Topic: External HDD's stable for recording?

[peterbilt]

I have read in the past that an external hard drive may not be the most stable of ways to record with. I am in the process of researching interfaces for a laptop (I'm debating on the Tascam 1804 or one of the Mackie Onyx dealies), but I do believe that an external drive would help smooth things out.

The Vaio I have runs the 1.7 GHz Intel Pentium M with 512MB of RAM (I'm going to build it up another 512) and has a 2MB cache.
I'm considering building an external drive with at least an 8MB cache and 7200 RPM to be used as the primary drive when doing any multitrack recording, to be connected via one of the USB 2 ports.

Latency isn't a very big issue as the files would be mastered at a later time, but bit dropping IS an issue(what's the point of going 24 if your going to drop some along the way!)

Would it be more beneficial to replace the drive in the laptop as opposed to building an external drive?

Any input is appreciated.


And on a somewhat related topic...
Are there any issues I should be aware of when using a 4 pin to 6 pin firewire cable?

Thanks.

[it-goes-to-eleven]

Drives designed for laptops are far more rugged than drives designed for desktop systems.

[TNJazz]

External all the way, no doubt about it.

I would not run multitrack audio over USB.  Firewire is much more reliable.

I record using a Pentium M 2.2ghz laptop (512mb RAM) onto a Pacific Pro Audio 160gb firewire drive.  24 simultaneous tracks of 24/48 audio for 3+ hours - no problem.

Unless you upgrade your internal laptop drive to a Hitachi 7K60 (or something similar), you won't be able to do that on your laptop internal drive.

Dirk

[winisp]

External all the way, no doubt about it.

I would not run multitrack audio over USB.  Firewire is much more reliable.

Dirk

My understanding is that USB 2.0 is as fast and reliable as Firewire. Does your comment about USB hold for 2.0 also?

[mmedley.]

USB is faster than Firewire in theory. However, Firewire is sustained write speed, whereas USB 2.0 is in bursts when writing.

[rowjimmy]

USB is faster than Firewire in theory. However, Firewire is sustained write speed, whereas USB 2.0 is in bursts when writing.

This is the key.
USB2.0 IS faster than standard firewire. But the packet burst method that usb uses can be a problem. Everyone I know that does video swears by firewire for this reason.

FireWire800 smokes 'em all tho.

Another consideration with the external drive is power. Bus Powered would eliminate need for clunky inverters and whatnot but then you're going to be putting the drain on your laptop's powersupply.