Go Back    Forum > Digital Life > Computers

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
  #1  
02-19-2011, 02:42 AM
Sossity Sossity is offline
Premium Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 434
Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts
I am looking for the best & most economical set up; & on another forum someone suggested using a dock for hard drives, & use it with my bare hard drives, as opposed to getting seperate enclosures for each one.

which is better?

some things to consider for my situation is that I am in an older home with dirt & dust, I do dust, but it is around. Also, is it safe to be handling bare drives & swapping them in & out.

For the most part, I do not have my drives on all the time, but for maybe 2-5 hours at a time, & usually just use one at a time, & occasionally having 2 on to transfer files between them.

the dock appeals as I have limited ports on my macbook pro, & I would prefer to have my external hard drives connected directly to my mac.

that brings up another thing, I have heard people "daisy chain" their firewire hard drives together to use with their apple laptops.
Reply With Quote
Someday, 12:01 PM
admin's Avatar
Ads / Sponsors
 
Join Date: ∞
Posts: 42
Thanks: ∞
Thanked 42 Times in 42 Posts
  #2  
02-21-2011, 04:21 AM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 14,163
Thanked 2,570 Times in 2,184 Posts
Quote:
I am looking for the best & most economical set up; & on another forum someone suggested using a dock for hard drives, & use it with my bare hard drives, as opposed to getting seperate enclosures for each one.
which is better?
Use a dock when:
  • sending deliverables (sending files to/from clients)
  • infrequent backups, where drive sits in a drawer (and securely wrapped in anti-static material) for 364 days of the year
Use an enclosure when:
  • the drive is used daily/weekly
  • the drive is likely to be out "in the open" (i.e., on a desk) most of the time

Quote:
Also, is it safe to be handling bare drives & swapping them in & out.
Yes, but DO NOT touch the usually-green control boards. Avoid touching anything but the metal drive casing.

Quote:
I have heard people "daisy chain" their firewire hard drives together to use with their apple laptops.
It should work, but I've seen Mac drives fail more often in this configuration. And it works quite poorly when done on Windows, from my own experiences. I wouldn't suggest it.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
  #3  
02-21-2011, 04:10 PM
Sossity Sossity is offline
Premium Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 434
Thanked 5 Times in 5 Posts
I do run windows on my macbook pro via paralells desktop 5.0, & would use my external hard drive with windows, will windows recognize or work with an external hard drive hooked up to my mac via firewire 400 or 800?
Reply With Quote
  #4  
02-21-2011, 04:30 PM
admin's Avatar
admin admin is offline
Site Staff | Web Development
 
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 4,308
Thanked 659 Times in 457 Posts
Parallels is an emulation layer for hard drives, so the hardware connectivity does not come into play. Windows will see anything the Mac does. You'll actually just want to simply share the drives as network drives. It's quite easy. If I'm not mistaken, Parallels auto loads Mac drives as network drives in Windows already. Just read the instructions -- it's all there.

- Did this site help you? Then upgrade to Premium Member and show your support!
- Also: Like Us on Facebook for special DVD/Blu-ray news and deals!
Reply With Quote
  #5  
02-22-2011, 09:47 PM
kaliree kaliree is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 91
Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts
Do you plan on moving your drives between separate Windows PCs and Macs? If so, you may want to format your external drives as exFAT. exFAT is a fairly newer file system from Microsoft and it can be used natively by OSX 10.6.5 or newer (no special programs or drivers needed).

I use that setup myself and it has made life much simpler. The only significant downside is if you also have a Linux system (I do) because there are no proper Linux drivers for exFAT.

If you only use your Mac and run Windows through Parallels this should be a moot point.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
03-04-2011, 05:27 PM
lordsmurf's Avatar
lordsmurf lordsmurf is offline
Site Staff | Video
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Posts: 14,163
Thanked 2,570 Times in 2,184 Posts
Quote:
you may want to format your external drives as exFAT
I may try this on my next external drive -- just to test it out.

- Did my advice help you? Then become a Premium Member and support this site.
- For sale in the marketplace: TBCs, workflows, capture cards, VCRs
Reply With Quote
  #7  
03-04-2011, 06:29 PM
kaliree kaliree is offline
Free Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2011
Posts: 91
Thanked 6 Times in 5 Posts
The only issue I've run into is that Linux doesn't support exFAT yet. There are some work-arounds, but they seem to be just as iffy as using third party file system drivers for HFS in Windows.

Let me know how it works for you. I am just learning by experience with it for now.
Reply With Quote
Reply




Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
If I use enclosures for external drives - firewire 400/usb? or 800/usb? Sossity Computers 7 02-23-2011 04:05 AM
Best aluminum external hard drive enclosures under $70.00 Sossity Computers 3 12-21-2010 09:44 AM
Vertical or horizontal for storing an external hard drive & best enclosures ? Sossity Computers 1 12-09-2010 07:26 PM
External hard drives reviews: Best brands to buy ? hordeprime Computers 4 11-24-2006 06:14 PM
Sales on External & Internal Hard drives cp32 Computers 0 10-13-2006 06:07 AM

Thread Tools



 
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:10 AM