suggustions needed for an extra external drive for a laptop

[Fleghand]

As you may be able to tell, I just recently purchased a little setup:

Acer Aspire 1712SMi laptop (http://www.acer.com/APP/AKC/INTERNET/AACPubli.nsf/AllDocs/B222B6B5F539666588256E370003E404?OpenDocument#mode l) w/XP Home, plus a MOTU HD896 firewire interface. I have inherited a copy of Nuendo 2 from my cousin who has switched to MAC with Final Cut. After extensive reviewing and informing, particularly on the separate account/dual-boot OS/Hardware Profile issue, I am now moving on to the next step: hardware.

It seems the wisest decision to get an external harddrive first, and I will also need a MIDI input, since the MOTU has none. My questions go thusly:

First and foremost, since I am already running the MOTU out of the 6-pin firewire, would it be imprudent to also run the external harddrive from the other 4-pin input? In the Device Manager, it indicates two separate memory ranges, but I am sure there is only one controller, which may produce some conflicts. There are four USB ports, and one WOULD be used for the MIDI input, so I am not sure which I will be better off using. I have noticed, though that external Harddrives seem to come with both USB and Firewire compliancies.

Then there is the consideration of the actual hardware. I am not current with the latest, so I am wondering if there is anything in particular I need to be looking out for. I am aware of the nothing under 7200rpm rule, is there anything else I need to consider?

Besides that, I will eventually look into an external video input (ie, USB TV tuner), to take advantage of the DVD burner included on the laptop, and digital projector, but do not forsee any other hardware requirements (any candy you can think of?).

Apart from standard audio production of bands in live on-stage and (portable) studio settings, I am also setting myself up to run sound for theatre, so I will need to be running individual sound cues in actual time.

I am really not sure where to start with the drive thingee, which is the real point of my thread, though I may have tarried slightly.

Cheers.

[Joe Hannigan]

Get a Western Digital Firewire or USB2.0 external Firewire drive. The smallest these days is 80 gigs, you'll probably find a lot of 120 & 160 gig versions out there now. They are 7200rpm standard.

For my laptop (Sony Vaio) I use the built in i-link (Sony's version of firewire) connector for the MOTU 896. You can try hanging your HD on the second HD connector on the MOTU, but I wouldn't recommend it. Keep them on separate firewire chains if you can.

I also have a Firewire PCMCIA card, with three jacks on it. ($59-69 at most compure stores). This is where I plug in the firewire cable to go out the Western Digital HD. (If you have a USB 2.0 drive, chances are you have at least one of these on your laptop as well....)

Once you've got Windows able to "see" the drives and interfaces, you should be ok.

[Fleghand]

will I have a conflict running the MOTU and the external drive off of the same firewire controller though?

[Joe Hannigan]

Not nec. a "conflict" per se, but I think you'll probably have some bottlenecks/slowdowns. I had data crashes and inexplicable lockups sometimes when I tried to run the HD on the same (fire)wire as the MOTU.

I don't pretend to know all the details, but it would seem to me to be a BAD idea to send the data from the MOTU down the wire to the CPU/Laptop, and then back down the wire (the other direction) to the HD. That just BEGS for trouble, wouldn't you think? (Esp high track counts, etc.)

If the HD is on a separate firewire interface, the chance of a bottleneck would seem much lower. Ditto for putting the HD on a USB 2 connection, and the MOTU on a firewire connection.

Oh, but consider this: with the MOTU 896, you get eight channels, of course. On various live gigs, I may need more, so I have the M-Audio 410 for backup, spare tracks, etc. This one I DO hang on the second Firewire jack on the back of the MOTU box, thus sending both unit's info to the CPU on ONE wire. THAT much works fine, but again, the HD doesn't like working this way.....

[crankz1]

I have no problems running a 120Gig Western Digital FW drive along with my MOTU 828mkII. It works fine whether it's connected to one port of my dual port PCMCIA card or connected to the extra port on the MOTU.
There may be some issues with the different chipsets used in the various FireWire controllers (VIA, NEC, Texas Instruments ...etc).
The PCMCIA card I have uses the Texas Instruments chipset.
I believe the MOTU support FAQ lists some of the compatible/none-compatible FW controller chipsets.

HTH

-Ken

[Joe Hannigan]

good points, all of them, Crankz1.

I did go to the MOTU support list and found out why my original PCMCIA card was hanging up. (Chipset issue).

And, I"m using the original MOTO 896, so perhaps that's why mine doensn't get all along all that well with the HD on the same chain. I could never get it to work reliably, so the PCMCIA card solved it for me.

Again, he can go with a USB 2.0 port as well, and have them entirely split out.

[Fleghand]

hmmm...

Good info

I do have two seperate firewire ports, though the free one is 4-pin, and I'm not sure how HD's run (I haven't gone further than internet pricing); they are probably both on the same controller, though. Texas Intruments, BTW, and they occupy two seperate memory ranges, according to Device Manager (I am, of course, not particularly aware of what that means).

[jackn2mpu]

I just added a Glyph 120 gig drive to my Toshiba Satellite laptop. The drive has both USB2.0 and Firewire (IEEE1394) interfaces; I use the Firewire one, which is a 6 pin with a 6 pin to 4 pin cable because the 'puter has 4 pin FW. Reading the pro audio magazines you'll find they are pretty muich the gold standard. They're bullet-proof and have a great replacement policy if the drive goes down. Generally, whichever external HD you go with you'll want: 7200 RPM and the Oxford chipset in the drive.
As to order of external drive and other stuff, give each a try and see what works for you. If you're careful you won't fry anything. Just be aware that Motu equipment has a rep of being finicky when running on a PC.