-
LaCie FW 800 Connection Inexplicably Tanked. Possible Mix Down Problem
I have a LaCie FW800 drive that also has a FW400 connection. I’ve been using the 800 connection and today while mixing down audio in an FCP 4.5 file, about half way through, it stopped and I got an I/O Error. When I attempted to view my timeline, some of the nested sequences where unreadable. There was no video, just grey screen or multicolored pixels. I quit FCP and attempted to launch it again. The file wouldn’t open (said low memory). I restarted the computer and got a message saying the the LaCie drive was unreadable and it prompted me to initialize.
I shut the computer down, disconnected the FW800 cable and switched to the FW400 connection. I turned the computer on again and (Thank God) the drive came back up.
I then attempted to mix audio down again and at 51% the computer froze, and a bunch of debugger code filled part of the screen. I then had to manually shut the computer down.
POSSIBLE CLUE: I looked at the Render Manager and noticed that in my Master Sequence (the one I was mixing down), only the first two nested sequences have Mixdown Audio Files. This makes me think that it’s bombing out on the second nested sequence. And it just so happens that in that sequence I was having a problem with a section freezing when the playhead got to it. I’d get the spinning lollipop for a few seconds, then the playhead would jump ahead about 30 seconds. The part of the sequence that froze has a .wav file I downloaded to use as a sound effect.
What shall I do? I’m hesitant to try mixing down audio on this file again. I wonder if I have a corrupted audio render file or something? Is my FW800 connection just totally toast now?
I’m going to try deleting all my Audio Render files and rerendering audio from just the master sequence only. I’ll then also delete that .wav file.
Can anyone out there offer any other advice?
Thanks,
“Freaked Out and Frustrated” -
3 Replies
-
I made the changes I mentioned above, successfully mixed down the audio and attempted to export the video as a self-compressed file. It bombed again and I got the I/O error again. I checked other scratch disks on the drive and noticed that some capture folders had no icons, just the names. Then, a few seconds later, the drive disappeared altogether.
I should also point out that this drive was making funny noises and sometimes hisses. I’d never owned a FW800 drive before, so I thouht it was just different circuitry. Guess not.
I shut down the computer, disconnected the FW400 and reconnected the FW800. It works again. (What is up). I’m just going to go out and buy a new drive (NOT LACIE0 and trasfer the video clips while I still have it working.
I have over 450 GB of video on this drive. Many, many projects (some of which are already late). I pray I don’t lose them. If so, you will see a grown man cry!
~ Ron
-
Is your Lacie formated as a Mac OS Extended? Is Journaling turned off? Do you keep the firmware updated? I’ve been using one for a couple of years without any problems and just bought a new one which is also working well.
jmf
-
Does the little blue light on the front of the drive look like it’s blinking fast? If it blinks all the time, not just when it is accessing data, it means that something is wrong with your drive. It happened to me last year. Thankfully, in my case it was just the lacie box, not the drive it self, so my data was safe. I ended up pulling the drive out of the Lacie box and installing it as an internal hard drive. It
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up