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  #1  
Old 05-03-2013, 08:44 AM
ras52 ras52 is offline
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Default External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

Hi All,

I’ve been dipping my toe in the DAW waters with an M-Audio FastTrack and PT SE, and now plan to move to PT 10/11.

My ideal setup would be to share PT projects between a desktop and laptop, and as an added twist I’m planning to gradually migrate from Linux/Windows to Mac, by replacing my PC laptop with a MacBook Pro sometime this year, then replacing the desktop with an iMac next year.

So I’m thinking that an external hard drive for the PT project data is going to part of this setup. Does this sound sensible? I see there are external HDDs which support both Thunderbolt and USB interfaces: I’ve read that PT will work over a Mac’s Thunderbolt interface, but will it work over USB? Would that depend on the USB version (2 or 3), the drive’s RPM, published transfer rate, or all of these?

Your thoughts are most welcome!

Thanks
Richard
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  #2  
Old 05-03-2013, 09:28 AM
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JFreak JFreak is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

First thing you should think about is the file system. Windows systems probably only recognise FAT/NTFS but AFAIK neither are supported for recording in Mac platform.

So what you would need is two partitions; one Mac partition for recording in the Mac land, and then a Windows partition for which you could copy stuff over (on the Mac workstation) and you could use that in Windows.

That is annoying, I know, and if someone knows whether my knowledge is outdated I would be happy to stand corrected. But this is how I have let myself understand the situation.

Therefore, I would suggest skip the "gradually" part and make the jump at one big bang :)
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Old 05-03-2013, 05:37 PM
Craig F Craig F is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

The Windows installer use to install MAC Open so Windows can use HFS+ formated disks

USB 3.0 should work on the MAC given the assumption your are using good 7200 RPM drives in the enclosure
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Thank you,

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Old 05-04-2013, 10:42 PM
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JFreak JFreak is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

Quote:
Originally Posted by Craig F View Post
The Windows installer use to install MAC Open so Windows can use HFS+ formated disks
Really?

Does it mean Windows can only read files from HFS+ (so those session files need to be copied over), or is it full read/write -- and if so, is the Mac drive a supported "record" drive on PT workspace?

You learn something new from Windows land every now and then :)
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Old 05-05-2013, 11:37 AM
ras52 ras52 is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

Thanks guys... I need to do some more homework on the Win/Mac compatibility issue - budgetary concerns make a big bang upgrade a bit tricky!

I tracked down this page http://avid.force.com/pkb/articles/e...335?popup=true which confirms the >= 7200rpm recommendation, and also indicates that SSDs are now supported (which wasn't the case recently AFAIK).
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  #6  
Old 05-05-2013, 12:56 PM
Carl Kolchak Carl Kolchak is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

Another thing worth mentioning is the Pro Tool 9 included Mediafour's MacDrive software for Windows.

I think with Pro Tools 10, Avid dropped that particular freebie. But having uninstalled Pro Tools 9 myself, and replaced it with Pro Tools 10, I can confirm that MacDrive remains installed, and functional.

You could probably download the PT9 installer, run it, and only opt to instal MacDrive (not installing PT or anything else).

Might be worth a try, or just buy it...
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Old 05-05-2013, 05:05 PM
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Park Seward Park Seward is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

If you ever need to use a Mac formatted disk on a Windows machine...

Using a Mac® is a wonderful experience – until you try to use a NTFS-formatted drive, which includes most Windows® hard drives! Because in order to create, delete or modify any files on Windows NTFS drives you need Paragon NTFS for Mac® - after minutes you won’t remember there ever was a problem. Remove the barriers between NTFS and HFS with ease and confidence!
The first solution to support OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion!

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/

And check this link for Mac to PC:

http://macs.about.com/od/filesharing...ndows-8-Pc.htm
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  #8  
Old 05-06-2013, 12:04 AM
abre abre is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

Try exFAT format.
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  #9  
Old 05-14-2013, 04:47 AM
DanSteinberg DanSteinberg is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

This discussion was interesting to me since I recently switched my setup to a dual OS system as well, as follows:

Field Recording Setup: Macbook Pro (10.8) with Pro Tools 10, and using an external Thunderbolt SSD drive to record to.

Home Studio Setup: Mac Mini running Windows 7 Boot Camp, Pro Tools 10, ideally using the same Thunderbolt SSD drive. The Mac mini does not have a drive bay for a 2nd internal drive other than the main system drive, so using an external drive is a necessity

Right now I had formatted the SSD drive as Fat-32, so that it could be read and written to by both the Mac laptop and the Window desktop.

My hope was to use the SAME SSD drive on BOTH the Mac laptop and Window Mac Mini, basically record sessions in the field on the mac laptop, to the external SSD drive, and then attach the same SSD drive to the Windows desktop when it's time to overdub and mix.

However, this is not working because on the Windows side, Pro Tools will not let me designate a FAT-32 formatted drive as a "record" drive, it says it needs to ne in the NTFS file system. With my old Windows system, I used a tower with an internal 2nd drive, and had it formatted as NTFS. So the fat-32 issue never came up before.

My issue is, if I format the external SSD drive as NTFS, then the Mac laptop won't be able to record sessions to it (OS X can read NTFS but not write to it).

I am not as familiar with the EXFat format. Is that as format that can be read and written to on both Mac and PC, and that the Mac and PC versions of Pro Tools will allow the drive to be designated as a record drive? If so, I am happy to give that a try.

Thanks!

Last edited by DanSteinberg; 05-14-2013 at 05:03 AM.
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  #10  
Old 05-14-2013, 01:11 PM
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Park Seward Park Seward is offline
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Default Re: External HDD with mixed Windows/Mac setup

This wil let you use any Windows drive on your Mac:

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/ntfs-mac/
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Park
The Transfer Lab at Video Park
Analog tape to Pro Tools transfers, 1/4"-2"
http://www.videopark.com
MacPro 6 core 3.33 GHz, OS 10.12.1, 8 GB RAM, PT12.6.1, Focusrite Saffire Pro 40, PreSonus DigiMax, MC Control V3.5, dual displays,
Neumann U-47, Tab V76 mic pre, RCA 44BX and 77DX, MacBook Pro 9,1, 2.3 Mhz, i7, CBS Labs Audimax and Volumax.
Ampex 440B half-track and four-track, 351 tube full-track mono, MM-1100 16-track.
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