Rock-Solid FCP System w/ Quicktime

[David Roth weiss]

[Kelley Tuck] “I haven’t had any noticeable problems with the latest QT & FCP versions on 10.4.11, but this could be just me not knowing what the problems are.”

Don’t sweat it then Kelley. If it ain’t broke, then don’t fix it. However, if I were you, I would certainly make a clone of your system drive using Carbon Copy Cloner, and have it standing by, because you already know that recreating the working system from the ground up that you have now might be harder to do as time passes.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Kelley Tuck]

Mr. Weiss,

Thanks for your quick reply. I do agree with your assessment – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. However, because I didn’t know about the compatibility issues when I first started, I have never worked with a ‘rock-solid system’ to know whether or not mine is ‘broke.’ I do experience unfortunate crashes (not often, but every once in a while), and it of course is not fun for this to happen during the export of a 45-minute movie that takes an hour to export. Should I except this as inevitable at times, or would having a ‘rock-solid system’ fix this problem?

What other signs should I look for to know whether or not my setup is working well? As I said, I’ve come to accept and expect certain sporadic things like crashes, slow renders, bad render manager data, etc., as normal, and I have worked around them as needed. Should I keep doing what I’m doing, or are there red flags here? Thanks!

Agape,
Kelley D. Tuck

“And so, since God in His mercy has given us this wonderful ministry, we never give up.”
2 Corinthians 4:1 (NLT)

[David Roth weiss]

[Kelley Tuck] “Should I keep doing what I’m doing, or are there red flags here?”

Both! Crashes do raise red flags, but it doesn’t sound like you’re in serious danger.

You should however do the following maintenance now and periodically every couple of months:

1) Fix permissions on the system drive using Apple Disk utility
2) Get Disk Warrior and run it on all drives
3) Trash Preferences
3) Clone your system drive

If the crashes persist and become more problematic, then a clean install is a good idea. FCS 2 will still update from the Apple server and while some say that an earlier version of QT is best, I’ve had good success with the latest version when I’ve had to go back in time to cut FCP 6 projects for some clients without version 7.

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.com

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

[Kelley Tuck]

Thanks for the great support!

Agape,
Kelley D. Tuck

“And so, since God in His mercy has given us this wonderful ministry, we never give up.”
2 Corinthians 4:1 (NLT)