--- Forwarded Message from Bob Majors <[log in to unmask]> ---

>User-Agent: Microsoft-Entourage/10.1.1.2418
>Date: Fri, 28 Feb 2003 13:57:08 -0800
>Subject: Re: #7058.3 Final Cut Pro/Final Cut Express and hard drives (!)
>From: Bob Majors <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Language Learning and Technology International Information    Forum   <[log in to unmask]>
>In-Reply-To: <[log in to unmask]>

------------------
>>> From: Laura Atkinson <[log in to unmask]>
>> Have any users of Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Express out there found a link
>> between dropped frames and the hard drive model?

If you're referring to dropped video frames, there are *many* other possible
contributing or direct causes; see pp. 449-452 of the FCP3 User's Manual
(Appendix A, Solutions to Common Problems ... ), vol. 1, or if another
version, find "dropped frames" in the index.  Remember, RAM is cheap, have
plenty of it installed.

There is also useful information on disk types (not brands, but still
useful) under Setting up your system, including: "In most cases, you should
use dedicated volumes for capturing and playing back your digital video ...
You can use separate disks or partitions of your internal disk to store the
FCP software and other media.  Separate volumes provide a lower chance of
fragmentation and faster performance than your computer's internal disk [and
here they mean the boot disk -Bob]."

>> From: Mary Fetherston <[log in to unmask]>
> Are you talking about external drives?
> 
> I found our dropped frame problem was related to the location of the scratch
> disk.  We had been using external and partitioned drives for the scratch
> disk (so we could defrag them more easily).  When we experimented with
> making the scratch disk the same as the drive where the program was
> installed we no longer had dropped frames.

Expanding on that, from my experience with digital audio, it's always best
to have media on a separate *physical* drive from the drive the OS is on,
because the OS drive has read/write activity going on related to OS
functions.  I'd keep FCP on the boot drive as well (or in any case, keep it
off the media drive).  Keep the media on a separate physical drive from the
OS, because even though a single drive -- with the OS on one partition, and
media on the other -- allows for easy defragging of media, the drive heads
are still read/writing to the same physical drive for OS and media
operations, which is more taxing than having separate physical drives.

Bob Majors
Language Learning Center
University of Washington