Newby needs help setting up new session

[gogogoch]

Hi there

I'm going through the manual and trying to start my first session on PTLE. But I can't figure out how to choose the audio drive in which to save my session. When I choose the 'C' drive on my ACER laptop I get this message:

"Session must be on an Audio Record volume. Set volume to Record in Workspace"

When I go to the Workspace and try to select the 'C' drive, however, I get this message:

""ACER" cannot be designated as an Audio Record volume because it is fomatted as a FAT volume"

I confess I am totally green here (as if you haven't guessed that!?!). I have been through the manual, the PTLE reference guide and searched this forum and the web, but I can't find out what I need to do. I cannot do anything with Setup - Disk Allocation, as the option is greyed out. I know that I have plenty of memory space on my laptop (ie. I don't think I need to get an external hard drive) to save Pro Tools sessions there.

Any help anyone can give would be much appreciated. Cheers!

Jaime

[soundguy_2000]

technically, you shouldn't use the system drive for pro tools sessions but if you have no choice, you'll need to convert the drive to NTFS.

with the following information, i assume you are suing windows xp. this may not apply to windows vista, i don't know as i don't use vista and haven't kept up with any changes it may have introduced in this regard.

before you do this, be sure all your important data is backed up.

click Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt

type convert drive letter: /fs:ntfs and hit enter

so if the drive you want to convert is C:\ type convert c: /fs:ntfs

you will receive an error message along the lines of Convert cannot gain exclusive access...next restart... to which you need to answer Y (yes)

restart the computer. it will take some time to complete the operation so be sure the laptop is plugged into a wall outlet.

you should now be able to set the drive to R but you may experience limited performance, particularly if the drive is 5400RPM.

[majdi]

I know that FAT is a system file format used in windows, I run on Mac so cant help you there, but I know form the Pro Tools getting started guide, it is recommended that you save these files (session files) on a separate drive.

Having said that I have recorded and saved sessions on the same drive before, without experiancing any problems, but that was on a Mac.

[gogogoch]

Thanks.

Before I Convert the drive to NTFS, what other options do I have?

I bought a laptop (running Windows XP) with 120GB HDD and 2GB DDR2, so that I could use it for recording and it would have plenty of memory to function and store the recordings.

Should I be getting an external drive to save sessions to? Is that recommended/preferable to converting the drive?

Can anyone recommend which external drive to get (model? size? rough cost?)? Cheers!

Sorry, but I'm not particularly experienced in using computers for more than the basic everyday stuff, so I have no idea what "drive is 5400RPM" means.

[soundguy_2000]

it's strange that a new laptop running Windows XP an a 120GB HDD would be formatted FAT32.

i guess the preferred method would be to run sessions on an external firewire or esata drive.

that said, i run sessions on my mac laptop and hd systems from the system drive without a problem and have also done so in the past on a windows desktop system but if you need portability, converting to NTFS is your only option.