Are all external hard drives the same?

Are there any differences other than storabe size?

1. Reliability.
2. Speed.
3. Noise.
4. RFI.

RE: (1). Hard to find a bulletproof drive. Judging from owner reports, some of the most reliable drives are made by Glyph. I own two of them and I'm very happy with them.

RE: (2) Speed is primarily determined by the connection between the drive and the computer. USB 3.0 and Firewire 800 are both sufficient for HD video, IME. Also, a solid state drive (SSD) will be more responsive than a hard disc drive (HDD), but also much more expensive.

RE: (3) Some drives have fans, some do not. Fans produce noise, which can be bothersome, depending on how loud the fan is and how far you sit from the drives. But fans keep heat down, and that improves reliability. The fans in the Glyph drives I linked above are fairly quiet.

RE: (4) A SSD will produce less RFI than a HDD. Whether that is audible is debatable, and probably system dependent. IME, SSD's can sound better than HDD's. Personally, I use a combination of drives. I have my better recordings on a SSD, and worse recordings on a HDD.

Hope that helps.

Bryon

There's limits on the voltage output on most usb's. Too big of a drive may not power up correctly. Get a usb powered drive with the option for a wall wart.
Also, with my oppo, the menu isn't so great. Again, too much on one drive could get difficult.

You want a USB drive with its own power supply. I have an Oppo bDP-93 and it plays quite well with my 3 Seagate FreeAgen 1.5TB drives and with my WD 750GB drive. All of these are USB 2.0 spec drives.

It will NOT recognize my new Seagate Backup Plus Desk 3 TB USB 3.0 drive. I would recommend you stick with USB 2.0 drives for your Oppo...

-RW-

12-02-12: Rlwainwright
I have an Oppo bDP-93 and it plays quite well with my 3 Seagate FreeAgen 1.5TB drives and with my WD 750GB drive. All of these are USB 2.0 spec drives.

It will NOT recognize my new Seagate Backup Plus Desk 3 TB USB 3.0 drive. I would recommend you stick with USB 2.0 drives for your Oppo...

RW, I'm wondering if that might be due to the size of the drive, rather than to the interface. Drives larger than 2.19 TB utilize a different and relatively new partition table format, GPT, rather than the traditional Master Boot Record format. Older computer operating systems will not recognize GPT, and perhaps the same is true of the operating system firmware in the BDP-93 and/or BDP-95.

So I would suggest to the OP that he not purchase a drive larger than 2 TB unless an authoritative indication can be found that a larger drive will work with the player.

Excellent comments by everyone above.

Regards,
-- Al

I agree with Rlwainwright.

Externally powered HDD enclosures are reasonably priced, especially if all you want is USB 2.0, which is fine for audio. Since you don't want a fan you are looking for a chunky aluminium unit that will dissipate the heat from the drive. Typical prices are around $40.

A nice 3.5" 1TB or 2TB Western Digital drive ("Red" series) consumes a small amount of power and does not require a fan. These drives are marked by their low energy consumption and quietness. Maybe around $90-130

Regards,