I just wanted to share my experience, and I hope you can share yours as well. I use a Macbook Pro, which didn't take long at all to fill up after uploading video footage. So my solution? I bought a TB external hard drive. Then I realize that it is a pain in the ass to capture video footage to an external hard drive. I'm constantly moving files around, worrying that I'm going to lose important data in the process. So I'm hitting myself in the head, wishing I had a tower rather than a laptop. A mac pro with 3-4 TB hard drives would be tits right now. Anyone else edit on a laptop?
Hard Drive Space for Editing
- Thread starter Dutchboy
- Start date
I don't edit on a laptop, but even so... all footage goes straight to an external harddrive.
I buy a new harddrive for each project. It doesn't need to be insanely massive (no point importing the bad takes, and other useless footage), and you'll have all the related files & renders on one easy-to-find drive.
What issues are you having? It should be fairly straighfoward.
I buy a new harddrive for each project. It doesn't need to be insanely massive (no point importing the bad takes, and other useless footage), and you'll have all the related files & renders on one easy-to-find drive.
What issues are you having? It should be fairly straighfoward.
What hard drive do you use? And do you delete the render files and all that once you are finished?
Some of my drives are FireWire; others are USB-2
Lots of comon brands. I like the FireMax ones, as they have multiple choices for transfer jacks.
Never had a feeling that USB is any slower. I do get that feeling, however, when running Prem Pro & AEFX at the same time though. That's just a RAM issue.
Lots of comon brands. I like the FireMax ones, as they have multiple choices for transfer jacks.
Never had a feeling that USB is any slower. I do get that feeling, however, when running Prem Pro & AEFX at the same time though. That's just a RAM issue.
I edit with my laptop all the time. Just like Zensteve I have a different
external hard drive for each project. I even use them when I’m
working in my office - just plug into my system and everything is
there and ready to go. In fact I keep no video files on my home or
office system.
I wonder why capturing video to you external is such a pain in the
ass for you. I’ve never done it any other way and I find it very
easy.
external hard drive for each project. I even use them when I’m
working in my office - just plug into my system and everything is
there and ready to go. In fact I keep no video files on my home or
office system.
I wonder why capturing video to you external is such a pain in the
ass for you. I’ve never done it any other way and I find it very
easy.
This is exactly what happend to me and my PowerBook G4.
This is the problem you may be having:
There is, for lack of a better explaination, no room for your edit program to function if you have filled up the HD on your laptop. What you want to do is move all of your footage to the external. Then run out to Best Buy or someplace and get a IEEE Bus 1394 Card Adapter. It shouldn't cost more than $30.
This card goes into that weird slot on the left side of your computer. When I saw it I didn't know what it was for either. So, you put this card into your computer and put your firewire cable into it. Connect the other end of the firewire cable into the external hard drive. What this card does is bypass the laptop hard drive and sends everything to the external so that the laptop hard drive can function better. Then you should get rid of everything you don't need on your laptop hard drive. Move the video footage to the external and be careful that you have moved everything successfully to your external before you clear out your laptop hard drive.
This helped me out quite a bit.
....did I explain that correctly, Knightly?
-- spinner
This is the problem you may be having:
There is, for lack of a better explaination, no room for your edit program to function if you have filled up the HD on your laptop. What you want to do is move all of your footage to the external. Then run out to Best Buy or someplace and get a IEEE Bus 1394 Card Adapter. It shouldn't cost more than $30.
This card goes into that weird slot on the left side of your computer. When I saw it I didn't know what it was for either. So, you put this card into your computer and put your firewire cable into it. Connect the other end of the firewire cable into the external hard drive. What this card does is bypass the laptop hard drive and sends everything to the external so that the laptop hard drive can function better. Then you should get rid of everything you don't need on your laptop hard drive. Move the video footage to the external and be careful that you have moved everything successfully to your external before you clear out your laptop hard drive.
This helped me out quite a bit.
....did I explain that correctly, Knightly?
-- spinner
Spinner, that helps me out a bit actually. I have a G4 too and my HD is nearly full. I wouldnt dare edit on this laptop but i'll have to check out that card adapter out. I never even knew what that thing on the side was
Noobie question:
1. Dutchboy mentioned that he films directly onto the External HD? Isn't that bulky to carry on your camera? Or is it worth it? Would I lose quality? It seems like it would save me time. Should I do that or stick with transferring my video from the camera to the external?
Noobie question:
1. Dutchboy mentioned that he films directly onto the External HD? Isn't that bulky to carry on your camera? Or is it worth it? Would I lose quality? It seems like it would save me time. Should I do that or stick with transferring my video from the camera to the external?
Spinner, very cool info. Thanks. I was actually wondering what that was for....
MistaDobalina, as far as editing on a laptop goes I don't really have any complaints except for running out of space. Also, I don't film directly to HD. Using a Canon Xl2, I shoot to DV then capture to my comptuer with firewire. i mentioned an external hard drive because I had used all of the space on my laptop, forcing me to store captured footage onto an external. For the record, they do make camcorders that record to a hard drive. Don't know how much space you can get on those though...
PS - I'm watching the Shining. The black dude just got F'ED UP BY THE AXE!
MistaDobalina, as far as editing on a laptop goes I don't really have any complaints except for running out of space. Also, I don't film directly to HD. Using a Canon Xl2, I shoot to DV then capture to my comptuer with firewire. i mentioned an external hard drive because I had used all of the space on my laptop, forcing me to store captured footage onto an external. For the record, they do make camcorders that record to a hard drive. Don't know how much space you can get on those though...
PS - I'm watching the Shining. The black dude just got F'ED UP BY THE AXE!
Dutch- hell yeah. I love Kubrick. notice how the carpet looks like the maze outside. and basically everything in the place has to do with indian americans. colors, carpets, red hues, artifacts, etc. the place is supposed to represent a hotel built on land that was once an indian reservation...and then we massacred the shit out of them. that's where the rage comes from. it's been there ever since the massacre. i think that's in the book but not in the movie. not sure. i DO know that the freaking bear giving the guy a blowjob towards the end is from the book and Kubrick decided to add it without explaining it. tis so creepy
Anyways yeah i'll try buying an ext HD.
Anyways yeah i'll try buying an ext HD.
I specifically have a Weibetech datadock that allows me to buy bare IDE harddrives and just plug them into my desktop. I make a directory for each new project and set the scratch disk to that folder in FCP when I start a new project, that way all the footage stays in the folder.
I never have to worry about what files are where for moving projects around and losing the footage that is stored in the "Capture Scratch" folder as all of the projects have their own "Capture Scratch" folder. This also allows for simple drag and drop backup and transfer of whole projects without having to gather through the media manager.
The card simply adds another Fire wire Port to the laptop allowing the use of an external HD and the camera at the same time.
I never have to worry about what files are where for moving projects around and losing the footage that is stored in the "Capture Scratch" folder as all of the projects have their own "Capture Scratch" folder. This also allows for simple drag and drop backup and transfer of whole projects without having to gather through the media manager.
The card simply adds another Fire wire Port to the laptop allowing the use of an external HD and the camera at the same time.
Isn’t this place great?
On Saturday evening you it was a pain in the ass for you to
capture to an external drive. By Sunday morning it wasn’t that
big of a pain in the ass anymore.
knightly’s method is the one that works for me, too. My business
partner has a tower with four huge internal HD’s and his files
are all over the place. He’s always searching for files. I use a
laptop with no files in it at all. All my project files are in
their own folder on separate external HD’s and I never lose
anything.
What I see from that experience and this discussion is the issue
isn’t laptop vs. tower, but project management.
We was just hired to go back and work on a project that he and I
finished 18 months ago. He’s going nuts trying to find render
files and even some of the captured video - I plugged the
external drive that’s been sitting on a shelf for a year and a
half and was cutting immediately.
On Saturday evening you it was a pain in the ass for you to
capture to an external drive. By Sunday morning it wasn’t that
big of a pain in the ass anymore.
knightly’s method is the one that works for me, too. My business
partner has a tower with four huge internal HD’s and his files
are all over the place. He’s always searching for files. I use a
laptop with no files in it at all. All my project files are in
their own folder on separate external HD’s and I never lose
anything.
What I see from that experience and this discussion is the issue
isn’t laptop vs. tower, but project management.
We was just hired to go back and work on a project that he and I
finished 18 months ago. He’s going nuts trying to find render
files and even some of the captured video - I plugged the
external drive that’s been sitting on a shelf for a year and a
half and was cutting immediately.
I figured out the method of changing the scratch folder before opening my projects after bumping into the same problems that you're hitting now... which are the same problems that Spinner ran into when she ended up calling me and spending a couple of days learning this stuff (I'm an apple certified systems engineer - not the train kind, the trained kind 
ACSE, ACDT, ACPT). Figuring out stuff like this has been my livelihood for the past 10 years.
The ability to make backups easily is one of the great advantages to this system. I've lost way too much data over the years to random drive crashes to rely on luck as a data retention system. Most recently, my daughter caught a firewire cable while turning in my computer chair and dropped my Current project drive to the floor, losing all of the data on it. To recover, I just need to import from tape again. (I keep a folder of all my Main FCP files on my computer with all the clip info on it so I can just batch capture again - not in FCX though, just in FCP). I use the tapes which I never, ever overwrite or reuse as a complete failure backup.
My feature film is 47 hours of footage. I had one of my storage drives crash taking all that data with it. I recovered from a drag and drop back up in a matter of a couple of hours to the same point I had been, if that had failed, I'd still have been able to reimport the footage from tape. The 8 weekends of shooting is unrecoverable, so the backup system has saved my butt already.
To keep the backups up to date, you'll just need to duplicate the project file (the Final Cut document) as you make editing progress on the project. it's a 5 minute or less back up plan once the footage has been backed up as it never changes
ACSE, ACDT, ACPT). Figuring out stuff like this has been my livelihood for the past 10 years.The ability to make backups easily is one of the great advantages to this system. I've lost way too much data over the years to random drive crashes to rely on luck as a data retention system. Most recently, my daughter caught a firewire cable while turning in my computer chair and dropped my Current project drive to the floor, losing all of the data on it. To recover, I just need to import from tape again. (I keep a folder of all my Main FCP files on my computer with all the clip info on it so I can just batch capture again - not in FCX though, just in FCP). I use the tapes which I never, ever overwrite or reuse as a complete failure backup.
My feature film is 47 hours of footage. I had one of my storage drives crash taking all that data with it. I recovered from a drag and drop back up in a matter of a couple of hours to the same point I had been, if that had failed, I'd still have been able to reimport the footage from tape. The 8 weekends of shooting is unrecoverable, so the backup system has saved my butt already.
To keep the backups up to date, you'll just need to duplicate the project file (the Final Cut document) as you make editing progress on the project. it's a 5 minute or less back up plan once the footage has been backed up as it never changes
...a friend of mine just got the new Sony XE something or other. No mini dv tapes, record to a hard drive. 6gigs equal 30 minutes of footage and the best part is that when you are done, you just remove the hard drive, connect to your laptop and all you have to do is name the clips. The camera makes clips for you every time you stop and start the camera and has beautiful footage.
It will be a long while before I can get one of those, but it cost about $8,000. That camera is a thing of beauty.
-- spinner
....Kubrick did take alot of artistic license with that film. Its a great film, but alot of things went unexplained. What struck me most were the situations surrounding the family before they got anywhere near that hotel. For example: the accident incident/abuse of the kid, the fact that dad was a 'dry drunk', the effect of aspirin on a certain 1% of the population. Those things are in the mini-series which, though not as good as Kubrick's version, is kinda creepy too.
....we now return you to your regularly scheduled thread! Didn't mean to hijack your topic, Dutch
-- spinner
Ok, here's my setup, I'm sure it's probably over kill, but here's how I do it. Hopefully, someone will set me straight on if I'm using too many HD's. anyway, back when I was first learning about NLEs and all, I read that you should have a different HD for all your rendering work. OK, so I built my own turnkey with 4 HD's- 1 for the actual system and programs, one for imported video, one for final rendered video files, and one strcitly for audio files. After I complete a project I make a duplicate DVD, and then copy all project files to an external HD (so I guess that makes 5 HD's). so is this overkill?
