External or Internal drive

internal : connected to ata100/ata133/sata ...... really fast , unable to be knocked over , acidentally pull power /external cable from it, larger drive for same money.

external : can move between machines , should be as fast as internal , but requires another mains plug. ( i prefer firewire , but not a firewire icybox )

I use both , on different machines.

Take a coin , throw it , and go from there.

Thanks Gary . . . Does he call heads or tails . . . ? (I jest)

Peter, I picked up Western Digital 320G HD for no money at all, works using both Firewire & USB. It's fast has a back up facility on board & can be safely used on other kit due to its robustness. Yes agree with Gary that it can be accidentally dislodged by pulling the plug but we are supposed to be professional people???? I know it happens!!
Cary

Do tell us where, Cary? :)

If your colleague has only a desktop machine and no access to a laptop or anyone else's kit, go internal, it;s cheaper and safer (mechanically). If he has a laptop or access to one, or access top anyone else's machine, go external. I have both (desktop with 40G C: and 80G D: internal plus a caddy for E:, and two laptops each with 80G) but these days I find I do most work on the laptops, and I move files and projects around on external drives because I can. The built-in capacity of the desktop is now rarely used for anything sensible.

I'd go external.

Mooblie
Western Digital Dual Option Media Centre 320GB 7200rpm 8MB Buffer WDXF3200JBRNE from Stuff-UK.net £136! I thought this was a bargain, sits nicely on top of my PC & backs up my 200G HD with plenty of space for more of my rubbish!!
Cary

Ah! I see! A "£136 worth" of no money at all!

A good price, Cary, but you had me especially excited there for a moment. :)

Mooblie, after paying serious money for all this kit & I have yet to get a dedicated editing suite, I thought £136 for this size of Hard Drive was cheap! Am I wrong, is there another place where you all go to get things at the right price? or am I just a bad shopper!!!!!
Do tell
Cary

Cary,
If I may interject on Mooblies behalf:
He wasn't disputing that £136 is a good price
(40 to 50p per gig is norm for external hard drive), but that £136 is alot more than 'no money at all' which I also took to mean virtually zero.
If a company was moving premises, or shop in liquidation sale etc, then it is conceivable to get gear for near zero cost.

Dave.

Thanks, Dave, for interjecting on my behalf.

Yes, Cary, £136 is a good price for 320GB, I just wondered if you had found an even better/cheaper source: unfortunately not. Don't worry: you are a good shopper! :)

Phew, I thought I was in trouble with you guys!! Thanks for the interject Dave it is appreciated. I had better not use "no money at all" again!!! I will stick to fair price!!
Cary

Why not a firewire icybox? I just ordered one from ebay. Am I in for a nasty suprise?

yes , you could be.
the firewire side of things is a little dodgy , many users , myself included , lost drives when connected to the firewire connector , and i got a new one when i complained.

whereas , my ads technologies box , a little larger , but only firewire , works fine.
it did have a problem , it's bridge chip died , but when that got replaced , the drive was fine.

I've got 2 Icyboxes and whilst they work I have to be VERY carefull when disconnecting them, I've lost partitions twice from drives when (i think) I've disconnected them without stopping the device first. I'm not sure what happened as I only found the problem when using them again.

ummm...

I wish i`d bothered to look around here before i bought an `IcyBox`
I usually check out everything before i buy, but i`d been meaning to get an external enclosure for ages & saw one of these while buying something else. A bit of an impulsive buy - by my standards anyway. Most of these enclosures seem just to offer USB now, but i wanted to use firewire instead. I saw this one & bought it. It`s the Firewire/USB combo model.
Over the Christmas period i spent hours carving up & archiving older footage onto a 120gig Maxtor i`d put in. It ran perfectly while consolidating media files from Edition over to it. Obviously it was waiting until i`d filled it up enough to really cause me grief (100+gigs)
Tonight i switched it on cos` i wanted to check i actually had kept a particular sequence ...only to get a "drive inaccessible - file system corrupted" type message.

Oh f*%£!^g great !

You know, i`d actually dared to think my days of crying over spilt hdd`s were well & long gone. But thanks to this piece of £30 c**p i`m back there again.
Do IBM make these things?

Doing a google on these IcyBoxes, you quickly find all manner of people have had similiar issues when using them via firewire - apparently they`re ok with USB. Pity they didn`t think to include a lil` note inside pointing this out! Sure would have saved me some work.

I just can`t say how hacked off i am!

Needless to say, i tried it again using USB. Same.
I pulled the drive out & rigged it up outside my case (too many drives inside it) Same.
System recognises drive alright, but not the data on it. Inaccessible. The file table`s screwed i assume. The drive will prove okay after a reformat i`m sure, but it wasnt` the drive itself i`d be gutted losing anyway...
So, before i even think about a more reliable alternative enclosure, anyone with ideas how to `unscrew` the file table, i`m all ears.

Other potential buyers beware! Oh yeah - a Happy 2006 to you all by the way. josjac

Before you reformat it , if you have access to partition magic , let it look at the drive , it may recover it.

Thanks Gary, i saw on other posts i`ve sinced trawled up, your suggestion for Partition Magic (which i already have) But i also saw references to "File Scavenger" (does what it says on the tin?)
Gave it a run, didn`t expect much, but it seems it`s able to recover just about all the files. I say seems, cos it`s still running now, & until i see each of those media files safe i`d prefer to stay skeptical.
I`ll update here later

Regards, josjac

Hi Josjac

Hope it works ok for you.

If not - at one of my business networks in bedfordshire, there's a chap that specialises in data recovery.
I don't have his details to hand, but if you find you need him, let me know.

Dave.

I assume they don't sell them in the USA ..... if they did i'm sure there would have been a class action lawsuit by now.

The one thing I don't understand ( in non moderator mode ) is why a reputable company in the UK keeps selling them without adding a notice of the IEEE1394 problems , or sells them only as USB2 device , suggesting people don't use the firewire connection.

Yipee! :D - it worked

I`m chuffed. `File Scavenger` is a pretty impressive little utility. All media files now recovered. They were lifted off the poor confused drive while it was hanging out of my LianLi, coupled up to an IDE port & molex. Retrieved to the relative safety :eek: of one of my Maxtor SATA internals (where they`d come from originally!)
Decided to copy them back across to the reconstructed & reformatted IcyBox - this time reverting to USB2 mode instead of (preferred but jinxed) firewire. Purely a temporary arrangement so as to verify from within Liquid they were all cool, & back where it expected to find `em. Now that`s done the `mft murderer` isagonner...

So it looks like i got away with it this time (excepting all the anguish & time it cost)
Lesson learnt.
Whether others will learn from my experience is down to them. My opinion is these things are ticking time bombs just waiting to go off. Gary`s point is valid - they shouldn`t be selling them (probably period) without at least a warning of this potential problem - maybe a big sticker on the top saying "Warning - data loss will occur if used as instructed" .
Or a third option would be rename them..."could be prICY BOXes in the extreme" gets my vote.
Arhhh...back to reality. Opinions of past customers don`t interest `em - only future one`s

SO thanks for your help both, hurray for file table fixers everywhere, & out with the debt card once more for a reliable replacement.

josjac

I'm pleased you are back to normal and your mind can presumably switch from overload to normal regarding potentially lost data.
I assume the box will be returned to retailer as 'unfit for pupose' for full refund - if not compensation for lost time/trouble/anguish and cost of software used to restore data.

Dave.

Having read all the damming stuff about ICY BOXES above, does this extend to all RaidSonic drive enclosures?

I was just contemplating getting one - if theyre all a bit dodgy, which brand would anyone reccommend I get instead.

Much obliged

Icy Box only so far

Gary,

Any other URLs about Icy Box problems you can point me to, cos I'm not finding a huge number that are current?

Bob

from a site not too far away : http://forums.hexus.net/showthread.php?t=24641&page=3&highlight=icy+box

from the company who make the icy boxes , there is a link to a certain program

File Scavenger 2.1 Program for the re-establishment of disappeared partitions download

suggests that they know about the problem , as do the firmware updates on the site , to get round 'delayed write' problems.