Use external drives (either Firewire or USB2). I use a couple of external drive cases into which I have fitted removeable drive trays. That way I have a stack of 25 drives that I just slide into the external case whenever I need to work ona new project.

You can Ignore the (Ignore this user) link. It's not refering to YOU... it allows anyone to place any other poster on their "Ignore user" list. You will see that link next to every post (and every poster).

I use a couple of external drive cases into which I have fitted removeable drive trays

...thanks to all.
Can you be more specific or have any particular products you can refer me to for said items...economics is key!


Thanks

Another alternative (or supplement) to firewire/USB drives is to put the drives in a removable caddy. This allows you to swap hard drives in and out with a minimum of fuss.

I have a caddy mounted in a 5.25" firewire enclosure, as well as standard ATA caddies in my desktop tower. This lets me swap things around as needed pretty easily.

Here's one way.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-145-366&depa=1
Firewire (1394) is best.
(Sheeesh! I found the info and there was 5 reply's when I got back)

I use USB2 and Firewire drives. I prefer the USB drives just because I have had the firewire disappear in the middle of a render. It was still there, still functioning but the computer lost contact. Has never happened with the USB.

The external enclosure I use is the Compucable FireExpress 525DX ($75). it is a bit ugly... but works great... and it is large enough to allow the drive trays to fit inside.

The drive trays I use are these ones; ViPower - cost $14 each.
This includes the inner tray - plus one removable tray. You can then buy just the removable tray for extra hard drives for just $9 each.

Or... you can actually buy a purpose built external drive* which has the tray built-in. it is a little more expensive for the additional trays... but this may be just as good in the long run. $90 including the first drive tray... $15 extra for each additional tray.

*Note... I have not used THAT particular product...although I was starting out with this now I would definitely give that product a try (I now have 25 drives in the other ViPower drive trays shown above... so I am not about to switch now)

I would agree... for me USB2 has been perfectly reliable... and I have had some problems like you described when running in firewire mode... so I now stick to what I have found most reliable. This seems to be counter to the majority opinion/recommendation I see here.

kindly Thanks, kindly, ...

c2323j
I recently worked on editing a full length movie using six FW drives daisy chained. It was all HDV footage. All the drives were different brands and I had no problems. 300 GB FW Seagates were on sale pretty cheap around the holidays. They're back up to $299 today. Watch Fryes for deals.

Yugioh

I have also been confronted with unreliable Firewire connexion. That's another reason to get dual connexion hardware (USB2 and Firewire).

I wonder if this result of two 1394 devices (camcorder and HD) being on the same 1394 adaptor?