External Hard Drive + FCP

[edbrooke]

Hi,
I was wondering if you guys knew whether it is ok to use an external USB2 Hard Drive as the main disk, rather than my limited G4 hard drive, for my FCP (4.5 HD) project? By this I mean the hard drive for storing and working with the footage from. Will the connection be fast enough?

Thanks for any help you guys can give!

 

[DerekEastham]

ok...
short answer:
Don't Do It!

Reason:
Although it does work... it does not work fast enough and will not operate properly... you need to run off of an internal hard-drive... but you can store things there temporarily when you're not working on them actively.

 

[edbrooke]

Damn! thanks for your help though

 

[Filmosity]

I'd have to agree with chrisengelking here.

Using an external drive for scratch/capture is preferable over using the internal system drive. Capturing and editing footage on the same drive as the program is running is dangerous. On occasion, it could cause the program to crash. Firewire is preferable too, as the data transfer rate is adequate for DV. I'm not sure about USB 2.0, but I think it's comparable.

Of course, you could go with a SCSI internal drive, but that opens a whole new can of worms.

Chris

 

[Dodo]

To use an external drive is great in many ways. But you CAN use a internal drive just as well. (But some work in and it will be better then firewire).
Filmosity is right in terms of not working from the same disc that your system is on. Instead you can have as many as 4 hard drives in many PM G4s. Only two in PM G5, then I would also say firewire is the way to go.

/Dodo

 

[DAS19]

Internal drives are sooo cheap idk why you cant just buy one I bought a 160 dollar maxtor on a rebate for 40 bucks at bestbuy. Its incredible some of the rebate deals you cna get its just becuase like 70 percent of the people dont send in the rebates.