Issues with creating new sessions in M-Powered 8

[musicman97]

Hi everybody. I'm having a big issue with pro tools right now. Every time I try to create a new session, a get an error message that says "Could not complete the Open Session...command because The system cannot find the path specified. (3)." This started off sparingly, and would happen once in a blue moon. But it got increasingly more common, and now I simply cannot create a new session. Before, a restart would usually work, but now the problem will not go away, and I get it every time. I can still open pre-existing sessions just fine. The sessions are being created on to and opened from a Verbatim 1 tb external hardrive plugged in through firewire. Please help ASAP. My Sandra Report is listed below.

SiSoftware Sandra

ID
Host Name : Robert-PC
Workgroup : WORKGROUP

Computer
Model : HP Pavilion NY703AA-ABA e9230f 103C_53316J
Serial Number : MXX94403JH
Chassis : HP Desktop
Mainboard : Pegatron Eureka3
Serial Number : 101887840004239
BIOS : AMI (OEM) 5.10 09/07/2009
Total Memory : 8GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3

Processors
Processor : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8400 @ 2.66GHz (4C 2.66GHz, 2x 2MB L2)

Chipset
Memory Controller : HP P45/P43/G45/G43 DRAM Controller 4x 333MHz (1.33GHz) FSB, 2x 4GB DIMM DDR2 DDR3 2x 533MHz (1GHz)

Memory Module(s)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)
Memory Module : Samsung M378B5673EH1-CH9 2GB DIMM DDR3 PC3-10700U DDR3-1334 (9-9-9-25 4-34-10-5)

Video System
Video Adapter : ATI Radeon HD 4350 (SM4.1 600MHz, 512MB DDR3 1GHz 64-bit, PCIe 2.00 x16)

Graphics Processor

Storage Devices
WDC WD10EADS-65M2B0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 32MB Cache) : 932GB (C:) (D:)
Generic-SD/MMC (USB2) : N/A (F:)
Generic-Compact Flash (USB2) : N/A (G:)
Generic-SM/xD-Picture (USB2) : N/A (H:)
Generic-MS/MS-Pro (USB2) : N/A (I:)
SAMSUNG HD103SI (1TB, USB2/SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache) : 932GB (J:)
hp DDVDW TS-H653R (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache) : N/A (E:)

Logical Storage Devices
SYSTEM : 100MB (NTFS)
VERBATIM (J:) : 932GB (NTFS) @ SAMSUNG HD103SI (1TB, USB2/SATA300, 3.5", 7200rpm, 32MB Cache)
HP (C:) : 919GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-65M2B0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 32MB Cache)
FACTORY_IMG (D:) : 12GB (NTFS) @ WDC WD10EADS-65M2B0 (1TB, SATA300, 3.5", 32MB Cache)
Removable Drive (F:) : N/A @ Generic-SD/MMC (USB2)
Removable Drive (G:) : N/A @ Generic-Compact Flash (USB2)
Removable Drive (H:) : N/A @ Generic-SM/xD-Picture (USB2)
Removable Drive (I:) : N/A @ Generic-MS/MS-Pro (USB2)
Optical Drive (E:) : N/A @ hp DDVDW TS-H653R (SATA150, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, 2MB Cache)

Peripherals
LPC Hub Controller 1 : HP LPC Interface Controller
LPC Legacy Controller 1 : Asus F8000
Audio Device : HP HD Audio Controller
Audio Codec : Realtek Semi 888 High Definition Audio
Audio Device : MSI RV730XT Audio device [Radeon HD 4670]
Audio Codec : ATI (AMD) HDMI Audio
Disk Controller : HP 4 port SATA IDE Controller
USB Controller 1 : HP USB UHCI Controller #4
USB Controller 2 : HP USB UHCI Controller #5
USB Controller 3 : HP USB UHCI Controller #6
USB Controller 4 : HP USB EHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 5 : HP USB UHCI Controller #1
USB Controller 6 : HP USB UHCI Controller #2
USB Controller 7 : HP USB UHCI Controller #3
USB Controller 8 : HP USB EHCI Controller #1
FireWire/1394 Controller 1 : 22136 DC-1394 PCIe
SMBus/i2c Controller 1 : Intel ICH SMBus

Printers and Faxes
Printer : Microsoft XPS Document Writer (600x600, Colour)
Printer : HP Officejet J4680 Series fax (200x200, USB, Colour)
Printer : HP Officejet J4680 Series fax (200x200, USB, Colour)
Printer : HP Officejet J4680 Series fax (200x200, Colour)
Printer : HP Officejet J4680 Series (1200x1200, USB, Colour)
Fax : Microsoft Shared Fax Driver (200x200)

Peripherals

Network Services
Network Adapter : Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller (Ethernet, 100Mbps)

Operating System
Windows System : Microsoft Windows 7 Home 6.01.7601 (Service Pack 1)
Platform Compliance : x64

Windows Experience Index
Current System : 4.2

[albee1952]

Where is your separate recording drive(is it the Samsung on USB2)? How are your drives formatted(NTFS and BASIC are the 2 musts for a recording drive on PC)? Did it work okay for a time? What may have changed? Is Windows Updates turned on?(should be OFF). Have you tried trashing prefs and database files(see the general troubleshooting section and remember to reset your choices in Preferences, especially the open-ended record allocation, which should go to 10-15 minutes unless you need it longer).

[musicman97]

The seperate recording drive is the verbatim plugged in on usb2. My system was working very well for around 3 months, before this problem started to occur. I did install a few programs recently, but I took them off my computer, and they didn't solve the problem. Windows update has been on, but I will try turning it off. I have trashed prefs and databases. Could you explain to me this drive formatting you speak of?

[musicman97]

I actually don't think its a hard drive issue though, because I tried to create a session on the internal computer drive as well, and I got the same problem.

[musicman97]

bump. I still really need help. I'm in the middle of working on an album, and this error has been a huge time wasting setback.

[sammikins]

Big necropost, I know. This post was on the first page of google when I searched for the error, and I can offer some help to anyone still hitting this issue.

Check your filename in your bounce settings. Make sure you don't have any inappropriate characters. On my Windows machine, I was trying to use slashes in my filename, when I took them out, it worked just fine.

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by sammikins

Big necropost, I know. This post was on the first page of google when I searched for the error, and I can offer some help to anyone still hitting this issue.

Check your filename in your bounce settings. Make sure you don't have any inappropriate characters. On my Windows machine, I was trying to use slashes in my filename, when I took them out, it worked just fine.

Interesting I have never been able to use the slash(always get an error message) and just used the ~ instead(which has always worked fine).