Files doing the Houdini..

Hi all, been seeing this happen lately. Files kinda "disappear" from the drive/finder before reappearing. First I saw it happen on a mybook. I was trying to find a project file that I was working on the day before when I couldn't find it, then i switched it to icon mode (or was it one of the other two modes) and the file just reappeared. That was near the end of a project, so archival is kinda easy.. Then, just the day before, I noticed something similar happen to files on a Maxtor. Was trying to locate a media file on the drive in Final Cut, so i selected "open" and tried to find the file, but there was nothing in the drive. Went to finder and there was data in the drive. clicked on some of the files, and they started "disappearing". Didn't really have time to investigate...

I don't really have that much control over the drives i happen to work on, though they seem to be happening on scratchier drive brands and so far, it's been only firewire drives... I'm thinking it's a possible file corruption about to happen on the drive. Any one seen this kind of stuff happen before?



www.strypesinpost.com

Locating files is part of the job of the directory...did you run DiskWarrior? Both drive brands you described (Western Digital and Maxtor) are shaky, and they could theoretically be susceptible to directory corruptions. Were the drives properly formatted?


www.derekmok.com

Yep. They were both formatted to OSX extended. Ignore ownership on volume is selected, with at least 10% of free space. Something I always check before beginning a project or capture.

And yea, they aren't the safest drives to work on- I have very little control over the brand of hard disks I work on. Companies will buy drives because they're cheap. Didn't have time to even check if the same scenario occured after a reboot, so didn't run disk warrior. Did drop word to the post managers though.



www.strypesinpost.com

Im intersted in the brand you would choose guy, here we got Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm...

[Hi all, been seeing this happen lately. Files kinda "disappear" from the drive/finder before reappearing.]

I wonder. You might have a failing drive. You might have bad RAM. Turn off and unplug the tower, don an antistatic wrist strap check to see that the RAM is firmly seated and blow off any dust. Do an Apple Hardware Diagnostic on the RAM.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Apply your default audio transition instantly
with Command-Option - T !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

( been seeing this happen lately. Files kinda "disappear" from the drive/finder before reappearing)

I had similar thing happen about a year ago- then a Double (Copy)of the project file
appeared and then things Really went down hill from there -
the whole project was Toast Quickly -

I ran Disk Warrior- ran hardware check -ram check-drives OK ect -
I never figured out what happened- every things been OK ever since tho-Jay

>here we got Seagate Barracuda 7200 rpm...

Seagates are cool. [www.lafcpug.org]

Never had a problem on Cipricos either and I always mention Caldigits. WDs, Maxtors, Lacies always bring up a red flag, so I'll only use them if i have to, and I'll only keep non-critical material on them (time coded footage from tape so i can recapture if anything goes wrong). The only reason why the project files was on a Mybook, was because I had that, and a 5 year old RAID 0 that has disk 5 going offline every few hours.

>Do an Apple Hardware Diagnostic on the RAM.

Thanks, Loren. How do you do that?

>I had similar thing happen about a year ago- then a Double (Copy)of the project file
>appeared and then things Really went down hill from there -
>the whole project was Toast Quickly -

Ah. Here's a red flag. I saw it happen twice at 2 different houses lately. But never stayed around long enough to notice the long term implications.



www.strypesinpost.com

Except Ciprico filed for Chapter 11, which means in America they are a step away from being history.

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

>Except Ciprico filed for Chapter 11

Ouch. That's bad news. I've worked on their RAIDs quite a few times. And yea, for drives to avoid I'd mention Buffalo too. Had random dropped frames on their RAID which for the hell of me, I couldn't figure out- ran speed tests and everything seemed to conform to standards, and it was on eSATA.

I won't be one to provide extremely sound advice on drives, though.. I'm an editor, part of my job is to check the integrity of the machine I'm working on so the project goes in and out smoothly and I'll also know what precautionary steps to take, how far I can go on the system... Hard drives don't last forever, but more than just avoid editing related issues, you also need to make sure on their reliability. For that part, I won't be the best of judge, as I don't spend that much time on any one system.

Here's a good place to check on the performance of drives:
[barefeats.com]



www.strypesinpost.com

I'd add Dulce Systems to the list too. But as you stated, the above drives are all good, but it is support that is SO important.

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

Gerard -

{{[Do an Apple Hardware Diagnostic on the RAM. }}

[Thanks, Loren. How do you do that? ]

That's disc which comes with your machine package. If you're in an edit house ask the admin for the system discs, it should be among them.

TechTool Pro 4 and up also runs a complete battery of tests on hardware.

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:

Apply your default audio transition instantly
with Command-Option - T !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

>but it is support that is SO important.

Yup. That too. I once managed to get an RMA for a faulty Blackmagic card within half an hour after calling up their tech support. There will always be manufacturing defects as well, and tech support is very important.



www.strypesinpost.com

Also to add, never use solitary drives for anything critical. Either RAID 1s, 3s or 5s at least. You never know when you'll need it.



www.strypesinpost.com