Just asked a friend to get one of these for me, (by the time I have added on the air fair it is not so cheap.) This price is also the in-store price. Friend informs me Maplins in Milton Keynes had plenty.
Web link http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=48872&TabID=1&source=1&doy=20m2
I have one.
I paid twice that 6 months ago.
A great storage device.
PCWorld are currently selling the Maxtor 320GB USB external at £79.99. This is marginally cheaper at 25p per GB!
Doesn't the 400GB work out at 22.5 pence?????
OOPs!!!:o
We managed to buy 4 LaCie 500GB Big Discs from local Staples for 99.00 each incl.
You have to ask - I think the ticket price is £120 or £130.
BTW I didn't get a deal on four units - I bought one at that price, liked it and went back for some more.
Are we rapidly getting to the point where storing your tapes on a hard disk might be cheaper than storing them on tape.
You can get 10 , 60 minute tapes for about £15 so thats around 139 gb for £15 or lets say 400gb for £45., 800gb for £90 and 1 terabyte for a little over £100.
Ok so 1 terabyte disks are still pretty new but give it a year or so and it wouldnt surprise me to see them less than £100.
Given the convenience of accessing files once they are on your hard disk , maybe it really is the way to archive them.
David, does make sense but human nature being what it is would mean that we would use the HD and the Mini DV or whatever. I would not like to keep my archives on a HD only as they would be more prone to accidents. I have my original tapes and 3 external HD's. Some extra special ones are also on the PC's HD. Overkill, yes, but peace of mind? Definitely.
Harry
What has happened to the Maplin price? The drive now costs £ 179.99.
John
Talking of storage techniques. Are there any disadvantages to exporting a project as an avi file and storing it on a hard drive rather than exporting it to DV tape ?
Hi Michael,
I prefer storing avi (+other project files) on hard drive to tape.
Plus points:
Easy to copy via drag/drop
Instant to load to test that old file
I am from computer background and with sensible back-ups it is low risk.
The same technology is used for storing 'import stuff' for megacorps.
Down-side.
Tapes may get glitch messing up a few seconds here anf there, but file on hard drive could become completely corrupt.
My preference to hard-drives excludes of course data storage on DVD's, which are commonly flakey, even if good m/f etc.
A good practice I use is to keep input files on seperate drive to output files.
So if either is lost, risk/inconvenience is reduced.
Also, I never re-use camera tapes, so can always reload original footage.
I have a Lacie external hard drive that I put put my exports to, that recently has intermittenly failed to auto-startup. Now copied to another drive.
had this not been possibly, I understand data recovery experts have a high success rate in their work, but don't know if this success is more down to internal rather than external hard drives.
, but don't know if this success is more down to internal rather than external hard drives.
There's no diffrence if you open an external drive you'll find a standard internal drive inside with a small bridge board to handle the USB/Firewire connection side of things.
Steven
Thank-you Steven - suspected as much, but didn't know.
As my connection is flakey, but fine once connected, that implies to me the drive is OK, but it's comms via firewire are the problem.
From limited personal experience, I thik internal hard-drive is likely to be more reliable than external drive.. as a general rule??