Reformatting

I read a post here by a guy who reformats after completion of each FCP project. He wrote that this keeps his machines performing beautifully. I am only recently learning computers and FCP; I run on a G5. Does he mean reformatting his hard drive and reinstalling all software and copied files? If so, what is the best procedure to follow? Is there anything I should keep in mind or avoid? Any opinion, direction, information is appreciated.

He reformats after every project? Man, that is a LITTLE extreme. I reformatted my HD when I received my computer, then installed my software. I will work with it until it starts acting up, then I will trouble shoot. If all else fails, THEN I will reformat. Why reformat when things are working fine? That just makes more work for you.

No. No need to do that. Only if thing go seriously south consider that.

Don't UPGRADE in the middle of a project, and don't upgrade if you don't need the features of the upgrade, and especially if things are working fine. A lot of problems occur when people upgrade a perfectly fine working system.

I think the poster was referring to his media drives, not his system drive. I believe just throwing media files in the trash can still leave the drive fragmented but by reformatting it, you start with a clean slate.

Yes, reformatting the capture drives after a project is complete (and all non-tape files are backed up) is a good habit to get into.

Reformatting the system drive when nothing is going wrong is just like *asking* for the system to go wrong. Reinstalling is not a guaranteed 100 per cent predictable operation and, as Shane says, should only be done when things are behaving abnormally.

As for reformatting media drives, I also don't do that after every project. Unless you have oodles of extra storage space, it's not that necessary or desireable to me. Diligent backups of project files and non-recoverable media are sufficient.

Hi Shane,

I really appreciate the help you gave me in completing my first project on FCP. If we were in the military I'd give you a medal. I'm not kidding. You saved the day. ... I was thinking of erasing my hard drive and reinstalling everything from scratch because I didn't know what I was doing and I believe I've made a mess of my programs. I only run FCP on my G5. I don't even have an internet connection -- on purpose. I want my machine to be devoted to one task only: editing and outputting movies. There are all these locks on everything in my A/V settings. I figure I'll end up with a clean slate if I reformat. What do you think? ... BTW, I managed to make my first DVD last week, but I couldn't find the post where you advised me on making a self-contained QT movie. That was the solution to my problems. The "in and out" marks were crucial in making the thing work. Thanks, really it saved me from a lot of grief. I've been working 12 hour days for the last three weeks to output this 44 minute educational movie and I'm finally doing the last of it today. My methodology is still a bit shaky. For example, I have to make a DV Stream of every QT movie before I can output. That takes me another two hours. It's the only way I can output to DVD. And now I'm desperately trying to find a way to output to camera. I found out that one must choose 4:3 or 16:9 before outputting. I was ending up with double 16:9 conversions, like Cinemascope format, and today I ended up with a squeezed 4:3 format from a 16:9 movie. I'm now making a new DV Stream in 16:9 so I can then end up with a correctly configured DVD. Oh, well, it's really complicated. I don't think I'll ever learn more than ten percent of it all before I croak. LOL

More novice inquiry:
Do the terms media drive and capture drive necessarily refer to an external drive on which to keep media files? I have been saving all my media files internally. My G5 has lots of space, but I like to keep things as clean as possible. I have 'trashed' lots of media, and I do wonder about fragmenting as mentioned by Frank. Also, I have not backed up any of my non-tape material- Does this mean backing up onto a CD or DVD-R disk? Furthermore, I am planning an extensive video project which will likely include many, many video, audio, and photographic assets. It seems I might benefit from an external drive... What is the best bet for an external? I realize these are questions I could anwser myself by reading up,
but I've done enough of that to make my brain pop out of my ear so I thought I'd humbly lay this before you all.

From the meek to the mighty,
Blaine

Are you refering to upgrades that pop up if you are internet-enabled?

> Do the terms media drive and capture drive necessarily refer to an external
> drive on which to keep media files?

No. If you capture to an internal drive, that's your media/capture drive. That's where too much reformatting isn't desireable.

> I do wonder about fragmenting as mentioned by Frank.

> Also, I have not backed up any of my non-tape material- Does this mean
> backing up onto a CD or DVD-R disk?

Or a drive. Anything that's not timecoded and can't be recaptured exactly using a batch list would have to be backed up as what I call "non-expendable" media. This includes AIFFs made from CDs, graphics, stills.

> many, many video, audio, and photographic assets. It seems I might benefit
> from an external drive... What is the best bet for an external?

For external FireWire drives, Wayne and I vote Promax. Deb's recommended WiebeTech, which I've used and had good experiences with. John and Kevin would vote to add SATA storage. It depends on your price range. A good SATA array will be faster and more stable than external FireWire drives, but will be more costly. Even with SATA arrays, you have to buy quality -- here at work we have a "black tower" SATA array that's caused us more grief than you can enumerate.

Absolutely Shane! This has been my habit whether it's Avid or FCP. And NO, this is not overkill for keeping your drives healthy.

Remember...you live and die by the health of your drives.

Best,
Kevin Monahan
Author, "Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro"
Only 2 Days Left to Sign Up for my FCP Master's Seminar in LA THIS WEEKEND!

How do I reformat my capture drive if I save my media files internally? I can't grasp yet how to reformat my capture drive without reformatting the whole system. Isn't an internal capture drive the hard drive itself? I save all media to Mac HD, I believe. May the more fundamental question be: is there more than one internal drive on which to capture and save media? How would I reformat my capture drive without reformatting the entire system?