Help With Hard Drive Expansion Options.

[epu]

Okay, so [i]outside[/i] of using the Ultrabase, which I have, what are some other methods you can use to install a "second hard drive" to the X61? The ones I know so far are:

CF Card (Through PC Slot Adaptor)
SD Card
External USB
External Firewire

I'm running Pro-Tools, which is an audio program that requires a fast read/write sustained speed to record and play back audio. So far, the USB/Firewire Oxford 911 external drive I have is great, but it's too bulky to carry around. I was wondering:

1) Is there a PC Card Hard Drive that exists that's really fast?
2) Can you format SD Cards as NTFS and use them like a hard drive and NOT removable media?
3) What else can I add that will be seen by the X61 as a hard drive and NOT removable media

When I connect a USB hard drive as an example, the OS sees it as a hard drive. Pro-Tools knows the difference between a hard drive and removable media and will not let you record to removable media.

[mfbernstein]

Do you really need a second drive? None of the options you've listed will be as fast as a good internal drive.

You say that the external drive is to bulky. Are you talking about a 3.5" or a 2.5" enclosure? They have FW/USB 2.5" enclosures, and with a 7200RPM 200GB drive, it should be reasonably fast, certainly enough to saturate the USB and possibly the FW400 connection.

Your specific questions:

1) The fastest drives are for expansion slots are SSDs, but so far, they're ExpressCard only, not Cardbus. So no good for your X61.
2) No point in using SD cards. Even the fastest are slower than CF cards, and the built-in reader is much slower still.
3) Well, you could get an eSATA or FW800 card, and use that to connect to external drive. This is the fastest option (especially eSATA). But it's not terribly convenient.

Realistically, the fastest internal option (besides using your main drive) would be a CF Cardbus adapter, but I suspect it would also be recognized as a removable device. The fastest such adapter (assuming it's finally shipping) is Delkin's Cardbus 32 UDMA Compact Flash adapter. It claims up to 40MB/s, I doubt you'll get more than 25MB/s consistently.

[rhema83]

Ditto the first reply. How big and how fast is your internal HDD right now? Is there room for upgrade?

If outright speed is that important (I am not sure how much throughput Pro Tools needs) that 200GB 7200rpm HDD is the biggest you can go. But if sheer size is the concern, then you can get 320GB 5400rpm HDD.

[mfbernstein]

If outright speed is that important (I am not sure how much throughput Pro Tools needs) that 200GB 7200rpm HDD is the biggest you can go. But if sheer size is the concern, then you can get 320GB 5400rpm HDD.

Actually, Samsung has just started shipping a 500GB 5400RPM drive. So far, only OEMs seem to have it, but I suspect it'll hit NewEgg and other retailers in 4-5 weeks.

Toms Hardware has a decent article benchmarking a number of recent notebook drives.

[rhema83]

Actually, Samsung has just started shipping a 500GB 5400RPM drive. So far, only OEMs seem to have it, but I suspect it'll hit NewEgg and other retailers in 4-5 weeks.

Toms Hardware has a decent article benchmarking a number of recent notebook drives.

Pardon my ignorance.

[epu]

Thanks for the sweift, quick replies!!! The external hard drive I have is probably one of the best on the market. It's an OWC external 2.5" hard drive that runs at 7200 rpm. It's also 80GB.

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/on-the-go

They are eSATA compatible and Firewire 400/800. They are really smal l and nice, but I was looking for something even smaller. I guess the only true option would be to get a T61 and buy a second hard drive caddy or a X6 Ultrabase 2nd Hard Drive caddy.

Thanks again!