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FireWire Hard Drive Requirements with Pro Tools Systems on Windows
Pro Tools System Compatibility
FireWire 400 Hard Drives
The Avid MediaDrive rS80, Avid MediaDrive rS250, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party 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)
FireWire 800 Hard Drives
FireWire 800 drives with the Oxford 912 interface have been qualified for record and playback with the following systems on Windows XP:
- Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools HD 7 or higher)
- Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools LE 7 or higher)
- 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
Windows System Requirements
- Digidesign Pro Tools TDM or LE system
- Digidesign-approved Windows-based computer with FireWire capability
- If your Windows CPU does not have an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port built
in, you will need to install a PCI-to-FireWire card:
- 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)
- Digidesign has qualified configurations containing a maximum of four
DigiDrive FireWire drives daisy-chained to a Pro Tools workstation using
Digidesign supplied cables. (more than 4 drives may result in -6042
errors on all systems)
- 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
80 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 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:
- While other Windows FireWire cards may
work, Digidesign cannot guarantee results or performance on all cards.
With any multi-port card, connect to the first port if at all possible.
- In order to use Mac HFS+ formatted drives (for transfer only) on Windows systems, MacDrive is required.
- Windows formatted drives will not be recognized as audio drives by
Pro Tools on the Mac. (NTFS required for use as a transfer drive to Mac OS)
- 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.
- FireWire drives are not qualified for use with AVoption|XL, which requires SCSI storage for recording and playback.
However, you can use the FireWire drives 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 & Avid MediaDrive rS80)
and the Avid MediaDrive
rS80 SPECS in the Products/All Products database.
FireWire Drive Formatting
- Drives should be formatted with Windows XP disk administration without Dynamic Disk selected
- FAT32 or NTFS file system for Windows XP
- Windows XP is unable to create a FAT32 partition on a drive that is larger than 32 GB. If your drive is larger than 32 GB, either use a partitioning application such as PartitionMagic® or use the NTFS file system.
- Windows NTFS or FAT32 formatted drives supported on Mac OS X for transfer only
- Mac HFS+ supported on Windows XP for transfer only when using MacDrive 6
DV Tookit 2 & Music Production Toolkit Options — Maximum Track Count Information
The purchase of either of these options expand a Pro Tools LE system from 32 total voiceable tracks to up to 48 mono or 48 stereo tracks at up to 96 kHz (interface permitting*). Most desktops are capable of 48 stereo tracks at up to 96k, providing the system meets the following recommended requirements for maximum track count:
- 2GHz or higher processor
- 1GB total system RAM or more
- 2 or more hard drives dedicated for audio record and playback:
- 1 internal IDE/ATA and 1 internal SATA drive
- 2 internal SATA drives
- 2 SCSI drives
- 2 or more FireWire drives
Other FireWire Drives
Although not fully tested and supported 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:
- Oxford 911 FireWire bridge chipset
- 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 for
the DigiDrive FireWire 80 will generally yield the best results when using
FireWire drives with Pro Tools.
- In order to use Mac HFS+ formatted drives (for transfer only) on Windows systems, MacDrive is required.
- Windows formatted drives will not be recognized as audio drives by Pro Tools on the Mac. (NTFS required for use as a transfer drive to Mac OS)
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