Incrasing Speed of Slow Disks

I'm working on a project (FCS 2) that has been giving me some problems with dropped frames and FCP tells me that the problems are being caused by slow disks. It suggests lowering the number of RT layers or limiting RT bandwidth. After trying that to no avail, the only suggestion left is to increase the speed of my disks. How exactly is this done? Does it mean go out and buy better media drives (I'm using 500GB GTechs) or is there some kind of process to optimize the disk speed?

I thought I had the problem solved and traced back to corrupt files I was using in the sequence, but now I'm having problems without the questionable files present in the sequence. What gives?

Many things can cause dropped frames...FCP's own warning messages often mislead you into thinking the problem's in one place when it's in another. What type of media are you working with? What are the specs of your hardware? What connection (FireWire 400? 800? USB?) are you using on the G-Tech drives? How full are all your drives -- regardless of whether they're being used in the project?


www.derekmok.com

Thanks for the response Derek...

Mac Pro w/ 2 x 2.66 Dual Core Xeons and 5 GB RAM
MiniDV Media
External drives 30% full w/ Firewire 400 connection
System drive 50% full

First place to go for possible drop frames solutions is the FAQ Wiki

[www.lafcpug.org].

Michael Horton
-------------------

STORE NO MEDIA ON THE INTERNAL SYSTEM DRIVE.

Period.


www.shanerosseditor.com

Listen to THE EDIT BAY Podcast on iTunes
[itunes.apple.com]

No media is being stored on the system drive; the space is taken up with apps and other documents...

Okay, here's what I've figured out so far.

The problems only exist after some time. I can copy and paste the clips into a new sequence and it will work fine. Wait an hour or so and the problems start up again without me making any changes. In order to finish this project, I'm having to copy/paste to different sequences every time things start acting up.

Hope my description is making sense; seriously scratching my head here.

Just a quick thought - whilst G-Tech are pretty damn good at heat dissipation (especially compared to LaCie bigdisks) they still will suffer if they are overheating. This used to happen with my LaCie disks.

This doesn't necessarily mean this is what is happening but if they are acting up after an hour of use. Maybe try getting a desk fan to blow some air flow over them and see if it helps at all.



For instant answers to more than one hundred common FCP questions, check out the LAFCPUG FAQ Wiki here : [www.lafcpug.org]