SwingDJs

I recently (last year) switched from having a desktop to a laptop as my primary computer. The problem I'm finding now is that I'm quickly running out of hard drive space for music. Does anyone have suggestions for alternative music storage ideas? Downloading stuff from emusic is fine, but where do you put it all?

120 GB hard drive on my home computer now.

The obvious would be MP3's or OGG's on CD or other removable media.

Does the notebook have USB2 or Firewire? I believe you can get external hard drives (basically a desktop drive in an external enclosure) that would add a lot of capacity ... it probably means one more piece of equipment and another wall wart for power. I don't know if anyone has regular USB external drives. The other option would be an external SCSI drive and SCSI card.

Toon Town Dave wrote:The obvious would be MP3's or OGG's on CD or other removable media.

Does the notebook have USB2 or Firewire? I believe you can get external hard drives (basically a desktop drive in an external enclosure) that would add a lot of capacity ... it probably means one more piece of equipment and another wall wart for power. I don't know if anyone has regular USB external drives. The other option would be an external SCSI drive and SCSI card.

I have an external usb drive that's powered off the usb bus. It's really nice not to have to plug in a bulky power adapter. Check it out at http://www.pocketech.net/

These are basically laptop drives in a really small external enclosure. Extremely lightweight, small, and quiet.

you can also get firewire portable drives that are powered through
the firewire connection. here's one link http://eshop.macsales.com/Static_Pages/index.cfm
another company is http://smartdisk.com/ ; i have a couple of their
older portable firewire drives, the model before the Firelite.
you can also get larger desktop drives 200GG etc that need to be powered.
most of the newer ones will have both firewire and usb2 connections.

Yeah, my laptop has 3 USB ports and a Firewire port. I'm a bit hesitant to get a USB external due to the relatively slow transfer rate compared to Firewire. I guess the other question is how big a drive I need. I think I have about 10 GBs of music right now. Would 120 GBs be excessive?

If 200GB isn't enough, check out Western Digital's latest:
http://www.westerndigital.com/en/produc ... 50gbse.asp I think these are basically their JB (aka Special Edition) drives in an external enclosure.

BryanC wrote:Yeah, my laptop has 3 USB ports and a Firewire port. I'm a bit hesitant to get a USB external due to the relatively slow transfer rate compared to Firewire. I guess the other question is how big a drive I need. I think I have about 10 GBs of music right now. Would 120 GBs be excessive?

USB 2.0 is faster than firewire... 480Mbps vs 400Mbs... though you will generally get a bit better performance on firewire. I recommend USB external drives because they are usually backwards compatible to 1.1, which means you can take it to almost any machine.

Well, it's all a toss up I suppose.

The Pocketech 60GB drive is relatively tiny (5x3x0.5 in): $350
The Western Digital 120GB drive is not as tiny (8x6x1.5 in), but still small: $300.00, but with $50.00 rebate
The SmartDisc 120GB drive is about the same size as the WD (8x5x1.5): $250.00

Ponder ponder ponder. Not to mention whether 120GBs is really necessary--or if it isn't enough.

BryanC wrote:Well, it's all a toss up I suppose.

The Pocketech 60GB drive is relatively tiny (5x3x0.5 in): $350
The Western Digital 120GB drive is not as tiny (8x6x1.5 in), but still small: $300.00, but with $50.00 rebate
The SmartDisc 120GB drive is about the same size as the WD (8x5x1.5): $250.00

Ponder ponder ponder. Not to mention whether 120GBs is really necessary--or if it isn't enough.

Right now I have a few external Hard drives, just basic ACOM's , heck I have an 3 80 gigs and a 120, they are ok for home use, but suck for traveling.

the Pocketech is what I'm getting next, specifically for traveling.

I have a firewire connection and 3 USB ports, however I bought a USB cardbus adapter which ups me to a couple USB 2.0 ports which I'll be using my external sound card on as well.

You will not be disappointed with the Pocketch drive. I've been using mine for about 2 years now, it's been great!

As with all removable media, make sure you use the OS tools to disconnect the drive before unplugging it though, or you can potentially lose data. That goes for all USB based drives though.

BryanC wrote: Ponder ponder ponder. Not to mention whether 120GBs is really necessary--or if it isn't enough.

If price is not the primary consideration, go with the presumption that anything that is the standard today will be outdated in 6 months and obsolete in a year and a half. In other words, I don't think it would be overkill if you can afford it. If it is a close call, I say go with the larger drive.

True enough. I guess you'll always end up filling whatever you have--if you buy 60 GBS, you'll fill 60, if you buy 120, you'll fill 120...

I asked the engineers at the USC Sound Dept. (my bosses) and they recommend two brands above all else - Glyph and LaCie.

Glyph drives are by far the best, sturdy, made to take a beating. They're also the most expensive, but apparently the tech support is PRISTINE.

Marcelo wrote:I asked the engineers at the USC Sound Dept. (my bosses) and they recommend two brands above all else - Glyph and LaCie.

Glyph drives are by far the best, sturdy, made to take a beating. They're also the most expensive, but apparently the tech support is PRISTINE.

what exactly makes a hard drive good or better then another brand if the speed and storage space is the same? I suppose size plays a difference for sure.

I've got a few and I never had a problem with any type opf hard drive...