USB External HD for Audio Recording

[steelphantom]

I've been using a PC with M-Audio Delta 1010LT for audio recording, and I've decided to sell all of that stuff and just use my iBook. I'm planning on getting a MOTU UltraLite. My issue here is hard drives. I have a 200GB external HD, but it's in a USB enclosure. I don't really want to use the iBook's hard drive because it doesn't have that much space left on it and I believe it's only 4200 RPM. Would I be able to do up to 8 tracks of recording using a USB external hard drive, or would the USB not be fast enough to handle all that data at once?

 

[zimv20]

i'd be surprised if USB could handle it. try it and find out. or get a new enclosure, firewire, and keep the same drive.

i bet the internal drive could handle the load better than that USB one.

 

[steelphantom]

i'd be surprised if USB could handle it. try it and find out. or get a new enclosure, firewire, and keep the same drive.

i bet the internal drive could handle the load better than that USB one.

Looks like I'll have to stick with the internal drive then. If I buy a FireWire enclosure, my lone FireWire port will be used up. I guess I could buy a hub, but that's two additional things I'd have to buy just to be able to record (a hub and a FW enclosure). Once I get the UltraLite, I'll try it out with the USB drive, but as you said, it probably won't be able to handle it.

 

[e-clipse]

Luckily, most firwire devices can be chained together, even hard drives. The firewire device should have a firewire input on the back of it. Similar to daisy chaining MOTU products like the 896hd.

 

[steelphantom]

Luckily, most firwire devices can be chained together, even hard drives. The firewire device should have a firewire input on the back of it. Similar to daisy chaining MOTU products like the 896hd.

So I could daisy-chain the hard drive and the UltraLite and have OS X recognize the hard drive? If so, that would be awesome. I'll have to see how everything works out, but I might end up doing that.