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In Reply to: RE: need help understanding external hard drives posted by learsfool on December 07, 2014 at 18:38:13
Hi everyone, and thanks for the responses! I am still confused on the external hard drive choices. Your responses give me the impression that this perhaps isn't a big deal, and I can choose whatever? I have read about synching issues if the external hard drive is USB, since I have the Dragonfly, which is also USB - Abe's posts imply this is not an issue. I know that the new Macs don't have Firewire, but do have Thunderbolt. Can I assume that my current Mac will support a Thunderbolt drive?
I do not have a network setup, so this is why I was told by the Apple people to use Time Machine and an external hard drive to do the transfer of files from my old machine to the new. Apparently this is a very easy thing to do. I was assuming that therefore I could rip the CDs on my current machine, and avoid buying an external DVD/CD drive for the new one. Is there some sonic reason for the recommendation for buying the extra drive and ripping on the new machine? Is the process of transferring music file from one machine to another more complicated? Thanks again for the help!
Follow Ups:
If you buy a USB 3.0 disk drive it will not conflict with your USB DAC. Yes, you can use a Thunderbolt disk drive instead but it will cost you more money vs a USB 3.0 drive.
Will you be using this drive as a backup device or for storing your ripped music, or both?
If used for backup, you're not going to be playing music while you're backing up so there is no possibility of 'conflict' with your DAC.
If used for storing your music, there will still be no 'conflict' with your DAC if you use a USB 3.0 disk because as I mentioned in my previous post, that disk will be on a USB 3.0 bus while your DAC will be on a USB 2.0 bus. But if you feel better about it, you can use a Thunderbolt drive which will cost you significantly more money.
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An external CD/DVD drive will set you back maybe $15 - $80. I have Samsung and Lenovo branded USB CD/DVD drives. They both work perfectly fine just like my Apple branded USB CD/DVD drive. I think I paid $40 for my Samsung a few years ago.
You can certainly use your current Mac with it's internal CD/DVD for ripping then transfer the files but depending on the number of CD's you plan to rip, that's a good way to wear out your internal drive.... which can be costly to replace.... a lot more than an external USB CD/DVD drive.
You will also need to move your newly ripped content from the old Mac to the new one. Extra steps with the potential of introducing operator error.
IMHO and as I've mentioned before, you will be better off waiting to get your new Mac, get it all set up first, use an external USB CD/DVD drive, and then start ripping to it. Your choice.
Hi Abe - thanks again for the response. I have approximately 500 CDs to rip, so I am pretty sure a 1tb hard drive will be enough. If possible, I would love to use the same one to backup as for the music storage, but this is one of the things I am confused about, whether there would be enough room to do both with the same 1 tb drive?
What I have read about using a USB hard drive with a USB DAC is that there can be jitter, etc., caused by a synchronous conflict between the two devices, as they would both be in use together, resulting in significantly lower sound quality. Are you saying that this will not happen if they are on two different buses? I need to look at your previous post again; I really don't know anything about these things. Is the Thunderbolt type drive the only other option I have that will work with both my old machine and a new one? If so, then I am more inclined to try your two different buses idea, given the much greater cost of the Thunderbolt type drive.
500 CD's will easily fit onto a 1TB disk drive taking up no more than about 1/3 of it's total capacity. However, it would not be wise to keep your music collection on the same disk as your backup. If your disk crashes there's a good chance that your backup goes along with it.Backups are an entirely separate topic with various strategies that work. The key is to come up with a solution that YOU fully understand and have proven. In other words, don't wait for a catastrophe to test your backup and ability to recover. You want a separate disk for your backup and better yet, more than one backup disk.
I explained the USB Bus to you. You have several choices: USB 3.0 external HDD, Thunderbolt USB HDD, Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter with a Firewire HDD. You choose.
The link below is rather old but pretty much describes what I've already told you about the USB Bus.
Edits: 12/10/14
Thanks, Abe! I think I have a handle on all this now; as you said, I just need to choose. I appreciate your patience with a newbie very much!
If you plan to use iTunes as your audio player, be sure to 'rip' your CDs to an uncompressed format like AIFF or WAV. If you use compression, choose a lossless compression like Apple Lossless (ALAC). Do you use AAC or MP3.
Most of my collection are in AIFF uncompressed or Apple Lossless (ALAC) compression. Apple Lossless which is similar to FLAC will achieve about 50% compression on the file size to save disk space with virtually no effect on the sound quality.
If you choose to rip the CDs with iTunes be sure to go into iTunes > Preferences > General Tab > Import Settings >
then choose AIFF Encoder or Apple Lossless Encoder and check the box for "Use Error Correction".
If you think you might try other players in the future, and possibly the FLAC format, it is simple enough to convert from AIFF to FLAC and other formats.
Enjoy.
Hi Abe - I just saw this post of yours. I am considering purchasing the Audirvana software to use as the player, as I have read that the Dragonfly DAC I purchased will work very well with it. If I do this, would this change your recommendation? Would AIFF or Apple Lossless be better?
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