FireWire Hard Drive Requirements with Pro Tools Systems on Mac OS X & OS 9

Pro Tools System Compatibility

FireWire 400 Hard Drives

The Avid MediaDrive rS80, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party 7200 RPM FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 chipset have been qualified for record and playback with the following Mac & Windows systems:

  • Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools 6.2 or higher)
  • Pro Tools|HD Systems (with Pro Tools 5.3.1 or higher)
  • Pro Tools|24 MIX Systems (with Pro Tools 5.1.1 or higher)
  • Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools 5.1.1 or higher)

Granite Digital Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger" Support Notice

FireWire 800 Hard Drives

FireWire 800 drives with the Oxford 912 interface have been qualified for record and playback with the following systems on Mac OS X 10.4:

  • Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools 6.9.2 or higher)
  • Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools LE 6.9.2 or higher)
  • Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" only (not tested on Mac OS X 10.3 and earlier)
  • Please Note: Hard drives using the Oxford 912 interface have USB 2.0, FW400 and FW800 ports on them. Only the use of the FW800 or FW400 port is supported on these drives with Pro Tools.
  • Up to 4 FireWire 800 daisy-chained drives supported when used without other FireWire drives
  • FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined

FireWire Hard Drives - Maximum Performance

FireWire drives have been qualified with Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel systems with Pro Tools 6.9.x and higher for the following:

  • Supported track count (per drive): 24 tracks per drive at 48 KHz/24-bit
  • Maximum 8 FireWire 400 drives for a total of 192 tracks at 48 KHz/24-bit
  • Pro Tools|HD Accel systems: maximum 192 tracks

FireWire Drives — Approximate Track Counts:

MediaDrive rS80
DigiDrive FireWire 80
44.1/48 kHz
96 kHz
192 kHz
1
24*
12
6
2
48
24
12
3
72
36
18
4
96
48
24
5
120
60
30
6
128
72
36
8
192**
96
36

*Up to 32 tracks with Pro Tools LE systems
**Track/voice count at 44.1/48 kHz may vary depending on CPU speed and processor count.

Macintosh System Requirements

Mac OS 9 System Software

  • Mac OS 9.1 or higher, 9.2.2 recommended
  • FireWire Enabler (version 2.7 or higher)
  • FireWire Support (version 2.7 or higher)
  • FireWire Enabler v2.7 and FireWire Support v2.7 are Mac OS Extensions included with OS 9.1. run the Software Update Control Panel to update to the latest version of these extensions in OS 9.1 or higher. Both of these extensions must be enabled in your System Folder/Extensions folder in order to mount and use firewire drives.
  • If you are running a non-English version of the Mac OS, you may need to download the version 2.5 FireWire extensions

Formatting Instructions - Mac OS 9

Supported formatting utility: Mac OS 9 "Erase Disk" command

    1. Select firewire drive (highlight drive icon on desktop)
    2. Go to the "Special" menu in the Apple OS menu bar
    3. Choose "Erase Disk" command
    4. Choose Mac OS Extended (HFS+)

Note: partitioning is not an option using the Erase Disk command in Mac OS 9. To increase performance and improve seek time, Digidesign recommends that you allocate a portion of your hard drive for recording. In Pro Tools, Choose Setups/Preferences and click Operation. Under the Open Ended Record Allocation option, select Limit To and enter a number of minutes to be allocated.

Mac OS X System Software

Additional Drive Requirements

  • Drives must be dedicated for audio (internal or external)
  • Mac OS file system: Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+ format)
  • Mac OS Standard (HFS) formatted drives can be used for transfer, but are not recommended for recording or playback
  • Windows NTFS or FAT32 formatted drives supported on Mac OS X for transfer only
  • Pro Tools does not support RAID technology. Please do not activate this feature on any Pro Tools recording drives.

Formatting Instructions - Mac OS X

Supported formatting utility: Disk Utility, included with Mac OS X

  1. Open from the following location: Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility, or in the Apple Menu when booted from the OS X installation CD.
  2. From the list of drives on the left, select the actual drive (the one on top, with the GB and drive manufacturer listed) rather than the user defined name of the drive below it.
  3. Choose either the Erase or Partition tab
  4. Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - also known as HFS+
  5. If you plan on using your drive on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, check the box next to "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers".

Note: partitioning is not an option using the Erase command. To increase performance and improve seek time Digidesign recommends that you allocate a portion of your hard drive for recording. In Pro Tools, Choose Setups/Preferences and click Operation. Under the Open Ended Record Allocation option, select Limit To and enter a number of minutes to be allocated.

Macintosh Journaled File System Now Recommended for Pro Tools

Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 incorporates a journaled file system, which will automatically log any file modifications. If your computer crashes badly enough to require a restart (or a restart from a power failure), the OS will then use the journal to aid in fixing any disk problems caused by the crash.

Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 ships with journaling on by default. Digidesign now recommends that customers format their media drives with journaling turned on. When using Apple"s Disk Utility program to format drives, Digidesign recommends choosing "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format, instead of "Mac OS Extended."

To enable journaling on an existing drive in Mac OS X 10.3:

  1. Run the Apple Disk Utility, located in Application/Utilities.
  2. Select the disk or volume in the left column of the Disk Utility windows.
  3. Click "Enable Journaling" in the toolbar, or choose "Enable Journaling" or Command+J from the File menu

If you want to turn journaling off for any reason, select the volume and choose "Disable Journaling" or Command +J in the File menu of Disk Utility. Note that disabling journaling will slow recovery if your system has to be rebooted to recover from a kernel panic or power failure.

Note: Mac OS 10.4 includes two new formatting options:

  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)

Digidesign has not tested these new formatting options with Pro Tools, and therefore these are not recommended. Please choose the following option for drive formatting:

  • Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Third-party Drive Utilitites Not Supported

While third-party drive format utilities may work on the owner's CPU where that application's software and extensions are installed, the best way to ensure compatibility on all Macs with firewire drives is to use the Apple Erase Disk function in Mac OS 9 for formatting, or the Mac OS X Disk Utility. If you plan to also use your FireWire drive on other machines that may not have the same third-party drivers, your drive may not mount on that machine, or you may experience DAE or system errors.

  • If you plan on using your drive on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, check the box next to "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" when formatting or partitioning using the Mac OS X Disk Utility.
  • Supported file format: Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
  • HFS standard formatting will result in finder copy problems with files over 2 GB
  • For additional information see the Digidesign Storage Guide in the Technical Document Library of the Support/Tech Support section of the website. (printed manual included with the DigiDrive FireWire 80)

FireWire Hard Drives with Avid Mojo on Pro Tools|HD & Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems for Mac OS X

The Avid MediaDrive rS80, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 chipset have been qualified for record and playback of video with data transfer rates equal to DV25 or less. FireWire storage must be connected to a PCI FireWire card when used with Avid Mojo:

Windows System Requirements

  • Digidesign Pro Tools TDM or LE system
  • Digidesign-approved Windows-based computer with FireWire capability
  • Qualified FireWire PCI & CardBus Cards for DigiDrive FireWire 80 & MediaDrive rS80 on Windows Systems
  • FireWire drives are not supported on systems that also have a PCI expansion chassis attached
  • Note: When used with Windows 98 SE or Windows Me, a third-party disk utility such as PartitionMagic® is required to format the drive before it can be used
  • For additional information see the Digidesign Storage Guide or previous DigiDrive FireWire Guide in the Technical Document Library of the Support/Tech Support section of the website. (printed manual included with the DigiDrive FireWire 80)

General Technical Specifications

Performance Expectations

  • Supported track count (per drive) with Pro Tools LE systems: 32 tracks per drive at 48 KHz/24-bit . Two drives required for 32 tracks at 96 KHz/24-bit
  • Supported track count (per drive) with Pro Tools TDM systems: 24 tracks per drive at 48 KHz/24-bit
  • Maximum 2 drives for a total of 48 tracks (Pro Tools|24 MIX systems)
  • Maximum 4 drives for a total of 96 tracks at 48 KHz/24-bit (Pro Tools|HD systems)
  • Maximum 8 FireWire 400 drives for a total of 192 tracks at 48 KHz/24-bit (Pro Tools|HD Accel systems)
  • Digidesign has qualified configurations containing a maximum of 8 DigiDrive FireWire drives daisy-chained to a Pro Tools workstation using Digidesign supplied cables.
  • Up to 4 FireWire 800 daisy-chained drives supported when used without other FireWire drives
  • FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined
  • Individual user experience regarding track count and performance may vary depending on edit density and available CPU cycles. (things like automation, RTAS plug-ins, or other CPU-dependent processes)
  • For more information, see the Hard Drive Requirements specific to your Pro Tools system in these Digidesign Compatibility Documents

Additional Configuration Requirements & Guidelines

Keep in mind the following when configuring DigiDrive FireWire & MediaDrive rS80 drives:

  • The FireWire cable between the Pro Tools workstation and the first drive (or between any two ports) cannot exceed 14.76 feet (4.5 meters).
  • The total FireWire cable from the system to the last drive cannot exceed 236 feet (72 meters).
  • A 12-inch (30.5 cm) FireWire cable ships with each DigiDrive FireWire drive to daisy-chain the drives.
  • Either FireWire connector on the drive can be used to connect to the system and other drives.
  • Maximum compatibility is achieved when your system has dual FireWire ports. Daisychain DigiDrive FireWire drives to one port and use the other port for cameras and video decks.
  • FireWire drives do not require a terminator.
  • Although firewire drives can be hot-swapped without rebooting the host computer, it is necessary to quit Pro Tools before swapping drives and then re-launching Pro Tools.
  • If your Windows CPU does not have an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port built in, you will need to install a PCI-to-FireWire card:
  • In order to use Mac formatted drives for transfer of files on Windows systems, MacDrive is required.
  • Windows formatted drives will not be recognized as audio drives by Pro Tools on the Mac.
  • It is highly recommended that you not spread audio files from one session across different types of storage (i.e. SCSI, FireWire, IDE/ATA). This is not possible on Pro Tools HD systems, and may cause bus problems on other Pro Tools systems. On the other hand, you may see improved performance if you store QuickTime video files on one type of drive and play the audio off another. This is because QuickTime video results in high bus traffic, while audio requires a lot of drive seeking. So storing QuickTime video files on your FireWire drives and audio on your SCSI drives may provide better performance than having audio and video playing together over the same bus.
  • The DigiDrive FireWire 80 & MediaDrive rS80 (as well as other firewire drives) are not qualified for use with AVoption or AVoption|XL. AVoption and AVoption|XL require SCSI storage for recording and playback. However, you can use the DigiDrive FireWire 80 to back-up your video storage SCSI drives.
  • For additional information see the Digidesign Storage Guide in the Technical Document Library of the Support/Tech Support section of the website (printed manual included with the DigiDrive FireWire 80 & MediaDrive rS80) and the Avid MediaDrive rS80 SPECS in the Products database.

Other FireWire Drives

Although not all FireWire drives have been fully tested with Pro Tools systems by Digidesign, you may be able to use FireWire drives from other manufacturers with similar results, given the same guidelines noted above. To date only FireWire drives with the following specifications have performed well with Pro Tools systems:

  • FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 FireWire bridge chipset on Mac OS X and Windows XP
  • FireWire 800 drives with the Oxford 912 FireWire interface with Pro Tools LE systems on Mac OS 10.4
  • 7200 RPM drive

Check with the drive manufacturer to verify that their drive has the "Oxford 911" or comparable chipset & drive speed of 7200 rpm.

Additional Notes for Macintosh System Compatibility and Portability

While third-party drive format utilities may work on the owner's CPU where that application's software and extensions are installed, the best way to ensure compatibility on all Macs with firewire drives is to use the Apple Erase Disk function in Mac OS 9 for formatting, or the Mac OS X Disk Utility as outlined above. If you plan to also use your FireWire drive on other machines that may not have the same third-party drivers, your drive may not mount on that machine, or you may experience DAE or system errors. The guidelines listed previously on this page will generally yield the best results when using FireWire drives with Pro Tools.

Digidesign Compatibility Documents Index