop and a laptop