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External Hard Drive Problem
Hi. I just recently got a dual 2.0 g5. I work a lot in final cut and needed extra drive space so i got this lacie 200gb external firewire. I plug it in to the computer and it shows up, but it is being really finicky about copying media (.mov’s). saying that part of the files are missing or it cant copy these files. should i journal this drive, index it, partition it? what does all this mean as well? i am very confused. any suggestions?
~rebecca
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5 Replies
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Before you use any new drive you should reformat in Mac OS Extended (aka HFS+) using Apple’s disc utility which is on your startup drive. Leave file journaling turned off for all drives EXCEPT your startup drive, and don’t partition your media drives. Partitioning will do nothing but eat up valuable storage space. Some LaCie drives come formatted in FAT 32 binary which is the formatting that can be read by both Mac and PC machines. The trouble with that is you’re restricted to file sizes no greater than 4 Gbytes. This is probably the root of all your problems.
Once you’re up and running with your properly formatted drive get the program Disk Warrior and use it periodically to keep the directories on all your drives on top shape. Directories will get corrupted with lots of use because files are constantly being deleted and added during your projects.
Here’s a link to an article on proper hard drive maintenance, important stuff when you’re running programs like Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro.
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/care_feeding_panther.html
– Don
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Thank you so much. I formatted the drive extended, whereas before (when i first had problems transferring media) it was that mac and pc thing that you mentioned. i remember opening up the imfo window on the drive and it said something about mac and pc. and then the second time it was mac os extended journaled. lets hope third times a charm! So thanks again for the info.
~rebecca
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I have been experiencing the same problem with a Lacie 500gb I have formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled)…
any .MOV media is without a trace after transferring from my primary media drive.
also, I encounter seemingly arbitary error messages when I copy files, and if it does let me copy, it similarly seems to disappear from my drive.
Is this purely a matter of the drive formatting?
This will be corrected upon reformatting using the Mac OS Extended ?Thanks in advance.
I joined creativecow today to look into this very problem and it has been helpful to find someone having already addressed the issue. -
I have been experiencing the same problem with a Lacie 500gb I have formated Mac OS Extended (Journaled)…
any .MOV media is without a trace after transferring from my primary media drive.
also, I encounter seemingly arbitary error messages when I copy files, and if it does let me copy, it similarly seems to disappear from my drive.
Is this purely a matter of the drive formatting?
This will be corrected upon reformatting using the Mac OS Extended ?Thanks in advance.
I joined creativecow today to look into this very problem and it has been helpful to find someone having already addressed the issue. -
If you’re using the FW drive exclusively for your Mac then the only decision you have to make is to initialize the disk in Mac OS extended with journaling turned off. Journaling is only needed for your startup drive. Hard drives used for video editing have no need for journaling or partitioning or indexing. That stuff just slows everything down, especially file transfer rates.
Get a copy of DiscWarrior and run that to keep the media drive directories in top shape. This program is far better than the others in that it builds a completely new directory instead of trying to fix the old one like lesser programs do. Don’t let anything from Norton Utilities touch your drives. If you have Norton virus protection, turn off “Auto Protect”. There are known issues with that program and Final Cut Pro.
– Don
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