Avid Pro Audio Community

Avid Pro Audio Community

How to Join & Post  •  Community Terms of Use  •  Help Us Help You

Knowledge Base Search  •  Community Search  •  Learn & Support


Avid Home Page

Go Back   Avid Pro Audio Community > Pro Tools Software > Windows

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
  #1  
Old 02-10-2017, 11:37 AM
sneakyimp sneakyimp is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: los angeles
Posts: 124
Default How do I force Pro Tools to write all files to one drive?

I have two very cheap ProTools rigs -- one at my home office for mixing and one at my band's rehearsal space for recording. They are identical windows 7 machines I built myself from components. They have ProTools 9.06 (I hope to upgrade soon). Things are mostly good.

My problem: sometimes ProTools writes project files to a third internal hard drive intended to be used ONLY as a backup.

I have ProTools installed on the system (C) drive. I record everything to the E drive (labeled "DATA") and the third drive is F, labeled "WIN_BACKUP".

The problem is inconsistent. A lot of the time, things work great. However, if I consolidate all the regions on one track into a single file, this newly consolidate file often ends up on that other hard drive. I believe the problem also happens if I use AudioSuite to process a file with an effect and also when ProTools generates fade files and stuff. I first noticed this problem when I wanted to copy a project I'd been working on at home to a USB pen drive to take back to the space to record some more overdubs. When I open the PT project down at the rehearsal space, it would complain about missing files.

How do I get ProTools to ONLY write project files to the project directory? Seems that's how things should work. Alternatively, if this cannot be accomplished, how do I tell ProTools to just ignore my WIN_BACKUP drive entirely?

Any help would be much appreciated. Please note that I have very little experience with hardware setups or routing. I'm just a mix-window and edit-window kind of guy.
Reply With Quote
  #2  
Old 02-10-2017, 01:01 PM
albee1952's Avatar
albee1952 albee1952 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Norwich, CT
Posts: 39,307
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all project files to one drive?

2 things come to mind; 1-lock out the backup drive be setting it to be a Transfer drive. 2-pay attention when you create a new session so you save it where you want it and not where PT "THINKS" it should go.

BTW, if you are opening a template session, instead of creating FROM a template, that would be a problem as PT will save the audio in the original session's Audio Files folder. The solution here is to create FROM a template and never actually opening the template(except to modify it)
__________________
HP Z4 workstation, Mbox Studio
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/...0sound%20works


The better I drink, the more I mix

BTW, my name is Dave, but most people call me.........................Dave
Reply With Quote
  #3  
Old 02-10-2017, 02:06 PM
The Weed's Avatar
The Weed The Weed is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 7,146
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all project files to one drive?

And check your disk allocation so you can see where the files are actually being saved.

As albee said, use a template and create a session from it and always have "Choose Location" checked in Dashboard/Quick Start.
__________________
Take your projects to the next level with a
non-union national read at reasonable rates
Demos: brucehayward dot com
SonoBus
Source-Connect: brucehayward
Options for Remote Direction
Reply With Quote
  #4  
Old 02-10-2017, 02:12 PM
sneakyimp sneakyimp is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: los angeles
Posts: 124
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all project files to one drive?

Thanks for your response!

Quote:
Originally Posted by albee1952 View Post
2 things come to mind; 1-lock out the backup drive be setting it to be a Transfer drive.
Lolwut? As I mentioned in my original post, I have almost no familarity with anything but the mix and edit windows. Can you elaborate?

Quote:
Originally Posted by albee1952 View Post
2-pay attention when you create a new session so you save it where you want it and not where PT "THINKS" it should go.
This makes me think I didn't describe my problem well enough. I'm assuming by 'session' you mean protools project? I *always* save the protools project on my DATA drive. Anything I record always seems to go in that location too. It's when I start to make edits to a PT project, any fade files or region consolidation I do sometimes ends up creating an entirely new folder at the root of my WIN_BACKUP drive and it stores various files inside.

Quote:
Originally Posted by albee1952 View Post
BTW, if you are opening a template session, instead of creating FROM a template, that would be a problem as PT will save the audio in the original session's Audio Files folder. The solution here is to create FROM a template and never actually opening the template(except to modify it)
I generally don't work with templates at all -- I.e., I don't create new projects using them.
Reply With Quote
  #5  
Old 02-10-2017, 02:16 PM
sneakyimp sneakyimp is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: los angeles
Posts: 124
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all project files to one drive?

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Weed View Post
And check your disk allocation so you can see where the files are actually being saved.
I'm guessing this is a per-project setting? Seems pretty tedious to always have to check this. Seems perfectly reasonable to assume that if I create a protools project in a particular location that I would want all files relating to it to also be in that location. Is there not some application-level setting that can enforce this behavior?

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Weed View Post
As albee said, use a template and create a session from it and always have "Choose Location" checked in Dashboard/Quick Start.
OK this sounds like a reasonable action. I did create a template once upon a time as an experiment, but will have to look into it again.
Reply With Quote
  #6  
Old 02-10-2017, 04:10 PM
Carl Kolchak Carl Kolchak is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: U.K.
Posts: 2,201
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all files to one drive?

Open the "Workspace" in Pro Tools - it's under the windows menu at the top of the screen (although Pro Tools has changed the menu headings, and moved functions around many times over the years, so I can't remember of the top of my head if they were different in PT9).

Over on the left hand side of the Workspace you will see your Hard Drives listed, and after that, a column that will have the letter "R" in it, telling you that Pro Tools considers the drive a "Record" drive.

Click on the "R", and a menu will appear, so change your back-up drive to "T" meaning it becomes a "Transfer" drive (which allows you to move/transfer files around within PT, but not record to that drive).

You can check the disk allocation of the session by going to the Setup menu at the top of the screen, and selecting "Disk Allocation".

You will be presented with a list of every audio track in the session, followed by a column detailing the file path for any recordings made to that track.

You can change the file path by clicking on the existing one, and redirecting the location.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Reply With Quote
  #7  
Old 02-10-2017, 06:40 PM
Steve@ZooWest Steve@ZooWest is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: North Indianapolis
Posts: 397
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all files to one drive?

When backing up a session manually (as I do) I always use "Save Copy In" although it might have been called something slightly different in 7; but when you go to save you should see three choices that are essentially:

1)Save
2)Save As, which essentially just renames the current session while changing nothing re:files, allocation, etc.
3)Save Copy As/In (or something akin to that). When you use this third option, and save to a drive that is not your current working drive, all audio files are allocated to that backup drive, including any rogue files that are mis-allocated in your current session.

Then occasionally, after creating backups in this way, I save them all back to the original drive, using the same "Save copy as/in" out of an abundance of caution, but to a brand new project folder. Then after doing that I'll nuke the original project folder.

I don't know if this is the way other guys do it, but this seems to keep my sessions free from mis-allocation, and helps me sleep at night.
__________________
"Modern manufactured music is like art they sell at a furniture store."

http://www.weddingmusicproject.com/
http://www.weddingmusicproject.com/w...music-samples/
http://stevemillikan.com/

Reply With Quote
  #8  
Old 02-10-2017, 07:02 PM
sneakyimp sneakyimp is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2003
Location: los angeles
Posts: 124
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all files to one drive?

Thank you for your response!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Kolchak View Post
Open the "Workspace" in Pro Tools - it's under the windows menu at the top of the screen (although Pro Tools has changed the menu headings, and moved functions around many times over the years, so I can't remember of the top of my head if they were different in PT9).

Over on the left hand side of the Workspace you will see your Hard Drives listed, and after that, a column that will have the letter "R" in it, telling you that Pro Tools considers the drive a "Record" drive.

Click on the "R", and a menu will appear, so change your back-up drive to "T" meaning it becomes a "Transfer" drive (which allows you to move/transfer files around within PT, but not record to that drive).
OK this looks very promising. I can confirm that 'workspace' is under the window menu. There are two columns in this window with the T/R option, One labeled A and the other V. According to this article the A is for 'audio' and the V is for 'video.' The article, which is not official also states:
Code:
* 'R' – Record – will set up Pro Tools to be able to record (write) data to the device.
* 'P' – Playback – will set up Pro Tools to only be able to play (read) data from the device.
*  'T' – Transfer – will set up Pro Tools to not be able to read or  write to the drive.  This is set by default on Network drives, USB  drives, and any other attached media which isn’t fast enough for Pro  Tools to work on.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Carl Kolchak View Post
You can check the disk allocation of the session by going to the Setup menu at the top of the screen, and selecting "Disk Allocation".

You will be presented with a list of every audio track in the session, followed by a column detailing the file path for any recordings made to that track.

You can change the file path by clicking on the existing one, and redirecting the location.
I'm somewhat familiar with this, having had to repair various projects when ProTools lamentably chooses to use the other drive. I still find it extremely hard to believe Pro Tools would ever store any project files at all outside of the project's own directory.

One's settings in the 'Workspace' menu item appear to be an application-level setting and are preserved after closing one project and opening another.

It appreciate your help. It is my hope that this will solve my problem once and for all.
Reply With Quote
  #9  
Old 02-11-2017, 06:36 AM
mjslakeridge's Avatar
mjslakeridge mjslakeridge is offline
Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Houston, Texas
Posts: 1,087
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all files to one drive?

I believe the option to store audio files from the same session onto different audio drives stems from the "round robin" disk allocation method available. In the event there are a ton of audio tracks in a session, writing and reading the files from a single disk may overwhelm the disk. Using this method, Track 1 will be written to the D drive, Track 2 to the E drive, Track 3 to the D drive, etc. I have fooled around with this just for fun, using my internal D drive and an external firewire drive, trying to see if I could overwhelm the system. With my even older version of Pro Tools than yours, I am limited to 48 stereo tracks (with the Music Production Toolkit), and I could not overwhelm the system using the round robin disk allocation.
__________________
"Whiskey Bottle...Brand New Car...Oak Tree You're in my Way" RVZ

Digi 002 rack , Command 8, Behringer ADA 8000, Tascam M-320B Mixer, Alesis Monitor Two Speakers, Vintage and Modern Tube Amps, Fender American Strat, 1973 Gibson SB-450 Bass, Epiphone Les Paul Traditional Pro, Roland W-30 Keyboard, Preimier XPK Fusion Drum Kit.
Reply With Quote
  #10  
Old 02-13-2017, 03:30 PM
albee1952's Avatar
albee1952 albee1952 is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Norwich, CT
Posts: 39,307
Default Re: How do I force Pro Tools to write all files to one drive?

A "PROJECT" is in the cloud. A "SESSION" is saved locally(on your recording drive). Hope that helps.
__________________
HP Z4 workstation, Mbox Studio
https://www.facebook.com/search/top/...0sound%20works


The better I drink, the more I mix

BTW, my name is Dave, but most people call me.........................Dave
Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Force a drive to be an Audio Record Volume - Possible? Qjimbo 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 4 10-09-2010 03:41 PM
The following incident with Altiverb will force me Force Quit PT 25ghosts Pro Tools TDM Systems (Mac) 0 03-02-2009 01:30 PM
can i force PT to IGNORE a drive? 13rian 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Mac) 5 04-06-2006 08:20 AM
Force ProTools LE to use a drive... tbirdsaw Storage Subsystems 3 11-04-2005 06:07 PM
wave files problems to write a cd michael bellens 003, Mbox 2, Digi 002, original Mbox, Digi 001 (Win) 6 05-03-2002 02:50 AM


All times are GMT -7. The time now is 01:01 AM.


Powered by: vBulletin, Copyright ©2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Limited. Forum Hosted By: URLJet.com