question regarding the SSD’s

[Deleted User]

You format the SSD using a computer. The BMCC does not format the SSD. Format can be Mac HFS+ or Windows exFAT.

Files recorded onto the SSD are accessed by inserting the SSD in a standard drive “caddy” (USB, eSATA, Thunderbolt, etc.) or standard 2.5″ drive bay connected to a computer.

All this and more is explained in the BMCC user manual available from BMD’s website:
https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/support/

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https://www.peterdv.com
Blog: https://herefortheweather.wordpress.com

[Matthew Sonnenfeld]

Jonathan, if the 2.5″ hot swappable bays that you mention are just internal extra bays and are not for your boot drive, but rather for just adding extra storage sort of like keeping an external drive, then in theory it should work. The SSDs are just bare SATA. If you want to try it I see no harm in giving it a go. Worst case is you have to buy a SATA dock, but if it works, you’ll save yourself $50!

Just curious though, what kind of computer are you using that you have these spare bays? Sounds very cool indeed.

Blackmagic Cinema Camera, RED Scarlet-X, Panasonic HPX170, Canon 7D
2011 Macbook Pro 17″, 2.3 Ghz Quad Core, 16GB RAM
AJA IoXT
Adobe Production Premium CS6, Avid Symphony 6, Final Cut Pro Studio 3
The College of William and Mary

[Jonathon Thompson]

i am hoping that it does. this would be ultra convenient.

currently i am using a Dell Precision T7600.

i have 8 internal bays that are ultra easy to access. the front panel swings open revealing 4 3.5 on the bottom and 4 2.5 drives on the top.

my config is as such:

Lower 3.5 bays
BAY 0 – Boot 256GB Samsung 840, from dell with OS and drives loaded
BAY 1 – 2 TB seagate enterprise drive RAID 5 1 of 3
BAY 2 – 2 TB seagate enterprise drive RAID 5 2 of 3
BAY 3 – 2 TB seagate enterprise drive RAID 5 3 of 3

Upper 2.5 bays
Bay 4 – 256 GB samsung 840 Pro render drive

all of these are in caddys that pull right out and snap back in to place. it would be so sweet if i could get a few more samsung 840 pros and use them with a BMCC and just put them in the caddys and slide them in and boom! they are recognized.

if you would like some pics i can email them.

[Alex Gerulaitis]

[Jonathon Thompson] “Dell Precision T7600”

Dell T7600 is a great system but a bit of a strange animal in that it only has two SATA ports reserved for optical drives; the remaining are eight SAS ports that also work with SATA drives but don’t support removable devices, to my knowledge. I.e. once you insert a caddy with a drive into the bay, the drive may not get automatically recognized and you’ll have to do a “scan for hardware changes” function in Device Manager before it shows up as a drive letter. No “eject” capability either.

It’s not that big of a deal – the rest should work as expected, i.e. you’ll be able to access the data from those SSDs once they’re recognized by Windows.

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[Jonathon Thompson]

thank you alex, i believe it wsa you that helped me stick with the T7600 when harm tried preaching about DIY builds.

what you described is exactly what i was hoping for. i plan to shoot for the day and then bring the drive(s) back to the PC and install them and leave them in their until i need to shoot again.

[Jonathon Thompson]

side note question, i read in a separate thread that we should use a third party program to offload the files from the SSD.

is that true? the program in question is shotput pro

[Alex Gerulaitis]

If you need simultaneous transfer to multiple targets (for redundancy, backup or other reasons) or verification of the transfer – yes.

In other words if you transfer a lot and it’s critical stuff – Shotput Pro is a good thing to use.

Alex Gerulaitis
Systems Engineer
DV411 – Los Angeles, CA

[John Barata]

How have the Samsung drives been working for you. I’m thinking of getting either the 500GB 840 or the 512 840pro but haven’t found too many people talking about them with blackmagic products. Be it BMCC or hyperdeck.

[Jonathon Thompson]

in terms of installing one in a dell. make sure you go into the bios of the perc controller(if you order one H310 and 700 something)and change the device to being a “non RAID drive”

this helps a lot. my 840 pro 256 GB was not posting often.

as far as using it with the Black i will let you know in a few weeks after i use it.