Disk Allocation questions and disk error messages

[3rdstory]

I got a Micronet 250 gb Firewire external hard drive because I need more disk space. This drive is approved by Digi. I have not had success transferring or copying new or existing sessions to this drive.

I am currently using a Glyph 40 gb X Project Firewire drive. I've had no problems or complaints with it, but it's small, and full.

If I drag and drop a session from the Glyph to the Micronet, then open it up, I get disk allocation messages. So, I manually reallocate to the new drive. I am able to playback these sessions on the Micronet - IF - the Glyph drive is on. If the Glyph is off, I get "DAE error -51 was encountered". Somehow the sessions seem to be tied to the Glyph. When I try to record anything on the Micronet I get "disk error -120" (whether the Glyph is on or off.) If I try to Save Session Copy As from the Glyph to the Micronet, I get the same error message.

If I Save Session Copy As from the Glyph to the System Drive (the only place I have to park stuff), the System Drive is able to playback and record independent of the Glyph.

Worth noting perhaps: In my Apple Systems Profiler, my Glyph volume format is: Mac OS Extended (HFS+). The volume format on my Micronet is: Macintosh PC Exchange (MS-DOS). Perhaps these different formats are causing problems, I don't know.

I do not understand disk allocation enough (and plenty of other things) to know how to successfully transfer or copy sesssions so they can be opened up independently and function fully from another drive.

Any help or links to sites that can help would be much appreciated. I'd sure like to be able to use my new drive but so far have not been able to. I hope that with some assistance from this board, I'll be up and running soon. Thanks.

Mac G4 933
OS 9.2.2
PTLE 5.1.1
Seagate 60 gb internal
Glyph 40 gb firewire external
Micronet 250 gb firewire external

[M.Brane]

Looks like you need to re-format the Micronet as HFS+. It's worth a try anyway.

It's a good idea to write zeros to a new drive before using it so that it can map out any bad blocks, and to make sure the drive isn't defective before trusting it with critical data.

[3rdstory]

Okay. How would I reformat the Micronet? And what do you mean by writing zeros to a new drive? Thanks for your response.

[M.Brane]

Use Disk Utility in the Apllications> Utilities folder. Select the drive from the list at the left, then click on the erase button. There will be options for format, and write zeroes. Writing zeroes to a 250GB drive is gonna take a while so you might want to do something else while it does it's thing.

[3rdstory]

Thanks for the response. When in OS 9 the disk utility will not open. A window says it doesn't necessarily work with my OS. The Micronet 250GB icon does show up on my OS9 desktop.

So I booted up with OSX (10.1.2). The disk utility window opens, but my Micronet drive does not show up as one of the choices. Nor is the Micronet icon on the OSX desktop.

But this is interesting: Once OSX has booted up the first thing I get is window that states "You have a disk containing no volume the Mac OSX can read. To use the unreadable volumes, click INITIALIZE." What do you make of this?

So why isn't my Micronet one of the choices in my disk utility window?

[M.Brane]

Sorry, I'm an idiot. I completely overlooked the fact that you're working primarily in 9. Duh.

The reason you can't see the volume in 10.1.2 is because the disk is formatted MS-DOS. It would show up if you were using a later version of X.

If you want to initialize (format) the drive in 9 use Drive Setup (Applications (Mac OS 9)>Utilities) which is essentially the same as Disk Utility in OSX.

Initializing the drive in OSX will work too though I don't know if it will give you the option of writing zeroes that way. It should show up on the desktop, and in Disk Utility after intitializing though. Whichever is easiest for you it'll have the same result in the end.

BTW with your hardware you really should move up to Panther. 10.1/10.2 is still beta IMHO. 10.3 is a major improvement.

[3rdstory]

I tried Disk Setup in OS9 earlier and it too does not show the Micronet drive. Micronet's website states I can reformat the drive in OS9 using Hard Disk Speed Tools (software they say came with my computer) but I can find no such software on my hard drive or among the many disks that came with my computer. So that sucks.

Yea, I need to upgrade my current version of OSX. My machine is essentially an OS9 rig, running PTLE with a 001. OSX was included when I purchased, but that was in 2002, so it's quite dated now. My recording setup on OS9 works just fine and upgrading is a major deal. OO2 and PTLE 7 is specifically not supported by Quicksilver G4's from 2002, which is what I own. So I'd need a new CPU. Not to mention buying all new plug-ins, etc. It's just not worth it.

Hope I can figure out a way to get this Micronet to work.

[M.Brane]

HDST is a 3rd party drive utility. It's not included with Mac OS. I used to use it when I was only using 9, and was very happy with it. Totally stable driver software.

I just remembered that ATTO Express Pro Tools is on the 5.1.1 install disk. I used this utlity once to successfully initialize a stubborn SCSI drive that wouldn't mount. You might try that. If you can get it to mount then you should be able to format it with Drive Setup.

Do you have your 9, and X systems on separate volumes? If so there's no reason you couldn't update your X system without affecting your 9. The 001 is supported in Panther with PTLE 6.4. I plan on going up that far with my Sawtooth once I get more RAM, and a processor upgrade.

[3rdstory]

Thanks for sticking with me on this topic.

I noticed earlier that I have the ATTO Express Pro Tools on my hard drive. It shows that the Micronet is mounted. The software is from 2000 and does not seem to function with firewire devices. Drive Setup still does not show the Micronet.

Regarding HDST. It's $60. That's almost half the price of the Micronet. When I was reading about it on their website I did notice an interesting feature - it will defragment files - make them "as one". This would be most beneficial with PT audio files it would seem. Sometimes playback of a session is interrupted with a message about fragmentation. But not really understanding technically how this works, I would be nervous tampering with audio files that are important. Have you ever used HDST for this purpose? It seems custom tailored for audio.

But $60 is $60. I'm thinking of taking this Micronet to my workplace which uses Windows XP, then getting a large capacity external firewire drive that is already formatted for Mac OS9 and X. Any suggestions?

I don't know what you mean when you ask if OS9 and X are on separate volumes, nor how I would determine this. Thanks for the heads up about 001 being supported by Panther and PTLE 6.4. That's cool. I didn't realize that.

I look forward to your reply. Thanks.

[M.Brane]

I'm beginning to wonder if this is possibly an issue with the bridge chip in the Micronet case. Just a thought.

You could swap the drive out of the case into the Mac to format it. A PITA, but it should work if the case is the issue.

One cool thing about HDST is the free updates for life if you download. I usually don't de-frag because I won't do that without a backup. By the time you make a backup you might as well wipe the drive, and copy everything back. Not as fast, but a lot safer. De-fragging is risky, and the benefits on modern drives are relatively few.

Unless you partitioned your boot drive before installing your OS your systems are sharing the same volume. Having 9, and X on separate volumes is a better setup IMHO. It keeps the two OS's totally separate so they can't screw each other up. It also makes it easier to update one or the other, and keep backups organized. I actually have 4 separate systems on my Sawtooth on 4 drives. 1 working setup with X/9 on a partitioned drive (2 volumes), and my audio/Users folder on a second partitioned drive (2 volumes). Also a second cloned backup system that mirrors the first on another 2 partitioned drives. That's in addition to archiving everything important to DVD. Call me paranoid.