What hard drive for FCP video?

I have a 80 gb powerbook and I only have about 30 gb left for video and everything else. I want to buy a external hard drive but I want something small like this, http://cgi.ebay.com/80GB-2-5-USB-2-...QQihZ016QQcategoryZ116254QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem , But I heard that flash drives get corrupted from time to time. Do you think it will be a fine hard drive to store my final cut pro projects on. Or should I just get a real desktop hard drive. Thanks

Replying helps

I don't know about flash drives getting corrupted, but that's not what this link is to. I do have a drive similar to this one and it works well for my Aperture projects. It's very convenient having something small enough to fit in my laptop bag, and being bus powered so I don't have to carry a power supply.

However, these drives are quite often only 4200 RPM, meaning they're probably too slow for doing video work. If you're just talking about backing up your projects, then you'll be fine. If you want to use them for capturing video, you may end up dropping frames, and you'll probably be disappointed with the performance you'll get when doing live editing on those projects.

If you don't mind the lack of portability, then by all means pick up a 3.5" (full-size) drive. I built a 250g drive + 3.5" enclosure for around $100. With shipping, that's about what you're looking at for this drive -- with the full-size drive you'll get much better performance and three times the storage for about the same cost.

That looks like it would be fine. But if you are serious about editing I would get a desktop hard drive (one with firewire 800), it seems that that one has a laptop drive inside which would be slower.. faster the better when it comes to editing.

djames and bdaines are completely right.

You'll definitely want something that is at least 7200 (if not a Raptor @ 10,000) and has at least FW400. You can find a drive like this (160gb) in the $120 range.

Thanks, but what about this one, http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-W-D-60-GIG-...QQihZ014QQcategoryZ116254QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem. The bid has ended but he's got more. I don't need anymore space than this. I just need something I can traval with but is fast. This has 5400 rpm, I did wish it was 800 firewire but or at lest 400. So what do you guys think about this. And if you know of any small 2.5 firewire hard drive please let me know. Thanks

That's not going to work for video, you'll need Firewire.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154009

You'll want to look for something more like that.

This is good too:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MS8U5080GB8/

It is portable, bus powered, 80GB, and has firewire 800. The best of everything.

Bluesmudge said:

This is good too:
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MS8U5080GB8/

It is portable, bus powered, 80GB, and has firewire 800. The best of everything.

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You're on the right track, it's still a little slow at 5400 RPM but you could scrape by with it. I still recommend looking for a faster drive.

Daines, it's USB, which doesn't have the transfer speed to do live video capturing/editing. Assuming you didn't see that...

EDIT: I'm stupid.

surfwax95 said:

Daines, it's USB, which doesn't have the transfer speed to do live video capturing/editing. Assuming you didn't see that...

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It's got FW400 & 800 as well as USB.

As a side note how does USB not have speed to do a live cap? It runs at 480ish mbps.

Ya that's why I wasn't sure about usb but It may do for now but I'm certain that I will do HD editing in about the end of this year . Any more with firewire? I like the one from mac sales

i have a macbook pro and i was looking at this drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154161
i do video editing and such and i hear Lacie are one of hte best plus its huge, 7200rpm and has firewire 800, 400, and usb so your set.... should i get it?

Evermore said:

i have a macbook pro and i was looking at this drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822154161
i do video editing and such and i hear Lacie are one of hte best plus its huge, 7200rpm and has firewire 800, 400, and usb so your set.... should i get it?

Click to expand...

That one looks great.

Oops, sorry about that Daines, I didn't read your quote and thought you were quoting the OP from higher up in the thread where he posted a link to a USB only drive.

This is what Ben wants up from his 160GB.

The difference between this one and the one Evermore posted is this one has a fan so it will run cooler making it less likely to fail

Ok I think I see what's up, it looks like most 80gb & 60gb hard drives only have usb connectivity other than the OWC from mac sales. The desktop ones are nice but I already have a destop 160gb hard drive. Any more smaller ones that are portable?