Internal hard drive question

Hello LAFCPUG people! This is my first post here and I hope you can help me with my problem.

First of all: I use FCP 6 on a Mac Powerbook, 320G, Raedon card, OS 10.4, and used a Dynex IEEE 1394 card to import all my footage from my Mac laptop to my WD external.

My issue is this:
I have emptied every capture scratch file, video and audio. I have deleted all the copy files of footage that I can find on my hard drive. However, I only have 12Gig of space on my internal hard drive. I know that the actual footage did save in the external hard drive and since I am done with the projects and just got a new iMac, I would like to just use this laptop for writing etc.

When importing my footage onto the laptop, my hard drive filled up. I assumed I would be able to clear out this space once the project I was working on was completed but that has not been the case. When I installed the FCP studio, I had about 70GB of space left, then I did two big projects and my internal hard drive filled up even though the footage was saving to my external.

I would like to keep my FCP Studio on my laptop, but clear out that 70 GB of space. I just can't seem to figure out what is filling up all that space. I don't download movies, music, pictures or apps onto this laptop because I always wanted to preserve the space. Am I missing something or will I have to uninstall my FCP from the powerbook? Since I just got a new iMac, I would like to prevent this from happening on the new computer, so if I can fix this issue, I can avoid it on the new Mac.

Thanks in advance....
Karyn

No, the software itself wouldn't take up that much space. But there are times when files are saved to within the FCP application item. To see what's inside, try selecting Final Cut Pro in the Applications and pressing COMMAND-I (Information). If it's bigger than 1GB or so, CONTROL-click it and choose "Show Package Contents".

Since we're not the ones using your computer, it's hard for us to tell you what you need and what you don't, and what you can delete safely. All I can say is, don't delete something if you're not sure how it got there or what it's for. You can screw up the system in a major way if you blast things away but have no idea of the ramifications.


www.derekmok.com

There is no way for us to see what's on your machine. Try opening a Finder window in Column View, go up to the Menu Bar / View / Show View Options and select "Calculate All Sizes". This will show you how much is in each folder and you can rifle through those and dump stuff you don't need.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

You can also make a smart folder, which acts like a stored search, for all files over a certain limit, for example 5 or 10GB.
I would express caution before you delete stuff from a Smart Folder. Command-R will take you to the actual location of the file so you can see what other stuff is surrounding it which might remind you why you need to keep it.
Or make a "Pre-Trash", a folder where you throw everything that you think you can throw away but go through and watch everything before you throw it in the actual trash.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Oh, nice tip Andrew. Didn't think of that.

We get a lot of very large cache files from AE that sneak into the Lbrary > Cache area. I mean, gigabytes of them. We sometimes use WhatSizeMac to find out what else is outrageously large on the system.

Thanks for the quick answer....

I understand you can,t tell what to do without looking in the computer, however I wanted to know where else to look besides the capture scratch files. I will take another look in the cache files.

THe reason I ask is that when I was importing the footage onto my external hard drive, I could see the space on my internal hard drive filling up. Is that normal...

K.

Yeah, it could be render files, especially if you're working with large file size media, or cache files. I recommend WhatSizeMac again, cause it will tell you in minutes where the problem is.

open your 'system settings' menu item (under the final cut pro menu). this shows you the drives where fcp puts its various files. perhaps your system drive is listed for one or more of the items.

stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

That was my thought-- the System Settings are actually set to the internal drive!! Never do that if you can help it. Leave that system disk free with just installed applications and support files like the AutoSave folder, waveform and thumbnail cache, etc.

In the Scratch Disks panel of the System Settings dialog box, explicitly SET and choose the name of your external media disk (and nothing else-- like, don't choose its Capture Scratch folder-- just the disk name) then close it up and try ingesting footage again.

Watch your external drive activity light to confirm you're capturing to it. You should experience no dramatic change in your system drive space.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytip:
Nudge a Canvas layer by SUBpixels
with Command-Option with Arrow keys !

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

I have a similar problem, using FCP 6.0.6. My scratch disks and other system settings are all set to an external hard drive, but when I render files, my internal fills up. Is this a bug in this version or something?