Have a WD Passport and a WD Element; No problems with either. None. Been DJing with them for like 6 years.
I have a 2TB G Drive. It has a built in heat sync within aluminium casing. I use it inside my flight case for the Pioneer DDJ-S1. I have started to use Serato Video within Serato Itch on the DDJ-S1 and I’m using a MacBook Pro 17" 2.66 Ghz, 4 GB 320 GB HD connected with the 2 TB G Drive via FireWire.
It runs perfect. The reason I got the heat sync version of the external drive is so that that I’m not circulating warm air from my DJ equipment or outside in the heat of day via a fan inside my external drive.
LaCie and G Drive are the best on the market, pricy but worth it, protect your data and music, and remember back up the back ups, regularly.
Would you mind specifying what you mean by “too risky” or “unreliable”? What problems have you experienced?
I’m trying to do more research into SSD drives, because I’ve grown to need more USB ports on my laptop for additional devices.
Most laptops only come with 2 USB ports. Mine has 2. So if I am to use 2+ controllers, plus an external drive, I have to extend via a USB 3.0 hub (with the DJTT blue cables). Every now and then, at random, I’ll experience an audio drop. Not sure what else to do to maximize speed/performance, etc besides what I’ve already done from watching the NI tutorials to optimize Macs/PCs.
i have had bad experience with lacies… they tend to use hitachi or toshiba drives. your best bet is to buy a usb 3 case and a western digital or SSD drive, i got my nextstar case for 20 bucks and it performs very well
Thank you for sharing. I have read mixed reviews on whether or not to use an external drive or not. I recognize both sides of the issue, especially for reducing the amount of demand on any computer (i.e. 4 USB devices running through 2 USB ports) It has to be doable though. Yeah, +1 Western Digital drives. I purchased a USB 3.0 hub to assist my new USB 3.0 SSD drive. I didn’t necessarily get an inexpensive deal with my Iomega, but it was more important to have the speed & storage.
In the past, I used 2 decks and 1 effects controller: the WD external drives were enough. Since I’ve now progressed to 4 decks, 2 controllers, this audio drop out issue has become a slight problem. Advice to others: try to limit the demand on your computer. You may have to invest in higher quality hardware, plus significant optimization on your computer, especially if it’s a few years old.
My computer(s):
Windows 7, 8GB RAM, 1TB Internal, 500GB SSD External, All updates, 2.2 GHz Dual Core, running with Latency at 512.
Mac OSX 16GB RAM, 1TB Internal, All updates, 2.3 Dual Core, running with Latency at 256.
Yay necrothreads.
Your point is a big one. Especially on computers that only have USB ports, there’s no reason to add one more thing to a USB hub.
They can come unplugged.
They usually don’t have freefall sensors and are in some ways more at risk to physical damage than internal drives.
You can forget or lose them.
They’re easier to steal.
They tend not to cool themselves well.
It’s one more thing to find a stable, cool, dry place for.
And it’s just not necessary. A normal OS X install takes, what a few GB. Windows can’t be too much worse, right? Call it 20GB for the OS being generous.
You can still fit plenty of music for all but the most demanding mobile gigs on an internal drive. And a 512GB SSD is under $400 (for a good one like a Vertex 4, Vector, or 840 Pro). If you’re willing to deal with slow and fragile hard drives…they’re even cheaper.
My first SSD was 64GB. I used it for over 2 years. On my only computer. Including DJing. Yes, I had (at the time) several hundred GB of external hard drives at home. Now, I think I’m up to 3 TB of externals (including redundant copies and drives I’m no longer using). But I’m still using relatively small SSDs in both of my computers. And I basically never want more stuff with me when I’m away from home.
There’s no good reason to use an external drive with a DJ setup except as an emergency backup. At least, none that I can see unless you’re one of the mobile guys who needs a 50 year back catalog of pop……and even then, I don’t see how you wouldn’t be able to fit it on a 1TB internal.