about to buy disks...
 

I'm experiencing 6086 and 9128 errors at a rate that I wasn't experiencing a month ago while working on the same PT session. I've added very little to that session during that time. Activity Monitor tells me that my CPU usage is below 40% when the problems happen.

I'm trying to eliminate all potential causes of problems. A new FireWire cable is on order, in case the one between my PowerBook and my 002 Rack is causing problems. And I'm ready to add external disk capacity as recommended by the DUC Troubleshooting page.

It would appear from some posts that the ideal is to have not one but two external FireWire drives -- one for the PT session and all its children, another for the Kontakt samples. Question number 1: did I get that right?

Question number 2: What kind of external drives are really good? The DUC Troubleshooting page says they must spin at 7200rpm but I wonder whether ProTools really cares about that; as Western Digital says, "USB 2.0 and Firewire 400/800 have yet to approach the transfer rates of the internal hard drives we use in our external enclosures."

Considering that every 7200rpm drive I've looked at has several bad reviews by users who feel burned, it may be useful to know whether a 5400rpm drive would do the job just as well.

Thanks for any comments.

Re: about to buy disks...
 

A 5400 rpm drive will NOT do. I would start off with a single external firewire drive. I like these http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/firew...W800_FW400_USB
The right most column are the ones with 2 FW400 ports which you may want for daisy-chaining to your 002.

Re: about to buy disks...
 

Absolutely do not get a 5400 rpm drive...

HD performance is fairly complicated, in that it involves several different variables. seek time, multiple writes, sustained writes, multiple reads, sustained reads.. I don't feel it can be narrowed down to a single number like the max Mb/sec number which is implied by talking about FW or USB bus speed...

If you decide to directly go against Digi's advice, then you are setting yourself up for buyer's remorse...

I'm not sure where you are seeing the bad reviews.. Maybe you should list what you were looking at and see what kind of experiences users of protools have had..

Keep in mind that some of the users have problems related to the enclosure and not necessarily the HD itself.. I have a couple FW enclosures already, but if I was to get another one, I would buy the enclosure from OWC and put the SATA HD of my choice in it... As opposed to buying an off the shelf My Book or whatever.. It seems as those are the people who report difficulties (not necessarily My Book.. )

I don't know specifically if Kontakt is one of the plugins that benefits from it's samples being on it's own disc, but if it streams samples from the HD in real time, then that would be the correct thinking..


As far as the errors go, you need to make absolutely sure that all your plugins are compatible. Note that the NI stuff seems to be particularly troublesome..

You say you have a Powerbook? What version of PT? What laptop, specifically...?

Re: about to buy disks...
 

Why not get the FW800? It cant be daisy changed with the 002?

Re: about to buy disks...
 

You can daisy chain a FW800 to a 002 with a 800->400 adapter cable. It lowers the whole bus down to FW400. You just need to buy a drive that has a Digi qualified chipset in it. :-) OWC +1

Re: about to buy disks...
 

...so there's no point buying FW800 drives then. Correct?

Re: about to buy disks...
 

Thanks to all for the speedy responses.

My system specs are there if you click on "Londoner". I'll repeat here:
PowerBook G4 1.33 MHz 1.5GB RAM (400Mb/sec FireWire, no SATA)
OSX version 10.4.10
Digi Rack 002
Pro Tools LE 7.4
Kontakt 3 version 3.5
Finale 2009

I need not worry about daisy-chaining if I get a FireWire hub, right? Somebody recommended that -- but maybe it was the NI forum. If a hub is not good, then my disk drive search becomes complicated by the need to worry about daisy-chaining. It might reduce my disk options.

Drives about which I've found negative reviews:

Western Digital My Book Premium Edition
---> http://reviews.cnet.com/external-har...1793438-2.html
---> http://reviews.cnet.com/system-hard-...l?tag=mncol;uo

Seagate FreeAgent Xtreme
---> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Seagate-1TB-...408694&sr=8-15

The Glyph GT models look super, from everything I've read. But a higher price than I'd expected to pay. And some reviewers fault their noise.

As Albee1952 pointed out, OWC looks like a strong contender. Quiet drives, good customer support, two FW400 ports for daisy-chaining... if only I could find a UK supplier.

Re: about to buy disks...
 

what about the g-tech quad???
http://www.gear4music.com/G4M/500GB-...-G-Drive-Q/7QZ
oxford 924 chipset, 7200 rpm, 16MB cache
I've never tried one and I'm looking for an external HD too
any comments about this brand or model???

Re: about to buy disks...
 

IMO FW hubs are a bad idea. I have read of people having problems with them but I don't remember the circumstances..

Again, digi recommends chaining Mac <> HD <> 002 when this is necessitated by your computer. I don't believe they say using a hub is OK, but i can't say with certainty that they recommend against it..

Re: about to buy disks...
 

There is, actually; when you are using the disk stand-alone, it will be much faster (at FW800 speeds). I usually mix using a Mbox 2 or a Mbox 2 Micro, which means the drive is running at FW800 speeds. I only use the 003 to record.