Deleting a project (seems a silly question but..)
 

When finished with a project, how do you delete it and all assets form all drives. I can see how you can make a project 'offline' but this still leaves folders scattered around the hard drives.

Part of being able to do this is wrapped up with how you organize your media. There are lots of ways to do this, but really what you have to do is pick something that works for you and then stick with it. That way, you can find the associated assests quickly when you need to clean up your drives. PPro 2 does have the ability to consolidate everything into a single directory that you can then archive. This helps make sure your archive is complete, but doesn't solve the problem of scattered assests.

I usually create a project folder on my video array for the current project(s) and create sub folders for docs, stills, video captures and audio files. PPro by default will put everything into the same folder as the project folder. (So long as your using an array or disk drive separate from your system drive, you won't suffer any performance penalty).

I also have general folders on a separate hard drive that hold standard or frequently used items (sound effects, logos, etc.). When needed I copy them to the appropriate sub folder in the project, then link to the editor from there, (which helps for archival purposes).

When archiving, and before closing a project, I'll create a trimmed project in Project manager. Even for big jobs it'll cut a project down to size to fit on one or two DVD data disks. These I stuff into sealed folder that goes into a filing cabinet.

I then go back into the main project and review it's assets and see if there is anything worth keeping for generic usage or future projects (i.e. Sound bytes or effects, B-roll stuff, graphics, and After Effects templates, etc.). Which I will copy over to my general use folders on the separate drive.

I then delete the project on the array, which removes all pertinent files and start fresh with a new one.

Peter thanks for your detailed reply.

Do you suggest that if you use just two drives then you will not suffer a performance hit with PP2?

I am running 4 sata drives.
C: Has XPpro and PP2.
D: Two partitions - Has Audio Preview and Project File
E: Two partitions - Captured audio and DVD encoding
F: Clean drive with only Captured footage.

PP2 also default creates a folder in 'My Documents'.

The above set-up leaves me with 6 folders to open and select files to delete.

Could I consolidate some of the folders above and not downgrade performance?

I guess that it would always be best to have PP2 on one physical drive, capture on another and final output on a third??

Hey Robert, sorry this is late... I just put everything onto one drive, and in the same project folder (in their own subfolders mind you). Just so long as your project files reside on a drive seperate from your system drive, and not on the same controller as the system drive. Back when using Premiere 5 (before it went pro), we'd call it a "video drive". But you can also include your project files and supports on that same drive as well.

Since my seperate video drive is dedicated SCSI array, it's pretty quick. However, I've been able to get away with using single 7500 rpm 133ATA's with 8meg cache (16megs now), and more recently, dedicated single SATA II drives. Which helps in the mobility department, and moving projects one from PC to the another.

One other point is to keep your drives defragged, and avoid filling them past 50%.

If you must, you could put the clips on a third disk, however, it should reside on seperate buss or controller. (Hence why I used a scsi array as it's on a seperate controller not sharing resources with system drives). Gotta play traffic cop.