External HDD

[merlin el mago]

I'm looking for HDD 1TB or more for my Sony VAIO laptop of course is for audio so fanless but very good quality & minimum USB2.0 or Fireware.

Help will welcome, thanks.
Felipe

[Wombat]

For use with a Laptop i´d suggest one of the recent 2.5" drives.
I use a 2.5" Saegate GoFlex atm and can´t exactly hear it spinning when it lays in front of me. It gets its power solely from the USB port. They offer a Firerwire connector for the GoFlex models also.
Since we talk about our beloved audio data you may wonder about longer warranty or MTBF times. So a 3.5" may give you more safety as the smaller 2.5" drives. Since nonetheless you should at least have one backup this may not matter to you.
For 3.5" drives you also may consider it needs another PSU that may under some circumstances influence other equipment when you power several pieces of your audiochain from one power plug.

[merlin el mago]

Thanks Wombat, what kind of connection between my Sony Vaio & HDD is better: Firewire or USB2.0?

[Wombat]

Good question. Speed wise the drive is faster as the maximum of USB2.0 i guess. I use mine with USB 3.0 and it can reach up to ~45MB/s while i remember to have around a maximum of ~28MB/s with USB 2.0 drives. This is some real world experience i have with my hardware, others may vary.
Since i did read about several badly implemented USB 2.0 ports in older hardware Firewire may be faster with your Laptop but this is only a guess.

Edit: here is an overview of the theoretical speeds of different interfaces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...tes#Peripheral
Like mentioned the implementation of specific harware inside the Laptop and the drive itself may vary these speeds a lot.

[merlin el mago]

Thanks again.

[cocolino]

Originally Posted by merlin el mago

Thanks Wombat, what kind of connection between my Sony Vaio & HDD is better: Firewire or USB2.0?

I found that Firewire in practice (although theoretically it shouldn`t) usually is a tad faster than USB 2.0 (10% to 20%) + in case Your VAIO is an "older" model Firewire likely has less compatibility issues.
I had quite some trouble with USB 2.0 driver issues with older hardware (about before 2005 or so).
There are external HD enclosures that have both USB-2 and Firewire.

[Bibliophile]

I have two Samsung Story Station 3's, one for music and one for video.
Two GB, USB 3 capability but backwards compatible.
I have had no issues with them and they are reasonably priced.

[infinia]

>1TB means 3.5 drives inside. I have an 320GB HDD external enclosure with both firewire and USB. It seems much faster indexing the contents on a Windows PC using USB, I assume it would be the reverse on an Apple. Larger video files maybe better on firewire. Shop for an enclosure with both interfaces and roll yer own.

[Wombat]

Originally Posted by infinia

>1TB means 3.5 drives inside.

No, Seagate GoFlex 2.5" goes up to 1.5TB.

[Bibliophile]

Originally Posted by Bibliophile

I have two Samsung Story Station 3's, one for music and one for video.
Two GB, USB 3 capability but backwards compatible.
I have had no issues with them and they are reasonably priced.

Sorry, misprint.
Should have been 2TB each.