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A bit OT about slow booting FCP
I’m very inexperienced with Macs but have been editing with FCP sometimes on my Dual G5 2.5
I boot from FW and the machine has always been very slow (sometimes fails) at finding the OS on the drive.
Today after four attempts, using different ports, I had to resort to trying to boot it on an older external FW (Panther) which it eventually did. I then subsequently reset the startup disk, plugged the other disk in and rebooted. Which it did.
Is there anything I could do to improve this somehow. Occasionally I go through a period when it boots reliably and quickly whereas other times, and it seems that it’s usually when I’ve not used the Mac for a period – I’m a PC man, it’s very slow finding the OS drive.
Thank you for help
Alan
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9 Replies
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So let me get this straight…. Instead of booting from the internal drive on you Dual 2.5 G5, you’re booting from FireWire? If so, why, and which type of FW are you booting from (400 or 800)? From my experience, booting from an external drive is usually reserved only for repairing the main, internal drive. If you’re doing what I think you’re doing, I would stop booting from FW. Do what ever you have to, but don’t boot from FW.
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”
Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe -
Boot from an internal system HD. Do you happen to have your media files on your external boot drive? That may be the cause of your problem
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Director-At-Large
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
Firewire 400 is up to 400MB per second, firewire 800 is up to 800MB per second, and the internal serial ATA bus of your computer is up to 1.5Gb per second.
So if you want a faster boot, you obviously should use the internal drive bus.
Also, firewire drives are not created equal, and the firmware on your drive may be outdated.
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Also, if memory serves the built in FW ports on Macs share the same bus. Meaning if you have some power hungry things plugged in, they’re all sharing one bus, which will cause slow downs as well.
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”
Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe -
Nope, no other FW devices connected.
No problem with speed of booting once the FW drive is found.
Config is OS and Apps on 80Gig 400 FW drive, internal two 250GBs raid0.
I had specific need to boot from FW and all is VERY well once the drive is found by the Mac and it boots.
Alan
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OK. I understand now, but I have no idea how to handle the sporadic behavior. I hate to say it, but my money’s on the fact that it’s booting via FW. I just don’t think Mac’s were built to run that way. From what I’ve read here (and the few times I had to boot from a FW drive) that’s a process you really only want to go to when trouble shooting. If there’s any way to switch back to using your internal as you main boot I would do so. Of course, back everything up first and wait until any projects you’re on are complete. Hope you have better luck!!!
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”
Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe -
Thanks Winston,
I think I’d prefer to stay ‘as is’ It’s the inconsistancy that bemuses me.
If I did decide to put the OS and apps on one of the internal drives will I be able to just ‘carbon cloner’ it across? I guess I’ll need to split the raid as I understand OSX wont run on a raid.
Being a PC man I liked the idea of having mobile (and clonable) boot drives – it always gave me a fall back position when I did risky things like upgrade FCP or QT.
Alan
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I’m not 100% on OSX not running on a RAID. I think I read somewhere – in fact, I think someone at the Cow posted it – that OSX will run on a certain type of RAID.
You should be able to use Carbon Copy Cloner to clone your FW drive to your internal drive no problem.
Like you say, your a PC man, and though this does sound like safe way to operate – and indeed is possible as you’ve been able to do it – the Mac just isn’t meant to run this way.
Sorry I’m not much more help. Good luck with trouble shooting the drive!
Winston A. Cely
Editor/Owner | Della St. Media, LLC“If God could do the tricks we can do, He’d be a happy Man.” – Peter O’Toole – “The Stuntman”
Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
4 GB RAM | Final Cut Studio 5.1.4 | Aja Kona LHe -
Thanks for your help Winston
Alan
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