When Good Drives Go Bad

What to do in a Hard Drive Emergency

1. If possible, back up data immediately. Do this if you start getting intermittent disk errors or you computer is having trouble recognizing your device. Do not do it if your drive is making strange noises.
2. If your hard drive is making clicking, grinding, scraping, tapping, "singing," or whining sounds, shut
   it down immediately. These sounds could be the read/write heads hitting or scraping the platters (which is where your data is stored). If you keep running your hard drive, you could be destroying your data. That means:
   
   • Do not use utility software
   • Do not power the device back up
3. If you're drive is making unusual sounds, don't try to fix it yourself by turning it on and off, using a diagnostic tool or putting the drive in the freezer.
4. Don't assume your data is unrecoverable.
5. Call in reinforcements at DriveSavers or call us at 1-877-807-8095.

Polyline customers receive a special discount when using the DriveSavers data recovery services:

• $200 "Attempt" Fee is waived. (In the rare instances when DriveSavers can't save your data, you'll pay nothing.)
• 10% off Services

Just remember to use our discount code: 25716.

Polyline Partners with DriveSavers to Save Your Data when the Worst Happens to Your Hard Drive

Polyline prides itself in providing absolutely the best and safest hard drives for audio and video applications. But even the best 3-year factory warranty is protecting your equipment, not your data. In our industry, your data isn't just your livelihood, it's your life's work.

When you work on location, anything can happen:

• Your hard drive could crash
• It could fall out of a boat
• A truck could run over it
• You could accidentally delete your files

So, what do you do when the worst happens?You do what you would in any emergency. Stay calm and call the experts.

Polyline, through a special agreement with DriveSavers Data Recovery Inc., can provide you with a fast, reliable and secure solution to your data loss at a special, discounted price. Visit DriveSavers and use our special discount code: 25716. (This is called the DS ID# on DiscSaver's forms.) In addition to a 10% discount off the regular price, DriveSavers will waive its $200 "Attempt Fee." Which means, if they can't recover your data, they'll return your drive and you pay nothing.

Plus, they can recover data from damaged tape, laptops, desktop computers, iPhones, iPads, SDHC/CF/USB drives and more.

Check out http://www.PolylineCorp.com/DriveSavers for more information and to check out the Hard Drive Simulator. You can learn more about how a hard drive works, about DriveSavers and the symptoms (and sounds) of serious hard drive issues.

Three Special Offers Extended

Due to popular demand, two of our current specials have been extended.

Primera's Visa Gift Card Rebate promotion has been extended until Dec. 31, 2011.  Get up to $700 back on Primera's popular disc publishers and printers. The free Falcon disc promo, still expires Oct. 31, 2011. So if you want to maximize your savings by getting both the Visa gift card and your 150 free Falcon discs, act fast. (Don't forget you can use your EM2B$, too.)

Visit http://www.polylinecorp.com/primera/ for offer details and links to qualifying Primera products.

Get a Free Spare Drive with your purchase of a 2TB or 3TB G-Safe Hard Drive promotion was extended through Oct. 31, 2011. There are no special forms to fill out or mail in with this promotion. Just place your order with Polyline and your free spare drive will arrive with your new G-Safe. Visit http://www.polylinecorp.com/productlist.asp?OPT=G-Tech-G-Safe-hard-drive to place your order.

We've also extending Microboards instant rebate program through the end of the year (Dec. 31, 2011).Get the full details, here: http://www.polylinecorp.com/Microboards_Rebate/. Get up to $300 off your favorite Microboards disc publisher or printer.

Ultra-Fast, Super-Convenient Thunderbolt Interface is Coming Soon to G-Tech

Even if you missed the NAB show, you’ve probably heard that one of the hottest technologies rolled out was the Thunderbolt interface.

Thunderbolt technology was designed with professional audio and video applications in mind and G-Tech, which is known for making reliable hard drives aimed at the A/V and pro Mac communities, is incorporating the new interface into its RAID offerings in the near future.

Here at Polyline, we’ve started the count-down by creating a G-Tech Thunderbolt waiting list. Sign up here and we’ll notify you when the G-Tech drives with Thunderbolt interface becomes available. And, if you sign up by Sept. 30, 2011, we’ll enter you in a drawing to win a 4TB G-Raid Hard Drive ($449 value).

Thunderbolt technology features:

• Dual-channel 10Gbps per port
• Bi-directional
• Dual-protocol (PCI Express and DisplayPort)
• Compatible with existing DisplayPort Devices
• Daisy-chained devices
• Electrical or Optical cables
• Low Latency with highly accurate time synchronization
• Uses native protocol software drivers
• Power over cable for bus-powered devices

The 10Gbps performance means that it is twice as fast as USB 3.0 and 12 times faster than FireWire800.

Intel's Thunderbolt controllers interconnect a PC and other devices, transmitting and receiving packetized traffic for both PCIe and DisplayPort protocols. Thunderbolt technology works on data streams in both directions, at the same time, so users get the benefit of full bandwidth in both directions, over a single cable. With the two independent channels, a full 10 Gbps of bandwidth can be provided for the first device, as well as additional downstream devices.

And all Thunderbolt devices share a common connector, allowing users to daisy chain devices one after another with interoperable cables.

Remember, sign up here to join our Thunderbolt waiting list and you’ll be entered in a drawing for G-Tech’s current 4TB G-Raid Hard Drive ($449 value).

Audio/Visual Professionals Say Reliability is Top Priority

Recently, Polyline surveyed more than 200 production/post production professionals about what they considered to be the most important factors when purchasing a hard drive. We asked them to rate the importance of a series of factors on a scale from 0 to 5, with 5 being the “most important” and 0 being “not important at all.” Respondents overwhelmingly rated reliability as the most important factor when selecting a hard drive (with an average rating of 4.84). In fact, 85% percent of the people taking part in the survey gave it a rating of “5” or “most important.”

While speed (4.39) and capacity (4.46) were also considered important by production/post production professionals, reliability seemed to be the overall, most important factor to the 200+ respondents.

Choosing the Right Hard Drive

With P2, SxS and other solid-state acquisition media; non-linear editing; and the need for quick access to archived content, hard drives have become essential tools in video production. There are a lot of choices out there, but how do you find the right hard drive for your organization? Here are some things to consider:

Professional vs. Consumer Grade

Just as it is with tape and disc media, there is a huge difference between professional grade and consumer grade hard drives. Consumer hard drives were designed for storing documents and family photos. Professional hard drives, like those carried by Polyline, are created for the video and audio content professionals, which means:

• More metal (and less plastic) parts – this makes the drive more durable and able to hold-up to the harsh demands of the content creation professional
• Faster transfer speeds – this results fewer dropped frames
• Heat sinks and / or fans to keep your drive cool – it's not so much that heat is the danger as the quick heating and cooling of the drive (a real danger when you're hot swapping your drives). Proper cooling ensure your drive doesn't encounter jarring temperature changes that causes stress to the drive.
• Longer guarantees – professional grade drives are designed to last longer, and manufacturers back this up by offering longer warranties on parts and labor.
  Remember the real cost is not the value of the drive, it's the value of the work that's stored on it.
• CapacityHD video consumes huge amounts of hard drive space. Choose a drive that has double the space you think you'll need. You'll outgrow it more quickly than you think. Also consider that, as the size of the drive increases, the cost per gigabyte decreases. So, by purchasing a larger drive, you're saving money.

Interfaces

Select a drive with multiple interfaces, this will give you the greatest compatibility among different systems. In terms of speed, USB 2.0 has the slowest transfer speeds and eSATA has the fastest. When dealing with large data streams, like HD video, faster transfer speeds mean less time ingesting video and it also equals fewer dropped frames.

For more information on professional hard drives, check out the article "Don't Compromise on External Storage" from the September 2008 issue of polyNEWSline.

Check Out These Hard Drives for Media Professionals

G-Tech Hard Drives
G-Tech external hard drives were designed specifically to meet the data storage needs of content creation professionals. G-Tech's USB, FireWire, eSata and Fibre Channel systems support all levels of audio and video production.

LaCie Hard Drives
LaCie is a leading manufacturer of external storage devices including an award-winning selection of hard drives, Network Storage drives, RAID and DVD drives. LaCie sets itself apart by working with world-famous designers to create storage solutions that are as beautiful as they are functional.

Avastor
Avastor is the fastest growing company supplying Hard Drives to audio / video professionals. Avastor's product line include 20 configurations of drive interfaces and capacities of professional hard drives for virtually every application required.

Don't Compromise on External Storage

With your growing portfolio of videos, photos, music, artwork and creative projects, the ability to add more storage easily and cost-effectively becomes a necessity. You need something that's going to last. And whether you're a digital video producer, a graphic designer or photographer, storage performance is critical.

Before you go out and buy your next external drive, here are a few must-have storage criteria that separate the toys from the tools.

Nothing Does It Better Than RAID

For high-performance and/or data redundancy nothing is better than RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks).

RAID uses two or more hard disk drives enclosed in an external storage solution. For the more techie folks, you can also build a RAID array inside of your computer. However, the latter requires a bit more work so, for the purpose of this article, we'll focus on simple, plug and play external storage RAID. Here are some important terms to know when discussing RAID with your hard drive supplier:

RAID 0: Also known as "striping," RAID 0 provides full capacity with the fastest possible sustained throughput – continuous large sequential read/writes. RAID 0 takes a file and spreads it across two or more drives to reduce the time it takes to write or read the file.

RAID 0 pays off in situations where speed is paramount, such as working with multiple streams of digital video. As you probably already know, when your interface or hard drive can't keep up with your system, your video can be butchered by dropped frames. To avoid this, a good solution is the G-Technology G-RAID 2 external drive. With capacities up to 2TB and specifically designed for the A/V market, the company guarantees simultaneous playback of multiple layers of video in real-time in Final Cut Pro, Premiere and Xpress. (See chart below.)

RAID 1: When you invest countless hours and dollars amassing hundreds of gigabytes of data, you would probably care more about data protection than speed. The easiest way to protect your data against accidental loss is to "mirror" the files.

This can be achieved easily with a two-drive external storage solution. Whatever gets written to the first drive is automatically copied, or mirrored, to the second drive. This means if anything should happen to either disk, your data is still safe.

The G-Tech G-SAFE is an easy to use RAID 1 solution. If calamity strikes and a hard drive fails, you simply pull out the defective drive bay, plug in a new hard drive, and the system automatically rebuilds itself, getting you back to a protected state in no time. Other RAID 1 hard drives require you to send the entire storage device in for repair if a drive fails.

Keep It Cool

Hard drives hate heat, so product quality and overall product integration are important. Your data is your livelihood, you don't want to depend on shoddy hardware prone to overheating and premature failure.

Make sure your next external hard drive has an adequate cooling system. An external drive with an all-aluminum enclosure is ideal. The aluminum acts as a heat sink, pulling heat away from the drive for increased data longevity and reliability.

Some drives also incorporate a "smart fan" to circulate air inside the enclosure. As the name implies, when the fan senses that the drive is warm, it automatically turns on, keeping the drive cool. Another benefit of a smart fan is that it's only used when needed, keeping the drive quiet.

There Is No Such Thing as Too Much Capacity

Keep the future in mind. Your storage needs will grow.

Take for example digital video. Some estimates say that a single hour of captured DV takes anywhere between 13.5GB to 15GB. And that's not including preview files or the memory required to exporting to DVD, which can add a few more gigabytes in temp files.
When selecting your external hard drive, be sure that you have enough storage for the type of digital media content that you wish to store. If you need 1TB (or 1,000GB) of external storage today, you're bound to need twice or three times that amount before you know it. If you're into video, here's a rough capacity guide from G-Tech:

Every 100GB holds up to:
9.25 Hrs of HDV
7.5 Hrs of DV25
1.75 Hrs of DVCPRO HD
1.25 Hrs of 8-bit SD
1 Hr of 10-bit SD

When adding a hard drive to your computer, make sure that your main internal hard drive (C:) is designated for the operating system and applications. All other data -- including projects, captured files, graphics and audio – should be stored on a separate, external hard drive.

Future-Proof Your Interface

As with most technology, external storage interfaces improve with time. Here are the most current interfaces and their maximum transfer (burst) rates:

• FireWire (1394a) – 400 Mbps (megabits per second)
• USB 2.0 – 480 Mbps
• FireWire 800 (1394b) – 800 Mbps
• eSATA 3.0 – 3.0 Gbps (gigabits per second)

Based on these numbers, eSATA is almost four times as fast as FireWire 800 and eight times as fast as USB 2.0. Ideally, your storage solution should accommodate all of these so you're prepared for whatever system or peripheral you decide to connect with in the future.

The good news is that industry-leading external storage solutions offer a combination of interface choices and some even come equipped with all four, dubbed a "quad" interface solution.

Keep in mind that few workstations come equipped with an eSATA or a FireWire 800 port, so you may be required to install a PCI Controller Card. This is a relatively easy process – opening up your computer may prove to be the most difficult part. But go for it. It's worth it!

Real-World Performance

While benchmark numbers, such as the maximum data transfer rate (as stated above), can be used to quantify the raw performance of the external drive, they do not translate in to real-world performance.

Sustained throughput is what matters most. Let's take another look at video. We all know that video is data intensive, especially when working with multiple streams. If the sustained data rate of the drive or interface dips below the required transfer rate for the video, the result is jerky playback, messed up audio and dropped frames. You need a solution that's going to keep up with you.

Put this all together and it's a pretty hefty shopping list. Doing a little research up front will help as there are many benefits to purchasing a thoroughly implemented product. Not only will you get the reliability, speed and data protection you're looking for, you'll also be able to rotate copies off-site or have the flexibility to work from multiple computers quickly and easily.

Let's face it, content creators have their own set of special storage needs: they need faster, bigger and better storage solutions because their livelihood depends on it.