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Contributor

External HD Recommendation for VMs?

Can anyone recommend the fastest (hence best?) External HD for storing and running my VM images? Currently they run off the internal iMac HD, but I assume that on a fast external Firewire 800 HD they may be better.

Bonus points if theres a FW800 Bus Powered portable one I could move between the iMac and MBP! :smileygrin:

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

I have this one for my MacBook Pro:

http://www.lacie.com/us/products/product.htm?pid=11372

Fast with FireWire 800, and also not too expensive...

P.S.: I also have a 500 GB USB 2.0 LaCie Desktop Hard Disk as a backup drive for my VMs.

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gbullman
Expert
Expert

I have one non-portable and one portable external drive that I would consider quite fast. I use them primarily for my VMs. At this point I only buy 7200 RPM drives.

Non-Portable

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/esata/Elite-AL_Pro-RAID_Ready_Dual-Drive

I have the 1.5 TB RAID 0. I connect it to my MacBook Pro via eSATA with this card;

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/EXP34SATA2P1/

I recently purchased one of these 7200 RPM portables

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firewire/EliteALmini/eSATA_FW800_FW400_USB

I'm currently connecting that via FW800 since the RAID 0 is using the eSATA.

When I'm home I use the RAID 0 as my primary VM drive and the portable as a backup. When traveling I take the portable with me.

Each night I back up any VMs used that day from the RAID 0 to the portable. I used to get about 25 or so MBps with a 7200 FW400 portable drive. With the FW800 drive I now get about 55 MBps (roughly 3 GB per minute) when doing this backup.

You are on the right track getting the fastest drive setup you can to store your VMs, when I switched from the FW400 to the RAID 0 it was a noticeably speed bump for all activity with the VMs.

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Berknip
Contributor
Contributor

I too have been pleased with hardware purchased from Other World Computing, and I do have some RAID setups, I prefer portable solutions for my business use. I keep my client versions of VMs on these drives so I can carry them from place to place. They're plenty fast for standard VM usage, but if you're doing something that requires more performance, you may want to go the eSATA route. The faster RPM units do get rather toasty when in use.

OWC Mercury On-The-Go Drives

I have and older one of these I use for storage, and while I like it I will tell you that when the drives spin down for power conservation, the entire bus 'waits' until they spin back up if you access anything on them.

OWC Guardian Maximus

YMMV

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golddiggie
Champion
Champion

Look at the products from G Technologies like the G-RAID () and G-RAID Mini (). I've compared these products, in the past, with offerings from LaCie, and they win every time. I know several video and photo professionals that have been burned by LaCie products but never by the G-Tech products (which they use extensively now). The two G-RAID's linked above are made for video/audio editing which is a high bandwidth demanding process. IF you decide to go with the mini model (which would allow you to use just one FW800 connection) then get the one with the 7200rpm drives inside ($299 for the 1TB model if you buy direct).

VMware VCP4

Consider awarding points for "helpful" and/or "correct" answers.

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ColoradoMarmot
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Champion

I use a Rockwell FW800 external enclosure with a Seagate 7200.4 500GB disk. Works great - and nearly as fast as internal disks. Avoid Seagate enclosures due to external power and compatiblity issues. WD enclosures have a stupid firmware virtual disk that you have to hide that causes all sorts of problems. I always recommend a high-quality case and drive, and build it yourself.

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