[MacDV] Editing with Bus-Powered Firewire Drives

[Brett Conlon]

I purchased the Wiebetech 120GB bus-powered drive because it is 7200RPM. 
It's larger than I'd like (3.5" drive inside casing) and a little noisier 
than your regular bus-powered unit (fan at back) but it's not given me any 
issues with capture/playback. Using it with a 17" PowerBook has been 
reliable but if I accidentally mix up my work's 15"PB power cable (45W) 
with the 17" cable (65W) it spins up but just won't mount - when I first 
mixed up the cables I thought the drive had died - panic!!! ;-}

I've also tried capturing to one of my Work's external, bus-powered, 4800 
or 5400RPM, 2.5" drives I received the 'dropped frames' error when 
capturing.

I believe you can now buy 7200RPM 2.5" drives but they may still max out 
at 60 or 80GB.

Cheers,

Coj



Preston <Boardrider at aaaHawk.com>

I would be concerned with HD access speed and rotational speed rather 
than size. I guess there are some 7200RPM 2.5" HDs out now and I 
would suggest them if you are going 2.5". Personally I would not do 
my editing off of a standard 4200 RPM external.  Huiccups in data 
transfer just are not worth it.  If you are really going to drive 
this thing hard with multiple audio and video tracks you will want to 
be careful. I would say iMovie would work ok on a 5400rpm 2.5".  It's 
good that you are being cautious in your purchasing as so many people 
buy first and ask seecond.

best
-Preston

>  Think I can get a one comparable to the one below for under 24000 
>yen? And if so, do you suggest a specific store? One of my bigger 
>concerns is the physical size:
>>>http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEXPFW80GB/
>
>Daniel