Hard Disc Recorders

[Iskra1903]

I record a great deal of music onto minidisc, but I was thinking of investing in a hard drive recorder so that I can edit more titles before copying to disc and keep backups of recordings I don't have CDs for. Does anyone use an HDR and if so, do you recommend them?

[peter rh]

I've been using a Western Digital Media Centre (External Hard Disk) for a few
weeks without any problems yet.
I do a fair amount of radio recording direct to computer, which has resulted in
large numbers of cdrs over the last 5/6 years. My present computer has a 120Gb
HD and the Western another 250Gb, so I hope to avoid mp3s and large numbers
of cdrs for a while. The Western also has a built in card reader which is not
essential but comes in handy - I use a 1Gb Secure Digital Card to move small
items between computers and the External HD (just added flexibility)

[Tenorman]

I was taliking to a photographer a couple of months ago, who recently made the switch from film to digital as most of his work did not require the higher quality of film. Using a professional Canon, each picture was around 11Mb.

He backed up regularily

His disc failed - he went to the back-up to discover that his back-up system was allocating the correct amount of file space, but the files were empty. 9 months worth of pictures lost, and quite a lot of potential income.

Something to think about when you put substantial amounts of un-repeatable data on to a single digital medium.

The photographer now copies all photos from the hard drive on to DVDs, checks them individually AND backs up the hard drive

[peter rh]

If the photographer hadn't checked what he was backing up for 9 months he
wasn't very bright. Of course hard disks fail, for all kinds of reasons. Computers
that now have hard disks in excess of 80 or 100 Gb usually have the space
partitioned - if any work requires to be saved it can be kept in a partition that
does not involve the operating system and other such items. This should reduce
the chances of being lost. One of the attractions of an external HD is that it
can be backed up automatically and is not tied to one computer or operating
system. The particular model I've mentioned also has a built in card reader,
which enables (in my case) 1Gb transfers to and from the external HD. One
other reason for not wishing to transfer everything the cdr/dvd(?) is that, I
really don't want a lot more cdrs(I already have far too many)

[Tenorman]

This photographer does know what he is doing

On the first couple of back-ups, he did trial restores to check. Being satisfied with that, he only checked that the compressed back-ups were around the expected size, which they were. This seems like a reasonable set of checks on a back-up. Most companies do not even go that far. The fault in the software was causing a file entry to be laid down, but nothing in the file. On a back-up system the files are compressed and cannot be viewed without restoring

[DWBass]

Hmmmmm..........I don't know! When I download my pictures onto my computer's HD, I check them first to make sure the download completed and that the pictures are there. I then burn them to a CD or DVD and further check to make sure the burn was successful. What software was he using? He may know what he's doing for the most part but he did something wrong in his process.

[peter rh]

This photographer does know what he is doing

On the first couple of back-ups, he did trial restores to check. Being satisfied with that, he only checked that the compressed back-ups were around the expected size, which they were. This seems like a reasonable set of checks on a back-up.
Half a check is the same as no check. If you save items, then you check by
viewing images, playing music or whatever is needed to check that what is
being saved is usable. The photographer didn't make one proper check in
nine months

[DWBass]

I don't store anything important on my HD! I burn immediately to CD or DVD.

[solarjazzband]

The Roland VS1880 is amazing! THe cheaper/older version (which I have) is also quite good Roland VS880 (only less features and less bit-quality).

[Iskra1903]

Hmmm...
I was originally thinking of investing in a CD player/Hard drive recorder like a Sony HAR-LH500 (£300) or the Yamaha CDR-HD1300 (£500), but now I'm veering towards the idea of just getting a large external disk drive and some Jukebox software like MusicMatch. Much cheaper and full screen editing on the PC. If I could then burn straight from PC to my NetMD minidisc recorder that would be me sorted.

[peter rh]

External HD mentioned in my post :http://www.dabs.com/uk/shopbybrand/GenericBrand/ProductView.htm?quicklinx=351L&family=2220
full details are available on the Western Digital website

[Frank Mullen]

What the h eck is a WAM file?