Need to find a low priced external hard drive compatible with Pro Tools LE8 and MBox 2 for Windows

This is my first time setting up recording equipment in my house. The salesman at a local music store sold me a Pro Tools LE 8 and MBox 2, along with a Rode NTK microphone. Upon reading the instructions I learned that I need to get a separate hard drive. The problem is that Pro Tools only gives you hard drive requirements without naming specific hard drives that will be compatible (i.e.: Oxford chipset). I've spent hours searching and I can't find one that I feel is 100% compatible. Can someone give me some specific examples of compatible external hard drives that are under $200. Please Help!!!

Tags: 8, Drive, Hard, LE, MBox, Pro, Tools

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Permalink Reply by Mike Bratton on October 6, 2009 at 2:46pm

Hi there!

You're in luck. There are a number of hard drives that work well with Pro Tools. There's one company in particular that makes audio/video specific drives, with excellent customer service and warranty protection.

www.glyphtech.com

You have many options to choose from with Glyph.

There's another company that sells lots of different hard drives. I don't know if you're on Mac or PC, but it shouldn't really matter...

www.macsales.com

They have many excellent hard drive selections, that will work fine. The main thing you need to pay attention to is the drive speed. Find a drive that has a minimum of 7200 RPM. 10,000 is even better, but 7200 is the standard "Multimedia" drive speed.

Another thing to look for is the cache size. Bigger is better.

The OWC drives at macsales.com are good...I've got several of them I use with ProTools. I've also had good luck with LaCie drives, but they tend to be expensive, heavy, and not necessarily better than what you can get from OWC or Glyph.

If I had to really recommend one to get, I would definitely look at Glyph first. They are very good drives, and are really focused on the post-production community.

Good Luck!

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Permalink Reply by Todd Jennette on October 6, 2009 at 9:55pm

Thank you very much. So it doesn't matter which Oxford Bridge chip they use as long as the drive speed is at least 7200 rpm. Is that correct? The only ones Pro Tools mentions are Oxford 911, 912 and 924.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Bratton on October 8, 2009 at 9:12am

Hi there...

Well, I believe most of the drives these days have the Oxford Chipsets they're talking about. I know the ones at OWC do...and I'm quite sure that the ones at Glyph do as well.

You should still pay attention to the type of chipset, if that's what Pro Tools recommends, I would definitely get what they recommend.

Just pay close attention to the specs of the drives you're considering buying, and they will tell you if it has what you're looking for.

The Oxford 911 Chipset is for Firewire 400 drives. The 912 and 924 chipset, is for FireWire 400/800 drives.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Bratton on October 8, 2009 at 9:16am

I re-read my original reply. And I mentioned "the main thing to pay attention" to was drive speed. I apologize. I meant, within the family of drives you're looking at ( ie 911, and 912/924 chipsets ).

If you really want to make absolutely sure you're gettin' what Digidesign recommends for use...

Look no further

http://www.glyphtech.com/products/gt050q/

This series of drives has multiple interface options ( FW 400/800/USB 2 /eSATA )...and are fully qualified for ProTools use.

Also, as I mentioned before, they have excellent customer service. I had one issue with a drive, and I got to speak to a real live human being, who turned out to be the very guy who worked on my drive.

So, me likey.

Good luck!

mb