Esata external drive help/suggestions.

[roberto]

Okay, I am finally upgrading my laptop and will be upgrading from my current WD Book USB external hard drive to the ESATA flavor burst.

Question:
Anyone know which ESATA drives are DJ worthy? Looking for something portable between 500GB-1TB. Here are some features I think are important:
External optional power supply so that the USB ports are not busy.
Casing/fan that keep the drive temp cool from overheating for outdoor gigs.
Portable.

I have done some research, but I have found it a little confusing. Some peeps have recommended buying an external case and a hard drive for the cheaper and more portable solution. Also, I read that in order to take advantage of the fast transfer rate, it needs a RAID set-up. I am not a techie and would like to read what the community suggests. Thank you!
This could possibly be a nice write-up by our DJ TechTools crew.

[mmauve]

Okay, I am finally upgrading my laptop and will be upgrading from my current WD Book USB external hard drive to the ESATA flavor burst.

Question:
Anyone know which ESATA drives are DJ worthy? Looking for something portable between 500GB-1TB. Here are some features I think are important:
External optional power supply so that the USB ports are not busy.
Casing/fan that keep the drive temp cool from overheating for outdoor gigs.
Portable.

I have done some research, but I have found it a little confusing. Some peeps have recommended buying an external case and a hard drive for the cheaper and more portable solution. Also, I read that in order to take advantage of the fast transfer rate, it needs a RAID set-up. I am not a techie and would like to read what the community suggests. Thank you!
This could possibly be a nice write-up by our DJ TechTools crew.

RAID is meant for multiple hard drives, you can get externals which support this, but its big, cumbersome, and usually not cost effective.

eSATA is good, but USB 3.0 drives are out, and those are even better, granted you can find a laptop which has USB 3.0 ports (yes, they are out, and on the market if you look around, and not much more expensive).

An alternate solution is if your laptop as a firewire port, get an firewore 800 external and do it like that.

[DJ_Animus]

For 100 bucks you can get the toshiba esata 1tb hard drive. It can be used in either esate or usb 2.0 modes as well which is great if someone else doesnt have esata. I use it in my gigs, its portable, built very well and never gets hot. It can only be powered externally which is the only I would use it though. The speeds are amazing!!!

[sj03w4t]

Confusing though you mention the need for external power so usb won't fail but you are looking for esata connector? Raid is not worth the effort for external hdd.
The one dj Animus recommends sounds like a good shot..

[DvlsAdvct]

You can also just slap a 1tb SATA hard drive into an enclosure that has eSATA on it. That way when you decide to upgrade the size of the drive you just need the new one and still use the old enclosure.

[transient]

This is the one I and many DJ's in my area use. Its very durable and can survive some pretty bad falls.

http://www.jr.com/lacie/pe/LAC_301848U/

[roberto]

Thanks so much for the suggestions so far. I have checked out the Lacie and Toshiba estata drives online.
I am also looking at the SATA and enclosure options. As far as enclosures are concerned, are there any particular brands or models that would be suitable for gigs (portable, cool air/fan vented, rugged)? And then there is the SATA question: will anyone do? Are they all dependable? brand/model?

As far as USB 3.0 is concerned, I just couldn't wait any longer before it became more available, I desperately needed to upgrade my laptop ASAP. If Esata is anywhere as fast as I have read about, then I will be happy with that in the meantime. Thanks for everyone's input!

[pier]

You don't meed a RAID for djing. That is only for serious audio/video production where you move gigabytes of files.

A RAID is always a combination of 2 disks. Usually you have 2 mirrored disks for faster access of the data, and also as a redundant backup, although there are other configurations.


As far as esata, well, you'll get the list of files faster for sure, but think of it: a wav file 441000/16bits of 5 minutes is like 50Mb. With USB2 and a normal 5400rpm hard drive would load 50Mb in about... 4 seconds? And that is a un-compressed files... an mp3 should take 2 seconds or less.

Plus traktor only reads when loading a track, and when listing files. When the track is in the deck the processor reads it from the ram.

My point is you don't need a kick ass connection for your hard drive. Having a 7200 rpm disk should be enough.

I would buy a 2.5'' 500Gb 7200 rpm 16Mb cache seagate momentus hard drive and a case from ebay. You should be able to connect it to your laptop without power adaptor. Check ebay for prices, but the hd should be less than 100 dollars.

Of course you can buy a 2.5 case with eSata, but you'll need some other card to connect it to the laptop.

As far as ventilation I don't think you'll need it. When djing you're not reading the disk constantly like when watching a movie, or copying files. Anyway if you have ever opened a macbook you'll notice there is no ventilation in the hd area. Buying a metal/aluminium case should be enough imo.

Anyway, if you want a kick ass drive with passive ventilation check

http://www.g-technology.com/

Those drives are real workhorses with eSata FW400 FW800 and USB, but I'm not sure they have a 2.5 model.

[roberto]

Thanks again. That is helpful info considering compatibility, speeds, and uses. That G-tech drive does look quite tasty and robust indeed!

[sj03w4t]

those g-tech products do look good, I agree.
I hate when companies advertise a product to have a DC input so you don't need USB power, but don't include the connector! But G-tech does include it so three hoorays for them!