Best ext drive connection

hi
i'm a little confused about that...
i still haven't found what i'm looking for just because there are too many opinions out there...
i run an audio interface through fw800 on a mbp 2.16
and now i'm buying an ext hd
my options are (i have no experience at all...)
1 connect a sata drive via express card adapter (there are few but i don't know which is the best)
2 connect a firewire drive via express card adapter (same as above)
3 make a daisychain with the fw800 audiointerface
tnx in advance
ma mo

You do realize that everyone is going to tell you that the external hard drive they use is the best, right? Ok, I use the G-Technologies Q-250 combined with SuperDuper! as the backup software. The Quad offers all four options; USB 2.0/FW400/FW800/eSTATA. I have the same MBP as you so for now, I'm using the FW400 just fine. I selected the "Q" drive for upward mobility on my new Mac of the future.
BTW: I plan on keeping my 2.16Hz MacBook Pro for awhile so I may eventually get the Belkin FW800 Express-34 card simply because of it's reliability.
G-TECH:
http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-DRIVEQ.cfm
http://eshop.macsales.com/Search/Search.cfm?Criteria=meaq&x=0&y=0&Manufacturer=
SUPER DUPER!
BELKIN: http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=278329
http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html
Regards,
Message was edited by: Digital Dude

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Most users, as long as they leave plenty of free space available , and don't work regularly in situations where very large files are written and rewritten, are unlikely to notice the effects of fragmentation on either their files or on the drives free space much.
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Again, this doesn't matter much when the drive is half empty or better, but it does when it gets fullish, and it does especially when it gets fullish if you are regularly dealing with large files , like video or serious audio stuff.
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By this time, of course, defragging itself has already become just about impossible. The amount of work required to shift the data into contiguous blocks is immense, puts additional stress on the drive, takes forever, etc etc. The extent of fragmentation of free space at this stage can be simply staggering, and any large files you subsequently write are likely to be divided into many , many tens of thousands of fragments scattered across the drive. Not only this, but things like the "extents files", which record where all the bits are located, will begin to grow astronomically as a result, putting even more pressure on your already stressed drive, and increasing the risk of major failures.
Ultimately this adds up to a situation where you can identify maybe three "phases" of mac life when it comes to the need for defragmentation.
In the "first phase" (with your drive less than half full), it doesn't matter much at all - probably not enough to even make it worth doing.
In the "second phase" (between , say 50% free space and 20% free space remaining) it becomes progressively more useful, but , depending on the use you put your computer to you won't see much difference at the higher levels of free space unless you are serious video buff who needs to keep their drives operating as efficiently and fast as possible - chances are they will be using fast external drives over FW800 or eSata to compliment their internal HD anyway.
At the lower end though (when boot drives get down around the 20% mark on , say, a 250 or 500 Gig drive) I certainly begin to see an impact on performance and stability when working with large image files, mapping software, and the like, especially those which rely on the use of their own "scratch" files, and especially in situations where I am using multiple applications simultaneously, if I haven't defragmented the drive for a while. For me, defragmenting (I use iDefrag too - it is the only third party app I trust for this after seeing people with problems using TechToolPro and Drive Genius for such things) gives a substantial performance boost in this sort of situation and improves operational stability. I usually try to get in first these days and defrag more regularly (about once a month) when the drive is down to 30% free space or lower.
Between 20% and 10% free space is a bit of a "doubtful region". Most people will still be able to defrag successfully in this sort of area, though the time taken and the risks associated increase as the free space declines. My own advice to people in this sort of area is that they start choosing their new , bigger HD, because they obviously are going to need one very soon, and try to "clear the decks" so that they maintain that 20% free buffer until they do. Defragging regularly (perhaps even once a fortnight) will actually benefit them substantially during this "phase", but maybe doing so will lull them into a false sense of security and keep them from seriously recognising that they need to be moving to a bigger HD!
Once they are down to that last ten per cent of free space, though, they are treading on glass. Free space fragmentation at least will already be a serious issue on their computers but if they try to defrag with a utility without first making substantially more space available then they may find it runs into problems or is so slow that they give up half way through and do the damage themselves, especially if they are using one of the less "forgiving" utilities!
In this case I think the best way to proceed is to clone the internal drive to a larger external with SuperDuper, replace the internal drive with a larger one and then clone back to it. No-one down to the last ten percent of their drive really has enough room to move. Defragging it will certainly speed it up, and may even save them from major problems briefly, but we all know that before too long they are going to be in the same situation again. Better to deal with the matter properly and replace the drive with something more akin to their real needs once this point is reached. Heck, big HDs are as cheap as chips these days! It is mad to struggle on with sluggish performance, instability, and the possible risk of losing the lot, in such a situation.

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Hi,
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Hello,
Try running Disk Utility and Repairing Disk Permissions...
Launch Disk Utility. (Applications/Utilities) Select MacintoshHD in the panel on the left, select FirstAid, then click: Repair Disk Permissions. Quit DU when it's finished and reboot.
Carolyn

Best ext drive connection

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