Reliable fast external HDD needed

Hi - I have a brand new and fast laptop with a 7200 RPM internal drive.
Having just irreparably crashed my old external drive I am on the hunt for a
new one. I'd like to partition it and make it dual use - storage in a 100 GB
partitian and direct write for recording multichanel music in real time in
the other. For recording, I need something that is really fast, reliable and
upwards of 400 GB. It doesn't have to be pretty and it doesn't have to have
a case. I can sort that out. Both USB and firewire preferable, although
again I can fix that with the correct case.

I've read some poor reports about Seagate drives then read a review of the
Seagate FreeAgent Pro, which was favourable. Pretty flash, though, perhaps
at the cost of performance. The drive that physically crashed only a year
into its life was a Samsung so I've gone right off this brand. I have a
fairly new Western Digital 500 GB but it is extremely slow.

Any advice approeciated.

You should have gotten a laptop with an eSata port. That would give you the
fastest throughput, several times faster than USB or firewire.
I have a WD My Book that is 1,000 GB that supports USB, firewire and eSata.
I can record two TV shows to it at the same time through the USB without any
problems, its fast enough for that. I don't know how much data the real time
music uses per second, but it would seem less than two TV shows that include
stereo music each and 720 by 480 video. Checking the properties of a TV
video shows, sound at 5316 kbps, and video at 80179 kbps for each show.

"pbl" <pblnews@internode.on.net> wrote in message
news:OhQoMzNrIHA.3940@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi - I have a brand new and fast laptop with a 7200 RPM internal drive.
> Having just irreparably crashed my old external drive I am on the hunt for
> a new one. I'd like to partition it and make it dual use - storage in a
> 100 GB partitian and direct write for recording multichanel music in real
> time in the other. For recording, I need something that is really fast,
> reliable and upwards of 400 GB. It doesn't have to be pretty and it
> doesn't have to have a case. I can sort that out. Both USB and firewire
> preferable, although again I can fix that with the correct case.
>
> I've read some poor reports about Seagate drives then read a review of the
> Seagate FreeAgent Pro, which was favourable. Pretty flash, though, perhaps
> at the cost of performance. The drive that physically crashed only a year
> into its life was a Samsung so I've gone right off this brand. I have a
> fairly new Western Digital 500 GB but it is extremely slow.
>
> Any advice approeciated.

As Gary says, an eSATA port is the way to go. You will not get what you
want with usb or firewire. However, you can add an eSATA port if you have
an ExpressCard 34/54 slot. There are several eSATA adaptors on the market
and you can buy an external SATA enclosure and drive for it.

"pbl" <pblnews@internode.on.net> wrote in message
news:OhQoMzNrIHA.3940@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi - I have a brand new and fast laptop with a 7200 RPM internal drive.
> Having just irreparably crashed my old external drive I am on the hunt for
> a new one. I'd like to partition it and make it dual use - storage in a
> 100 GB partitian and direct write for recording multichanel music in real
> time in the other. For recording, I need something that is really fast,
> reliable and upwards of 400 GB. It doesn't have to be pretty and it
> doesn't have to have a case. I can sort that out. Both USB and firewire
> preferable, although again I can fix that with the correct case.
>
> I've read some poor reports about Seagate drives then read a review of the
> Seagate FreeAgent Pro, which was favourable. Pretty flash, though, perhaps
> at the cost of performance. The drive that physically crashed only a year
> into its life was a Samsung so I've gone right off this brand. I have a
> fairly new Western Digital 500 GB but it is extremely slow.
>
> Any advice approeciated.

Mike is correct, pbl.

I did follow these steps and it works for me. I use the info on Microsoft
Article ID:929461 and that was my same problem solution. You need to run this
steps with Administartor Credentials and be very precise on every key you
hit, because you will be in the RegEdit area.
--
Jesus Dela Rosa


"pbl" wrote:

> Hi - I have a brand new and fast laptop with a 7200 RPM internal drive.
> Having just irreparably crashed my old external drive I am on the hunt for a
> new one. I'd like to partition it and make it dual use - storage in a 100 GB
> partitian and direct write for recording multichanel music in real time in
> the other. For recording, I need something that is really fast, reliable and
> upwards of 400 GB. It doesn't have to be pretty and it doesn't have to have
> a case. I can sort that out. Both USB and firewire preferable, although
> again I can fix that with the correct case.
>
> I've read some poor reports about Seagate drives then read a review of the
> Seagate FreeAgent Pro, which was favourable. Pretty flash, though, perhaps
> at the cost of performance. The drive that physically crashed only a year
> into its life was a Samsung so I've gone right off this brand. I have a
> fairly new Western Digital 500 GB but it is extremely slow.
>
> Any advice approeciated.
>
>