P2 Store and file format for external hard drive
 

Hi all. . .

I bought an external hard drive for my MacBook Pro over the weekend (Western Digital) 1 terrabyte. I was wanting to configure the data to a RAID 1 format so I'll only have about 500 gig of actual storage space.

Here's my question. When I went to change the format of the drive to RAID 1, the choices offered were HFS+ and FAT32 formats.

I first changed the drive to FAT32, figuring that since that's what my P2 cards use, that would be the most "family friendly".

However, when I fired up my P2 Genie program, it immediately recognized the external drive as a P2 card instead of a target drive (despite the fact that the path made it clear that the external drive was my target!).

Here's my specific question:

If am using Final Cut Pro 5.1.X (I don't know the exact number!), is setting my external drive at HFS+ 100% appropriate? Or did I mess up the drive by configuring it (since my only two choices are FAT32 and HFS+)?

Alternatively, is there any way to get P2 Genie to NOT see my external drive as an empty P2 card?

Thanks so much! I have a lot of footage on my P2 store from this weekend's video shoot that I am wanting to download and copy as soon as possible!

Sincerely,

Stephen Pruitt

I think you want to format it HFS if you are editing with it.
FAT 32 externals are OK for transferring footage but
not for editing DVCPRO HD. Look around the net for
more info. Try www.kenstone.net for MAC editing questions.

I may be wrong about this, but I'd be wary of configuring a media drive as RAID1. You're adding significant overhead to the operation, to allow the mirroring. It's hard enough reliably getting media other than DV from a single drive. With a RAID1 pair, your data throughput is likely to be even slower. Generally with media drives, you're looking at configuring at least a 2-way RAID0 stripe.

If you're concerned about safety/backup, I'd suggest you manually clone your media drive(s) overnight on a periodic basis, rather than going the RAID1 route.

However, since FCP creates a Quicktime copy of the native mxf media, your archive drive (assuming you archive mxf media to a separate archive drive that isn't also your FCP media drive) is your backup. I believe that's how most of us are working. Original camera files preserved on a shelved archive drive, and Quicktime imports on the FCP drive.

FAT32 vs. HFS+? Unless you have some compelling reason to format a drive FAT32, go with HFS+ which has a feature called journaling, making the file system more robust.

The only reason to do so is to transfer to PC. I format all my externals as HFS+ and have MacDrive on a flash drive... install MacDrive on the PC and it will be able to read/write HFS+.

Thanks very much, gentlemen!

I couldn't do any of this without you!

Stephen