# Best external hard drive for storing samples



## Jame6580 (May 13, 2015)

Looking for suggestions for a reliable and portable (if possible) option for storing my sample libraries, which are upwards of several hundreds of GBs of data. Would need to be loading these samples from the external drive through Kontakt 5 and Vienna Ensemble.

I have a 2012 Macbook Air, 2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB of RAM and run Kontakt 5 and Vienna Ensemble with both Logic and Sibelius 7.5.

Thanks in advance!


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## yendornodlew (May 17, 2015)

I would look at the Western Digital Mac Portable line of drives. http://store.westerndigital.com/store/wdus/en_US/compare/ThemeID.21986300/External_Storage/Portable_for_Mac/parentCategoryID.13092300/categoryID.55288100 (Heres a link).
-Rodney


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## Gerhard Westphalen (May 26, 2015)

Most of the ones from the companies like WD and Seagate are only 5400 so be careful and make sure to get one that's 7200.


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## chimuelo (Jun 29, 2015)

Gerhard Westphalen said:


> Most of the ones from the companies like WD and Seagate are only 5400 so be careful and make sure to get one that's 7200.


TBolt 2 w/ LaCie is pretty fast and satuurates the bus.


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## jacobthestupendous (Jun 30, 2015)

I've had a* Samsung T1 Portable 500GB USB 3.0 External SSD (MU-PS500B/AM)* for a bit over a month now. The price was right for me, and it's working well for my lowly MacBook Pro Logic/Kontakt setup. It does come in a 1 TB flavor also. I can't speak to it's compatibility with VE or Sibelius, but it has been fast and done everything I've asked of it so far.


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## dsmo (Jul 4, 2015)

Glyph. More expensive but very durable. I even use mine as a base for my monitor.


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## Alan Wave (Jul 24, 2015)

Based on this article, Hitachi (HGST) is the most reliable, and Seagate the less.
I have bad memories of a Seagate failure and now i have only HGST, so i can say its accurate enough.
the link:
http://www.lifehacker.co.in/technology/The-Most-and-Least-Reliable-Hard-Drive-Brands/articleshow/29170811.cms


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## babylonwaves (Aug 3, 2015)

Jame6580 said:


> I have a 2012 Macbook Air, 2 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB of RAM and run Kontakt 5 and Vienna Ensemble with both Logic and Sibelius 7.5.


with this amount of RAM you should consider an SSD. it will allow you to size down the disc buffer sizes and therefore use less real RAM.


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## chimuelo (Aug 11, 2015)

Here's one that is huge, fast and cheap.
If you have the new ASRock external USB 3.1 adapter this is hard to beat.
2-300MBps, nothing spectacular if this is what we can transfer and copy with, that's
fast enough me thinks.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9489/seagate-backup-plus-portable-4tb-usb-30-drive-review


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## kurtvanzo (Aug 17, 2015)

I have to agree, if your streaming the samples with little ram an SSD would work better. The Crucial M500 960GB SSD has worked well for me and has dipped below $350. I found a simple USB 3.0 case to slide it into for under $20...


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## zacnelson (Aug 18, 2015)

I have the Samsung USB 3.0 500GB external SSD and the performance is brilliant, it has made an immense improvement to my workflow and loading times. I highly recommend it, and you can get good prices on Ebay. I use mine on an iMac.


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## catsass (Sep 4, 2015)

mdiemer said:


> Glyph. More expensive but very durable. I even use mine as a base for my monitor.


The drive within that fancy Glyph case is simply a Seagate.
_http://www.glyphtech.com/node/724 (&quot;We would like to honor Seagate for being a company that we can trust and rely on for support and quality drives.&quot;)_


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## mirrodin (Sep 10, 2015)

SSD's are seriously cheap right now. Pair that with a USB 3.0 UASP, you might see some really high real-world streaming bandwidth.

More about real-world bandwidth limitations over on Toms Hardware. As a bonus they also explain the 4 types of transfers which also may affect audio and video devices.


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## Vastman (Sep 27, 2015)

I have to agree with those above suggesting a portable ssd... I am currently nearly full with my 2 internal ssds and 2 fast 1tb hds. I use 2 2tb costco usbs for backup and am going to add a 1tb Samsung usb3 ssd as soon as I have the duckets...


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## sleepy hollow (Oct 9, 2015)

I've been wondering why this thread is in the 'Members Only' section.

Are external HDDs some kind of secret or sensitive topic?


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## catsass (Oct 9, 2015)

Shhhhhhhhhh. We don't talk about external hard drive club outside of external hard drive club.


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## Jame6580 (Nov 15, 2015)

Thanks everyone for your responses! And to answer your question, sleepy hollow, I think this is in 'Members Only' because I'm a noob to VI Control. Glad it didn't discourage replies. Thanks again.


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## Jame6580 (Dec 31, 2015)

I'm thinking of going with the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD for storing my samples. Would I be able to run specific programs off of this separate SSD (like Logic X or Vienna Ensemble) or would I have to load a separate operating system to the external in order to do this?


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## SuperD (Dec 31, 2015)

Jame6580 said:


> I'm thinking of going with the Samsung 850 EVO 500GB SSD for storing my samples. Would I be able to run specific programs off of this separate SSD (like Logic X or Vienna Ensemble) or would I have to load a separate operating system to the external in order to do this?


It would be best to keep the programs running off of your system drive and leave the sample libraries isolated on the SSD. Lots of apps won't even install on a non-system drive. But you could still save your projects on the SSD, that should be fine.


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## WorshipMaestro (Jan 1, 2016)

I know this thread has been around several months, but I took advantage of a 1 day deal over the Christmas holidays to pick up a couple of 960 GB SanDisk Ultra II SSD's ($247 each!) for samples and a 250 GB Samsung T1 ($90) for project storage and recording between my work studio and home studio and I can attest that my workflow has radically changed. Flowing samples from an SSD is bordering on unbelievable, and the T1 USB 3.0 is so fast I can multi track record a couple dozen tracks simultaneously while streaming dozens of already recorded tracks.


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## Jan16 (Jan 1, 2016)

Where did you get that price? 
The lowest price I was able to find in Europe was 199 Euros.
And as far as the SSD vs. the old HDD is concerned: only with a gun pointed at my head would I return to streaming from HDD. Using SSDs makes everything not only much faster, it also 'feels' a whole lot more stable.
Just wait until Intel/Micron's 3DXPoint and HP/Sandisk's memristor memory arrive.


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## WorshipMaestro (Jan 1, 2016)

Jan16 said:


> Where did you get that price?
> The lowest price I was able to find in Europe was 199 Euros.
> And as far as the SSD vs. the old HDD is concerned: only with a gun pointed at my head would I return to streaming from HDD. Using SSDs makes everything not only much faster, it also 'feels' a whole lot more stable.
> Just wait until Intel/Micron's 3DXPoint and HP/Sandisk's memristor memory arrive.


Whoops! My bad (very bad)! The Ultra's were $247 @ Amazon, the T1 $90. I ordered a heavy duty power supply at the same time and confused it's price with the SanDisk. The Sandisk 960GB is $244 on Amazon right now, the T1 $10 more @ $100.

I've corrected my post. So sorry for the confusion!


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