i have 57 gig Lacie hard drive i use with fcp 3 and os 9.2 and it worked fine but now on os x it wont recognize the disk?

That's right, OS X can't read the older OS 9 directories.

When OS X was first released they included OS 9 drivers, called "Classic mode" to allow users to eventually migrate their data over from the older OS to the new platform.

Classic mode was eliminated starting with 10.5 and forward. There were a few utilities like SheepShaver that allowed for limited porting of OS 9 to 10.5 but it doesn't work with OS 9.2 nor any version of Leopard.

If you want to move forward into the newer OS platform you'll have to transfer your files one of two ways:

1. Either find a copy of OS 10.4 and run Classic mode and transfer all your data off to an external drive formatted for HFS+ with journaling, or;

2. Use an ethernet connection between the OS 9 and newer Mac system to transfer your files directly.

I'm using firewire for the harddrive and it wont let me capture to it?

This is a bit convoluted, Matt, can you be more concise about exactly what you're attempting to do - and on what version OS?

Are you trying to use an OS 9-formatted disk to capture on an OS X system, or the reverse?

Sorry, i just upgrade operating systems from 9.2 to 10.2.8 and now my external hard drive wont show up or capture anything

As mentioned earlier, the older OS X versions such as 10.2 came with "Classic" mode as an option, but you have to install it to use it.

However FCP won't talk to any Classic mode applications nor a drive using classic. You'll need to convert for OS9 disk to an OSX format. Time to move forward into more a more current-version OS environment, my friend!

what format should i use?
OS extended
OS classic
Free space

I don't remember all the format options in 10.2 but you want OS extended with "journaling" turned on - if that's even an option in that OS.

i formatted it to os extended and it keeps disappearing on the desktop?
also i tried capturing and every time i do it comes up with a message saying unknown file error?

Back when FCP 3 was out I was working with Avid and it's been too long to remember all the tricks with OS 10.2. I would suggest getting with someone local to your area who's familiar with those older apps/OS and see if they can assist in person, that would be your best bet.

Maybe someone else on the forum can chime in; I've got nothing else to add. Sorry.