Need to format hard drive?

Hi, I used a brand new 1 TB "rocstor" hard drive in the field during a recent shoot, with 90 GB of P2 footage now on it. I now want to start editing and plan to use this drive externally on my G5. This hard drive was plug and play and I didn't have a chance to (Mac) format it. I've already done test logging and transferring of the P2 footage and it all seems to work fine. Do I still need to officially format it before I begin this project in earnest? (I realize I'd have to copy the footage to another drive before reformatting.)

Thanks,

Paul

Absolutely. You might also want to look at the media you captured and see if it's broken into linked files that have suffixes like av-1, av-2. If you do you really need to reingest the media.

All the best,

Tom

>with 90 GB of P2 footage now on it.

>You might also want to look at the media you captured and see if it's broken into linked
>files that have suffixes

Quite unlikely that that will happen, because the Panasonic P2 format uses a FAT32 file system for cross platform compatibility. Clips longer than 4GBs are automatically broken up and spanned, which FCP will piece back together during L&T. That said, you should always format all your media drives (including the ones you keep your P2 files) to HFS+, because FAT32 is known to be prone to corruption.

Now, if you are planning to edit on the drive that use to archive your digital mags, think again. You are putting all your eggs into one basket. Get another drive and edit off it.



www.strypesinpost.com

"Clips longer than 4GBs are automatically broken up and spanned, which FCP will piece back together during L&T."

Even when it's going onto a FAT32 drive?

All the best,

Tom

The files on a Panasonic P2 card are never individually larger than 4GBs, so they fit perfectly onto a FAT32 drive. The card itself is FAT32 to start with:

Quote
The P2 card itself uses the FAT32 file system, which makes the card compatible with both Macintosh and Windows systems.
[www.panasonic.com]

As long as the OP didn't use a software like Panasonic's P2CMS to transfer the contents of P2 card (I think it automatically joins back spanned clips), otherwise he should be fine, apart from using a file system that is prone to corruption. He should avoid using that drive as an editing drive, because FCP WILL very likely make files bigger than 4GBs, unless the op is doing 15 second spots in DV.



www.strypesinpost.com

Oh crap. I am blind. I missed the part that the OP already Logged and Transferred. Nono. I take that back. He should trash those quicktime movies, buy another hard drive array, format it properly and re-Log and Transfer.



www.strypesinpost.com

Looks like I should reformat.

Thanks for the tips.

Paul