Is 5400rpm hard drive OK for....

[sdsumike619]

I need to buy a cheap, small, external hard drive for simply storing a bunch of wav files to burn audio CDs every 10 days for products that I sell. Is a 5400rpm drive ok for this purpose or do I need 7200?

[vid83]

Yes. I had a 4200 rpm drive and it stored files well. I have lectures and I used to store WAV files on it all the time. You should have no problems at all at 5400 rpm.

Here are some 5400 rpm external drives at newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150414%201035507777&name=5400%20RPM

Here are some 7200 rpm external drives at newgg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010150414%201035507776&name=7200%20RPM

[jman98]

5400 RPM should be OK for your needs. If you're not going to mix and match individual tracks but always burn the same WAV files in the exact same configuration every time, you might consider storing BIN/CUE files instead. Those are CD image files and you'll save time just burning images over having to manually configure the CDs each time you burn. Exact Audio Copy is free and can create such files for you. Just create a BIN/CUE file for each specific CD you need to burn. If you're going to have to burn WAV files in a random order each time then you won't want to keep BIN/CUE files around.

[sdsumike619]

Well there's a set number of lessons in each series, either 36 or 24. So on one day I might need to burn lessons 2,6,8,12,25 and on the following month if all the same people have another lesson coming, they'll get 3,7,9,13,26. It's easy enough to have all the wav files in a folder and I just drag one over, burn it, clear it, drag the next one over, burn it... Do you think the bin/cue thing would make this process easier? If I do that, then I imagine, I'd have to file, open instead of just dragging and dropping (talking about Nero here)

[redwudz]

If you are accessing the 5400 RPM drive over a USB 2.0 external connection, the USB interface will be slower than the 5400 drive anyway.

[ron spencer]

drive speed is soooo over rated...plus higher speeds = higher heat = drives wreck faster. I have a bunch of 250 gig laptop drives I use in my tower....smooth as silk, run quiet, no heat

[sdsumike619]

Great, thanks for the feedback!!

[ahhaa]

You might consider getting an external Lightscribe DVD drive instead; they are quite cheap, will make great-looking labelling a snap, and come with software for both CD & DVD burning that allows saved 'projects' that will call pre-determined file lists. Then use your internal drive for sourcing the files. I like DVD data discs for audio; I can pretty much count on everything I want fitting on just one!:]

[sdsumike619]

I've heard of lightscribe, but I also heard that it is verrrrry slow when it comes to writing/burning the label. Is that true?

[vid83]

I've heard of lightscribe, but I also heard that it is verrrrry slow when it comes to writing/burning the label. Is that true?

This is from lightscribe's site:

Labeling time depends heavily on content, hardware, media and print mode used. Typically for title only content, a labeling time of 2-5 minutes can be expected. For full disc graphics in Best quality mode, labeling times of 20-35 minutes can be expected.

[sdsumike619]

yeah that's crazy long time to wait. With my Epson R220 on a draft-ish mode, it's less than 30 seconds..