Which harddrive should I buy for video editing?

By Jonny Elwyn

I often get asked by producers which harddrive they should buy for the projects I work on for them. I thought I’d write up a quick blog post that explains which harddrives are best for video editing and why, and some of my preferred drives to use for different tasks.

If you just want to jump straight to some drives that are good for video editing here are some solid favourites. If you want more drives, scroll to the bottom and work up.

• Firewire 800 7200rpm Lacie Rugged
• G-Tech G-Raid 2TB 7200rpm eSATA, FW800, 400 & USB2
• Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt RAID 6TB

Understanding harddrive speeds, connections & capacity

When you are video editing the two most important things you need from a hardrive are capacity and connection speed. That is getting enough space and making sure you can get to that space fast enough. The simplest of these to understand is connection speed. If you’re squeezing your data through a small pipe its going to take longer, if you push it through a big pipe it will get there quicker. So the connection (USB2, USB3, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 and the new Thunderbolt) is one of the first things to choose.

In these days of HD video you really want to have at least Firewire 800, USB3 or Thunderbolt. That said I have edited HD from USB 2 drives – its not fun, but you can get away with it if you must. Thunderbolt is the newest and fastest and more drives are now available that work with it. Whatever drive you buy, make sure the editors computer will connect to it. Older Macs do not have USB3 or Thunderbolt. read more...

Check out these items featured in this post and available now at Videoguys.com.
	G-Tech G-RAID mini 1.5TB 7200RPM $299.00			G-Technology G-RAID 4TB eSATA, USB2 & FireWire $279.00			PROMISE Pegasus R Series 4TB Thunderbolt RAID $1,066.00