scott_brooks1 Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Other than using flash drives to back up Quicken and business files, I've never tried to use one for editing purposes. I recently purchased a Macbook Pro for some video editing and hopefully editing photos as well. I don't really want to lug around a hard drive and flash drives can hold quite a bit these days. Is there any real downside to copying my files to a flash drive and then editing them on the road with my MBP? (Other than the fact that I could lose one.) Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_luongo1 Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Flash drives are slow. Especially if you do lots of short writes which will happen if you are editing directly on the flash drive. (long continuous reads and writes aren't so bad) Doesn't your Macbook have a hard drive? Try upgrading the hard drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinsouthern Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Flash drives also have a limited number of write cycles before failure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddcwilson Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Lightweight, small, and economical. Also, you should always have at least 2 copies of your work, 1 on the hard drive and 1 backed up on external media, don't just rely on the external media alone for storing your files. http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/457845-REG/Western_Digital_WDXMS1200TN_120GB_Passport_2_5_Portable.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toddcwilson Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 And the above drive powers itself from the USB connection - no additional power cord to deal with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gene_b Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 "Flash drives also have a limited number of write cycles before failure." ... yes that's true, you can only write and erase about 100,000 times... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Here I have a 128Meg flash drive that cost over 128 bucks when new. Its has been thru the washing machine twice; lost once in the yard. I have had it for about 4 years or more. The entire case is all worn due to keys and coins in the pocket; and an assult by a mower too. Older usb flash drives are capped at usb 1; about 0.8 to 0.9 megs per second; newer usb class 2 flash drives of mine vary from 3 to 8 megs per second in transfer speed. One usb flash drive we found in the Katrina rubble was rinsed over and over in fresh water to remove the salt; and then all its contents were removed. Its the same 128m Lexar that went thru the washer; it had a streamer; ie a piece of survey flagging attached to it that helped us find it. It was on a dresser drawer; and was found in a neighbors yard outside the house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 <img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/ektar/KATRINA/P1010044crap.jpg?t=1187795416"><BR><BR><img src="http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y148/ektar/KATRINA/P1010037acunit.jpg?t=1187795506"> Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joey_grob Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 Why not use a Firewire hard drive, there is no powercord and it's much faster than a flash drive... try Lacie's all terrain Rugged - its only 100$ and you could put a wedding on it- transfer to your macbook- then resave the edits- or work directly from the drive...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kelly_flanigan1 Posted August 22, 2007 Share Posted August 22, 2007 With some of my usb flash drives they have had problems with larger files; ones about say 10 to 20 megs. Its like sometimes there is an error rate problem that occurs with larger files; and not smaller ones. One can run a deep error rate test and they always work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinsouthern Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 Gene B wrote: "yes that's true, you can only write and erase about 100,000 times..." Which is a lot when you're just flicking files back and forth - however - it's a totally different board game to use it to edit off when the system will contantly be re-writing certain areas like those containing the allocation tables. It's possible to generate over 100,000 writes on a hard drive in under a minute - and we're talking about using a flash drive as a hard drive ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652 Posted August 23, 2007 Share Posted August 23, 2007 What about the Lacie 'Rugged' Hard Drives? they are small, powered off the USB and made to be used a lot harder than you would use a regular HD. No they aren't waterproof but as many have said, those drives are SLOW and editing off them would be a nightmare. Hell even working off external USB 2 drives is glacial compared to a regular HD plugged into the motherboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
colinsouthern Posted August 24, 2007 Share Posted August 24, 2007 Ben wrote: " Hell even working off external USB 2 drives is glacial compared to a regular HD plugged into the motherboard." It shouldn't be, unless you're only running a USB v1.1 port - v2.0 can move 480mb/s (ball-park figures, 50 Megabytes per second) - we use them for client backups and routinely write about 1GB per minute (assuming we're talking about 3.5" 7200 RPM units, not 2.5" 3600 RPM "Laptop" hard disk drives). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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