7200rpm Iomega external drive

[oceanshoremusic]

I have an Iomega external HD 2.0 hard drive with a CAT 5 connection attached to my Windows 8.1, Pro Tools 10. I've tried 'mapping' the external drive which seems to have worked properly, but I keep getting the same error, 'Pro Tools does not support unmapped network volumes'.

I also tried opening Pro Tools, opening the disk allocation window and setting a path straight to my external hard drive folder. The folder opens, but when I click on 'use this folder' (something like that it says), my computer wheel just keeps turning and nothing happens. My sound card is a Scarlett 2i2 focusrite.

Any ideas or suggestions on what I can do? ImageUploadedByTapatalk1417204129.535608.jpg

[albee1952]

Hmmm...exactly how is this drive formatted? If its not NTFS and BASIC, that could be the issue. USB3 or eSATA would likely be a better option for a recording drive with a laptop. With a desktop computer, adding an internal drive will give the best performance, and at the lowest cost.

[oceanshoremusic]

How do I tell how it's formatted? Do I go to properties?

[Darryl Ramm]

" Iomega external HD 2.0 hard drive with a CAT 5 connection" Say what? You mean a USB 2.0 hard drive? CAT 5 is usually used for Ethernet and that does not look like a NAS drive that supports Ethernet.

How about you post a clear photo of the actual connectors on the drive or even better it's *exact* name/model number from its label or packaging.

[albee1952]

To see how a drive is formatted, right-click on MyComputer and select Manage. In the next window>left column, select Disk Management. After a few seconds, the right side will show a list of your drives(actually 2 lists). Look at the lower pane at each drive(specifically the Iomega) and, in the left-most box it should say something like:
Disk 1
Basic
500 GB
Online
Then, to the right you should see the name, then under that, the size followed by NTFS

If BASIC is not there, that could be an issue, and if NTFS is not there(and probably replaced with FAT32) that also can be an issue. Beyond this, I don't have a clue and I'm not sure why you would be using a network drive in the first place(but I'm not an expert on this "non-typical" setup) Is it a laptop computer or a desktop? For laptops, USB2/3 or eSATA are much safer options(the NAS drive will certainly be great for backup and archive).

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

How about you post a clear photo of the actual connectors on the drive or even better it's *exact* name/model number from its label or packaging.

+1

I'd like to take a look at the specs and whatnot, but the Lenovo site is a nightmare and I couldn't even find product descriptions to compare with the photo.

It seems like this is one of those "personal cloud" media share NAS drives. It would be better to just hook it up with USB.

Edit: Darryl, I think this is it. Model number 34337

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by mesaone

+1

Edit: Darryl, I think this is it. Model number 34337

Yes that looks like it. Thanks. Well...

This thing is simply a pile of junk, it's somebody's bad idea of a low cost/low power home NAS/media server. The USB port on this box is for attaching additional drives or printers, not for connecting to a PC. This low-end space is increasingly flooded with junk as vendors scramble trying to add value as the consumer external storage market gets commoditized at the bottom-end and taken over by a few vendors with SSDs at the high-end. And that junk often runs slow, has issues, is very poorly supported etc.

And specifically this drive has got to be about the last thing anybody ought to be trying to use as a Pro Tools audio/session drive. It's a NAS server with an incredibly slow/low power processor, It will run the CIFS protocol to Windows clients, it does not matter what the underlying filesystem is, it's going to suck given the low power CPU driving all this (and I'll guess internally it might run an embedded Linux with something like an ext3 filesystem). And even with a high-end server you really don't want to be running CIFS or NFS or similar as an audio drive, they are just high overhead on the client (but OK HD folks, I know with timeline cache NAS/CIFS/AFS/NFS might work fine for you...).

I personally would not even be using this thing for even user file network backups. I want backups on raw SATA or USB disks that can be read anywhere.

So all a long answer to its not even worth solving the specific error you are getting about mapped drives. Just go get a proper audio/session drive.

For an external audio/session drive you need a 7,200 rpm drive or a good SSD and it should be connected to your PC via USB 3 or eSATA (or SATA if internal). Given SSD's stunning performance, price/performance and robustness/reliability over a HDD I would only be buying SSDs for audio/session drives. Lacie for example make nice external USB3 SSD drives like the Lacie USB3 Rugged http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00A4BEG8M/ If your PC has internal SATA connectivity capacity (hopefully SATA III/6 Gb/s) then go that way unless you really need portable storage. The Samsung 850 Pro, 840 Pro or 840 Evo (upgrade the firmware on the Evo to fix a know bug... always check for firmware updates on every new SSD) are good choices.

[Darryl Ramm]

FYI an example of how bad the support is for these type devices. Far too complex and far too low cost and too small a market to be well supported. They and their users are treated like junk by Lenovo... http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12...irmware_drives

[oceanshoremusic]

ImageUploadedByTapatalk1417752163.154828.jpg

I know this isn't much, but it is a SATA... I bought an aluminum USB 2.0 case for it on Amazon with USB cable. It's an old drive I got out of an old laptop. Please forgive me for being so broke and elementary on this guys... But I just want to have something to help the performance of at least one session, maybe. I'm at least trying - Haha.

I found another drive from a second laptop lying around, I don't think it's a SATA, but I've taken a picture of it to. Like I said, I ordered the 2.0 case (not a 3.0), but it's all I can come up with. What do you think?

Back to the IOmega drive...could I at least format it to hold my Kontakt libraries?? Make some use out of it? Just curious. I'm sure you're probably getting a good laugh out of all of this, but at least I'm trying. I'm broke when it comes to my gear right now.

The only thing I have going for me are my songs... I actually got a song 'cut' for a t.v. Spot...hopefully I'll be able to afford the right gear someday, I'm just trying to make due, somehow. ImageUploadedByTapatalk1417752780.539064.jpg

[mesaone]

Originally Posted by oceanshoremusic

I'm sure you're probably getting a good laugh out of all of this, but at least I'm trying. I'm broke when it comes to my gear right now.

Not at all, no one's making fun of you. None of us were born knowing how to do this stuff, and now you're trying it out so we're trying to help.

As for the iomega, I dunno. Does it not have a USB port to connect to your computer?