# Help with selecting external drive for storing VST libraries



## rosko.vair (Aug 8, 2021)

Hello!

I'm not great with computers, and I'm hoping someone with greater knowledge and experience can help me before I sink some money.

Do you use an external drive to store your VST libraries? What do you use?

I'd like to buy some pretty sizable VST libraries from Spitfire Audio (plugins, no Kontakt player required), but my iMac only has a 500 GB drive. I did a little research and am thinking about purchasing this external hard drive to hold the VST libraries:






AV Pro 2 | USB-C | External Hard Drive – CalDigit







www.caldigit.com





But I read on a website in my research something like "virtual instrument libraries cannot be used when stored on an external hard drive." I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on an external drive and then find out oh of course you can use that to store everything EXCEPT VSTs. There's nothing on the CalDigit website or other websites for external drive manufacturers that I've seen that refer specifically to VST use, so I'm hoping folks here can provide some feedback. 

Thank you for reading my post.

Rosko


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## mybadmemory (Aug 8, 2021)

Samsung T7 ☺️


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## mybadmemory (Aug 8, 2021)

And you can definitely store libraries on external drives. Most of us do. Just make sure it’s an SSD.


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## Saxer (Aug 8, 2021)

And don't forget to buy an extra drive to backup your internal and external drives. Backups don't need to be SSD.


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## Rudianos (Aug 8, 2021)

Samsung 960 Pro internal with an ADATA ED600 enclosure. Essentially getting a better internal HD with longer lifespan and speed - you put inside an external enclosure. Connects via USB... Ive seen nothing getting in the way of putting VST on here.


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## rosko.vair (Aug 8, 2021)

Saxer said:


> And don't forget to buy an extra drive to backup your internal and external drives. Backups don't need to be SSD.


Thanks for this suggestion. Couldn't I just re-download the VSTs if my external drive crapped out?


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## rosko.vair (Aug 8, 2021)

mybadmemory said:


> And you can definitely store libraries on external drives. Most of us do. Just make sure it’s an SSD.


Thank you for your recommendation. I had read that SSD is much speedier, so I figured it would be worth the upcharge. That confirms it!


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## rosko.vair (Aug 8, 2021)

Rudianos said:


> Samsung 960 Pro internal with an ADATA ED600 enclosure. Essentially getting a better internal HD with longer lifespan and speed - you put inside an external enclosure. Connects via USB... Ive seen nothing getting in the way of putting VST on here.


Thank you--that reassures me. I don't know what that website was talking about.


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## Rudianos (Aug 8, 2021)

rosko.vair said:


> Thank you--that reassures me. I don't know what that website was talking about.


YW and I meant to say Samsung 860 pro. Since our libraries are more or less stationary these SSD would last virtually forever - high endurance. And yes you can re download. The risk is if the company goes defunct LOL or internet disappears LOL


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## jbuhler (Aug 8, 2021)

rosko.vair said:


> Thanks for this suggestion. Couldn't I just re-download the VSTs if my external drive crapped out?


Sometimes. It depends on the company. But the larger libraries are very large, and if you make any modifications to the libraries you lose those modifications. 

In terms of external drives, I currently have 10 SSDs connected to my iMac, and 4 back up HDs and 4 data HDs. So yes, I make good use of external drives.


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## doctoremmet (Aug 9, 2021)

rosko.vair said:


> Couldn't I just re-download the VSTs if my external drive crapped out?


A backup is a way better measure to make your studio more resilient against crashes, data loss etc. Also: maybe 5 years from now that vendor doesn’t sell the library anymore or it may have gone out of business.


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## rosko.vair (Aug 13, 2021)

Thanks everybody for these suggestions. I am going to get another external hard drive for the backup as suggested.

I went with the 2TB CalDigit AV Pro 2.


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## CharlieCee (Aug 13, 2021)

doctoremmet said:


> A backup is a way better measure to make your studio more resilient against crashes, data loss etc. Also: maybe 5 years from now that vendor doesn’t sell the library anymore or it may have gone out of business.


Yep and as I and others often say...If it ain't backed up 3 times on various drives it AIN'T backed up!
i go the extra mile and burn all my libraries to Verbatim DVD's too. Kinda sick that way.


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## Minko (Aug 14, 2021)

I use a thunderbolt dock that can handle normal internal SSD's. Multiple. 
This is also handy for backing up since the dock also can take normal spinning discs.


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## osterdamus (Aug 14, 2021)

Saxer said:


> And don't forget to buy an extra drive to backup your internal and external drives. Backups don't need to be SSD.


For a non-SSD backup drive, what’s the general goto these days in terms of space / price value?


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## osterdamus (Aug 14, 2021)

osterdamus said:


> For a non-SSD backup drive, what’s the general goto these days in terms of space / price value?


Never mind, found the goods 😊


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## jamieboo (Jan 15, 2022)

Sorry to raise old thread!
I'm planning a new build and this topic is relevant to me.
Just wondering... For a desktop, and when portability is not required, what are the advantages of external library storage over internal?
Thanks folks.


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## mybadmemory (Jan 15, 2022)

Party that internal storage tends to fill up. Can be expensive to get. Impossible to upgrade. And partly that it can be beneficial to stream the samples from a different drive than the one with your OS and applications. Not sure how much difference it makes in reality though. A nice thing though is that if you have all your samples on an external drive, you can easily move it between computers.


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## jamieboo (Jan 15, 2022)

Thanks mybadmemory!
Everything you say makes sense, but I'm still not sure what to go for.
Obviously I'd keep the sample drive separate. I was originally thinking 2x 2TB M.2 NVMe drives: One for OS/programs/stuff; and One purely for samples. But maybe an external sample drive would be better.
I would not need to move samples between computers, and, unusually, I do not tend to buy lots of libraries so my storage requirements tend not to grow significantly.
So, given this, would there be any benefit to opting to have my libraries on an external drive?
I suppose I was thinking about the fact that my computer use is not _always_ about music production, so it seems a bit wasteful (and heat generating) to be always powering a drive that might not always be used.
What do you think?


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## rnb_2 (Jan 15, 2022)

If there's no need for portability between machines, there's no reason not to put as many drives as possible inside the computer - with current NVMe drives, you'll get better performance, and you can forego the cost of an external enclosure (usually inexpensive unless you go for Thunderbolt for the best external performance - still slower than internal, though). I think @mybadmemory was thinking mainly in relation to buying a laptop or all-in-one (like an iMac) with lots of internal storage with the intention of running everything from one drive, but if you're building a desktop PC with multiple NVMe headers on the motherboard, there's no reason not to use them.


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## jamieboo (Jan 16, 2022)

Thanks rnb_2.
That's all very clear.
I'll stick with internals!


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