Moving from Windows PT|HD to Macpro PT|HD some questions..

[Echo studios]

Hi,

Switching to MacPro 8core 3.0ghz (Harpertown model).

Right now, I got 4 external 72gb cheetah SCSI drives formatted in NTFS under WinXP that is use since the last years.

My question is:

Will they mount ok on OS X 10.5.8? so i can copy all my PT sessions to a spare directory on my internal mac drive and then reformat those cheetah's to HFS mac format after for use with PT?

If not, do i need a special NFTS app on mac?

Thanks for any good inputs,

Dan

[smfelton]

Yes Mac OS X will natively read NTFS but you can't write to it so you shouldn't have any problems.

[Echo studios]

Thanks for the cue ! OS X is the best. :)

[BradLyons]

IMHO, dump the SCSI drives and move to firewire. I say this because working with SCSI anymore is like trying to ride a bike without tires. Sure it can be done, but it's exhausting. I've never liked working with SCSI systems unless it was a single drive, but the other reason I say this is that your drives are several years old. I'm using firewire for HUGE sessions and it's just fine, cheap as heck, and easy to replace (not to mention, cheap as heck!).

[DigiTechSupt]

I almost hate to disagree with you, Brad, but in this case - if there were one drive type I'd recommend, it would be internal SATA drives.

Firewire drives do perform well, but SATA has a leg up in that department. The Mac Pro will take 4 internal SATA drives - they're really easy to install and, since you're not paying for the FW case, you can usually get 2 SATA drives for the cost of one good FW drive of the same size. And since we all know how important having backup drives is...

If you need portability - absolutely get firewire, but if not then SATA is, IMO, the way to go....

[Cliffy_Boy]

I believe he was referring to External SATAs.

[BradLyons]

Digi...my point really was "just get rid of SCSI". Whatever he replaces it with, that's a mute point..... Sorry I wasn't as clear on that.

[Echo studios]

I agree with u both actually! :P

I do have an external glyph firewire hotswap for backups...never used for recording session of 24 - 32 tracks tough..

The big MacPro that i'm awaiting is a monster...
It has (4) 500gb internal SATA-II Drives which are 7,200 rpm.

My ol' SCSI disks were all Cheetah's @ 15,000 rpm.

am i understanding that i can run a session of 24-32 tracks spanned on these internal sata drives and all of this without a single glitch?

let me know

[BradLyons]

That's a conservative number, actually...you can do many more.