Final Cut Pro Email Question: External Hard Drive
This morning I got an email from Keri, a reader, asking a question about FCP. Here is what she asked…
I just bought an external hard drive for my Mac… And in Final Cut Pro, I made sure to change where the files are saved… My question is, how do I work with my external hard drive effectively? For example, if my clips are on the hard drive, wouldn’t i need to pull them over into final cut pro which is on my computer hard drive? I apologize about not knowing more, but I understand the fact that the external hard drive will give me more space… Can you give me the basics of having an external hard drive and how you can work with projects with more video… Thanks!
Keri, if you have already chosen the external hard drive as the source for where the files are to be stored then you know more about FCP than you think you do. Leave the files where they are, the software will take care of it. That’s how easy it is to work with an external hard drive with FCP. The only thing you have to remember is to leave your hard drive plugged in and turned on while you’re working on your project.
You can select where you want to store your files, click on Final Cut Pro on the top menu and select System Settings
Advanced
Another thing to be careful about is moving projects from hard drive to hard drive. It will confuse the software. For Instance, if you import a photo from your desktop into FCP and you save your project and close FCP, it will remember where that photo came from. If you move that photo into a folder to clean up your desktop and you open your project in FCP, it will ask you to reconnect the media. Which is simple just find the folder you moved it into and click reconnect.
So if you move a project that is currently on your MAC HD to the external HD or vice versa. You will have a mess on your hands. If you want to move a project your working on from your MAC HD to the external HD select from the File menu—>Media Manager.
Once in the Media Manager make sure it looks exactly like the image below, in order to move your project from your MAC HD to the external HD. Under Media Destination, click the Browse button and select your external HD and create a new folder where you want your current project to be saved. After it finishes that process you will have your current project saved to your external HD.
This is an advanced process and should only do it by following the manual that came with FCP or select from the Help menu and select FCP manual. Search for Media Manager and follow the guidelines carefully.
I’m an advance editor with Final Cut Pro and enjoy helping people with questions about the software. I also know that there is a lot to this program that I need to learn and I am open to expert advice on this blog from fellow FCP users.
Thanks for the question Keri, I hope I didn’t complicate things.
Independent Filmmaker and Final Cut Pro advocate enjoying life and sharing some moments with the world.
Email Andy | All posts by Andy Coon
66 comments ↓
I have two problems that i can’t seem to figure out. Any helpful advice is greatly appreciated.
I am working on a FCP project that began on a friend’s desktop, connected to my external drive. All media being stored on that drive.
I then recently installed FCP on my own laptop, took the drive from my friend, settled in for what i’d hoped would be a nice night in of solo editing and found that two strange things happened when i connected my hardrive and tried to open the project file on it.
Firstly, it seems FCP automatically searches for an external device (camera or something) and says “Unable to Locate the Following External Device…Apply Firewire NTSC ..” Sorry i don’t have the entire error message in front of me. My friend says its looking for the camera and just to hit Continue and ignore it.
Then, when i try to open the project i get General Error 41.
i’ve looked online for forums and similar posts and get all kinds of different answers…Corrupt file. Corrupt hardrive. Need to reformat drive.
We’re using Final Cut Studio 5.0 on both computers. It seemed to run just fine on the desktop yesterday before I took the drive home with me.
Any ideas? Am I corrupted?
Big thank yous,
Susie
Question: Where was the original file located?
Also your friend is right about FCP looking for an external device. It’s looking for something to connect to so you can watch what is on your timeline.
Can you access your files without FCP? Meaning could you get into your external hard drive an open the clips in your Capture Scratch Folder. If you can then your files are not corrupt.
Check out this explanation to see if it helps…
hi andy,
i am trying to use files from fcp 5.1.4 that were copied onto my external HD, then opened using fcp 5.0.4. that?s when i get error 41.
i did all the things mentioned in emotiondv.com link you sent (opened a new account, exported/imported an xml file) but to no avail. i do see some clips in the browser after the xml import (but it has a red slash thru the clip icon) i also made sure that the scratch disks were pointing to the Capture Scratch folder. this didn’t seem to affect anything either.
i posted this to the board, but wondering if you have any thoughts on what i could do? if i get a solution elsewise, i’ll be sure to post back here
thanks in advance,
jenn
Right off the bat I see the problem. You can’t open a project saved in 5.1.2 or greater to a lower version such as 5.0.4. You have to upgrade FCP 5.0.4 to 5.1.2 on the computer where you are trying to open your project.
Once you do that it should open up fine. Let me know if that works.
actually, according to emotiondv you should be able to open in a lower version using the xml feature.
problem is, i tried following this, but to no avail. perhaps it has something to do with the transfer of files from the 5.1.2 desktop to my external HD to my 5.0.4 laptop?
I’ve never tried that. I will once I get home to see if it holds. I’ll let you know if it does.
Jenn,
I just opened a xml file from my external to my desktop with FCP 5.1.2, earlier today i could not open the file in FCP 5.0.4 located on my laptop.
The original xml file was created at work on FCP 5.1.2 I suggest you upgrade your laptop and it should work. Try it and get back to me.
I was working on a project on a friends mac who has 5.1 that I was normally working on in school on 5.0 but when I opened it back u at scool I recived and error. Is there a way to save it as a lover version on 5.1. Say save a project on 5.1 as a 5.0 file?
I’m not aware on how to open a project in 5.1 from 5.0. I hope someone that comes on here can help. Good luck.
Hi
Having problems with HD fooage at 16.9
Using DVD pro to burn 4.3 sd disc
Is there a way to get HD 16.9 to a 4.3 dimension without stretching
Confused
Thanks hope you get my problem
Hi
I’m having a weird problem and need guidence. I’ve been capturing mini dv footage at 720×480, HOWEVER my actual media files have been sometimes 640×480 and 832×480. I’ve checked to make sure nothing was readjusted in FC. This has happened on both my G4 and G5. On my G5 some of the time codes are altering upon capture. A clip a minute long suddenly becomes seconds long after capture. I’m using Lacie Rugged ext hard drives to capture the footage too. They are swapped between computers and so are the project files.
Does anyone have any recommendations?
Thanx!
J-
Hi, I’am somewhat new to FCP. I just installed 5.1.4 and when I attempt to capture new video from my Cannon GL2 using a NTSC Firewire. A error window pops up saying unknown file. I have never seen this before. ANY Advise would be great. THANKS
Is there an error number?
All I can suggest is select from the top menu/Final Cut Pro /Audio/Video Settings and look to see if the capture preset is set to DV NTSC 48 kHz. If you have any other information it would help. Good Luck and come back if ou find a solution. Thanks
Hi, I am I am just starting to use Final Cut Express. I am trying to capture several mini dv tapes from my camera to an external hard drive using the ‘capture now’ process. When I do this a black window comes up with the message “allocating disk space”. The cursor just continues to spin forever and nothing ever gets captured. Does anyone have any idea what the problem might be? I have successfully captured to the mac hard drive; I just can’t get it to work for the external hard drive. Thanks!
Ron,
Did you go into System Settings and change your Scratch Disk folder to your external hard drive?
Hi Andy,
Yeah, I did. Any other thoughts?
Only other thing I can think of is go to Audio/Video Settings under the Final Cut Pro menu and click open the capture presets tab and make sure that the DV NYSC 48 kHz is checked.
Click on the Device Control Panel tab and make sure the Firewire NTSC is checked.
I’m drawing a blank if it is not those… I’ll keep my eyes open. Let me know if you find out elsewhere.
Good luck.
Thanks Andy. I’ll give that a try. I’ll let you know if it works.
Hi Andy,
Both of those are checked already so I guess it’s not that. Thanks for your help though.
Rob
Backstory:
> I’m producing writing and editing on FCP 6 [Studio 2 bundle] at a TV station in Florida.
> I made a dub on SX tape of a story that was originally captured from a satellite feed.
> I then then ingested the dub into FCP 6 located in my personal Mac Book Pro [OS 10.4.9] that was configured to the station?s standards.
Problem:
> The ingested media in FCP, from which I tried to create a new sequence, revealed “tearing” at every hard cut edit point. Dissolves and other transitions were OK. Mind you, these were edits in the ingested media, NOT in the sequence I was trying to create. Also, the edit points in the dub I ingested were clean. The tears lasted 2 - 3 frames and resembled an FC scissor transition. Any kind of manipulation — Fit to fill etc. — worsened the problem.
Because of time constraints, I gave in and edited the piece on AVID [Ugh!!]. Although it took longer, there were no tearing issues.
Attempted solutions before resorting to AVID:
> I tried re-editing on one of the station’s FCP 4 setups. Same problem, but not as bad: the ingested media had edit points that looked like 1-2 frame dither dissolves.
> FCP/Apple Support suggested adjusting my FCP settings to match those of the satellite feed or the original tape that was microwaved.
> The station engineers said, I must edit directly from a non-microwaved dub.
Indeed, another story from the same syndicator that was delivered on DVD had no such problems.
The station plans to go completely FCP in a few months. Many stories will have to be edited from satellited material. Is there a way around this problem, that does not require elaborate re-settings?
I’ve read your answer to a previous reader’s question about working with an external hard drive in FCP,and have an an additional question. Considering that my external HD must be plugged in to save my files on it,where do I plug my DV camera,when my external HD takes up my only firewire port? Do I need to add more ports to my MacBook?My external HD has two firewire ports,but I didn’t want to mess anything up,so I haven’t tried running my DV camera through it.
Great question… I would suggest getting firewire port to play it safe. But if you have to use it ASAP go ahead and plug that sucker into your hard drive. I don’t suggest daisy chaining hard drives though. Good luck
Sam-
I can’t help you out on this one. Sorry I’ve never come across that problem. I hope someone can help you out on here. That is a problem that I would have to be there to figure out. Good luck.
Is it possible to run fcp off an external harddrive?
Jared-
Unfortunately you cannot run FCP off an external hard drive. It needs to be on your main hard drive with the folders and application support. It would be a nice thing to do but it is not there yet.
Hi, quick question for FCP users. I am setting up a project to learn the software but I am having problems getting the project saved to the external drive, it’s a lacie 360 mass storage drive and I have tried saving the project and the scratch disc to the drive but it comes back with a message reading “unable to set scratch disc. the selected directory is on write protected or non writable media” I have never had this problem in the past with this drive but it has only ever been used with a PC and does still have PC files on it, the strange thing is that the mac wil let me open files from it but not save to it?? Does anyon ehave any ideas on how to unprotect a hard drive??
Cheers
Ben
I am using : ge, dual, 1.8 with FCP HD 4.5. Trying to render audio files. Sometimes get a General Error or General Error (39)….also get the genreal error sometimes when I try to play the timeline. Also, if it does render sometimes the red render bar does not go away…and it is not rendered, even though is says it is rendering. Corrup file? already trashed FCP preferences. any solutions??? tx Jay
Hi,
I have FCP 5.1 installed on a G5 and G4. I have two Western Digital HDs daisy chained that I’ve been using with the G5. I need to use the setup with the G4 but FCP cannot locate the the hard drives upon opening FCP projects from the hard drives. Everything else works fine. The hard drives show up on the desktop. DVD studio pro projects open up and I can work in them. Any ideas as to why FCP can’t find the hard drives or suggestions on how to find them manually. (I’ve tried the easy setup).
I have a Log and Capture Question. I have Final Cut Pro on the computer, and all the scratch files, render, autosave, etc. on an external drive, so when I log and capture, it goes to the External Drive. The only problem is it locks up every couple of seconds during capturing. Is this because I am capturing to an external drive? I would capture to my main computer, but FCPro seems to take up all my memory after a couple of projects.
Josh,
That shouldn’t be effecting the capture. What kind of computer are you using and what kind of external hard drive are you using? Is it USB 1.1 or 2?
Joe-
I’m stumped man, if your computer is recognizing the external hard drives FCP should see it too. Try an export of a clip and see if it sees it. Or try to setup the capture scratch disc on the external hard drive to see if you can find it that way.
Thanks for the reply, Im using a Powermac dualcore 2.3. I have a Seagate 500gb. I also am using a DV Converter, a Miglia: Directors Cut 2. This is hooked up to the Mac, and the Mac sends the info to the External Drive which is assigned as the scratch disk and such. I do the capture now, and it will capture for a couple random seconds and then freeze up. Final Cut itself doesnt lock, just the capture now screen. Any help would be great! Thanks again,
Josh
Hey Andy,
I hvae a similar problem as some people above.
I?m capturing my Dv tapes using firewire, we use pal here in South africa. My audio/video settings are setup for DV PAL and my scratch disc setup with 400 gigs free.
In log and capture:
if i press play and click on now , the video plays and capturs, when i press escape i get the final cut pro unable to read file error.
if i set in and out points and press on clip it does what it should but when finished says “file error: unkown file.”
Ive tried both DV PAL 48 and anamorphic.
We captured off this dLink a few days ago.
Any ideas.
Kind regards stu.
I figured out my problem, which has to do with Log and Capture locking up during the capture process, while having my computer attached to a 500GB external drive and DV converter.
Either the computer or the external drive was locking up the capture process because it could not take in the data as well as write it into memory. In other words, could not do two things at once. My solution: I went to scratch disk setup and changed only the video capture from the 500gb to now be saved on the computer and let everything else be still saved to the external drive. Once it is captured, I moved the captured material to from the computer to the seagate. When I go to Final Cut, reconnect footage. it will say the footage does not work when trying to reconnect, but I hit “try again” and it reconnected without errors. Since I relocated video capture to the HD, I havent had problems locking up.
Im glad that I was able to find this board for outside help though, thanks Andy and everyones comments.
Josh Reale
hey can some one plz help>
im new to fcp and film making in general
i have previously been messing with imovie and got bored so i got fcp5
now, with my footage i have been capturing it in imovie previously and transfering it to my lacie firewire.
now when i transfer the footage into fcp from my external i get droped frames.
i have been told that if you run an external and your computer with fcp it will run at the speed of the lowest hd.
i think if i upgrade my ram in my mac it should fix the problem but im not sure.
i have a early 2006 imac with 512mb ram and a lacie fire wire ecternal that runs at 7200rpm (i think thats right for my external )
does any1 no if i put another gig of ram in my mac, will it fix the problem…../… or will i have to get another hard drive aswell…. or am i way of track???
any help would be fantastic
thanx
james
hi guys still got this final cut 6 issue, see two posts above… ERROR: final cut pro was unable tot read the movie file just captured….
i’ve just tried FCP rescue and dumped my pref’s … but no luck.
Hello,
I have a WD external HD and I am editing on Final Cut. I set up my system settingS to WD external HD so that i CAN capture directly to it and save all the files on on it TOO. It worked once but it doesn’t do it any more. When i try to caputre on to the extERtal drive now it only reads the time code on the capture screen. Any ideas.
juan
I have a FCP project I want to transfer from one external hard drive to another. What is the best way to do this so that the media will still communicate properly in Final Cut? Worst case I know I can reconnect the media manually, but I am trying to find a way to avoid having to do that.
I am trying to capture DV footage as I normally do but this time (for the first time) its saying, “Error: Final cut pro was not able to read the movie file just captured” why is this the case and what can I do about it? Can anybody please help.
Is it a definite impossibility to run FCP off of an External drive? Seems like that would assist in version issues. I work on a campus and we have many different version floating around.
Hello… you cannot run FCP off an external drive. You can save all footage (audio/video) to external. Also, fcp projects will not capture properly when one external drive is connected to another then to the computer (Macintosh HD). To the person with problems with log and capture. Turn computer off, disconnect hard drive (properly!), reconnect THE external drive you want to save fcp project on, turn on computer, notice external drive on desktop. it is best to set up save folder on external hard drive first before moving saved fcp project around and then creating folders. reset scratch disks to THE external drive. now open log and capture and capture now for a couple minutes to see if working.
I’m trying to determine if I can use 2 external hard drives (2 - 500 GB ext. hard drive) or if I need one 750 GB hard drive. I have final cut with an IMAC core duo. Basically, I’m going to record possibly about 60 hours of video on mini DV tapes (12 GB per tape x 60 = 720 GB), and I’m doing most of it in a very remote location where I probably can’t acquire additional hard drives. Is there a way where I can create one fc project that has about 720 GB of video footage but store it on 2 different external hard drives? Thanks for any help you can give.
Hi, I have just installed fcp 5.1 on my macbook. I have been editing on the same version(5.1) at university but I connected my hard drive and tried to open my project and an error message just keeps coming up. Have I done something wrong? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give!
sorry..the error message is error 41 ?
Check to see if you have the same version as the school does. For instance the school might have 5.1.4 and your newly installed FCP would be 5.1.0 or .1, .2, .3. That would cause that message to occur. Good Luck
Hi, I’m working with an external drive and when i try to open the FCP “General Erros 41″ appears on my desk. I’m working with FC 5.1 but i don’t know if i have any exyension more. I can realiza that my FC version it’s older than the FC version from the hard drive. That means that the solution is to update my FC? If it’s ye, how can i get it?
thank you very much.
I can’t find anywhere on the net to download the upgrade. Open your software update and check for new software. Your computer will connect with Apple and it should update automatically.
You will need your serial code in order to update.
Hi..I’m having trouble opening the lessons on my Final Cut Pro 6 DVD tutorial. Every time I try to do so I get error 41. I am using an iMAC version 10.4.7. Could this be the problem? If so, can I cure it by using an external fire drive with a lot more space? Grateful for any guidance…RM. Sydney, Australia.
Roger-
Definitely take the lessons off of the DVD and onto your hard drive. That would slow down the files big time. As far as the error 41 that is difficult to say. All the instances that I’ve experienced error 41 is trying to open a project that was created in FCP on a different version.
For instance… Open a FCP file that was created in FCP 6.0.2 and my version is 6.0.0 I would get an error 41
Try to run a software update and see if that solves it.
Good luck, Roger and out!
i use fcp and an external hard drive, my scratch discs are set to the external hard drive (200 g of free space). My capture window says that i only have 61 minutes approx 14 gigs left of free space. After deleting some old projects folder i had open this still did not change. Did i miss something?! how do i free up more space for capturing?
Did you empty the trash so? Doing that will free some space. That’s all i can think about.
I am having a horrible problem importing 24p footage from my DVX 100A into Final Cut 6. I recently upgraded from Fina Cut 4.5 and never had problems importing DVX footage but now my clips come as 29.97 fps and the size is altered to 640×480? What gives!? I set up my presets as DV NTSC and capture with advanced pulldown removal just like I have for years and ever since I upgraded to Final Cut Pro 6, importing footage has been incredible frustrating. Am I missing something?
Is this the setup you have for importing footage in easy setup?
Hi! I have finished my editing and now want to burn my movie but I cant get past transforming my project into 1 file. My external drive was FAT32 so I created a new partition using ipartition. I made it Mac OS Extended (I’m using a macbook) but I still cant write larger files than 4,25GB. (I mark in - out, then attemt making an avi uncompressed with the quicktime conversion.)
I’m now thinking of formatting the whole external drive getting rid of any pc influence…?! but if I dont need to do that, that would be great (takes a long time and I need to find space to back up my project.) it needs to work by this weekend… help?! thanks!
Hi - i’m using FCPS2 on a mac pro and a macbook pro.
I’d like to continue editing on my laptop when i’m
away from my desk - can anyone suggest a solid
workflow so that i can transcode media to smalller
sizes for use on the mackbook pro (or even just
consolidate the bits i want to work on) but then
still easily update the project to continue work
back on the desktop system?
How easy is relinking my updated project to the
media on my macpro.
any tips about doing this would be great.
( this link was helpful but didn’t quite cover the
back and forthness i’d like to acheive:
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/media_manager_fcp_4_balis.html)
OR
Is the best way to just carry a big hard disk about
and use that on both the laptop and the desktop systems?
I have final cut pro 4.0 and recently after i was done capturing on my lacie external I noticed when I turn on my computer the external doesn’t show up on my desktop. after awhile it will pop up and states something to the effect device was not properly shut down and go into finder and eject or clean out external.
Is this what I should do?? I’m worried if I first aid it under the finder it will delete saved files on external.
thanks
I want to install Final Cut Studio on my MacBook Pro, but have limited space.
Is it possible/Do you think it’s a good idea to install the applications on my internal HD and then install the extras on my external HD?
Hello,
I would like your help. I have the exact same problem as Ron, I have an external hard drive that the thing is saved to and i have both things checked and it still doesn’t WORK!!!!! PLEASE HELP!
I have video files on a Mac at school that I have been working on in Final Cut Pro. I loaded them on an external hard drive to work on them at home. I load them onto my PC running windows xp home. I moved the files to the C drive. When I open the folder all file names have a ._ added in front of them. I can not open the files. I get an error message that says the file extension is not recognized by windows. I have tried adding different file extentions; i.e. .mov, .avi. I have tried removing the ._ from the file name. Nothing works. I can load the files onto my wife’s computer and her computer can open them. Does anyone have a clue what the problem is?
Hi!
Please S.O.S, I am having a very similar problem as Susie had at the beginning of this blog, General Error 41. You wrote “Check out this explanation to see if it helps…”, I go there but I can´t find the explanation…please tell me where to find that…
Thanks
Just to be more specific…I trash the preferences, reinstall the program (same version than before), it won´t open the autosave vault, it will open other old projects I had, it does open the media associated to the project, I did the disk utility, don´t know what else to do…
Question: Are you using the same version of FCP on each computer… even if the version is 6.0.2 it won’t open a version saved as 6.0.3.
Double check to make sure you are running the latest version.
hi guys,
im using final cut and saving all my files to a lacie hard drive. but now when i open final cut it wont open any of the files… i think the mac has forgotten the link to the hardrive. how do i re-establish this link?
thankyou
sam
i am having trouble when i try to log and transfer longer clips from my canon hg10 to final cut express, and when i do put on shorter clips, it takes a very long time. it gives me a stop sign with an exclamation Mark in it and says it is an unknown error.
hi,
I’m working on fcp on a macbook pro and for some reason, neither the fcp nor my project files are opening up. This has happened before and an fcp reinstall resolves the problem. Is there another way to get my project to open?
Also, i was organising media in my bins and renamed a few clips (also renamed file to match clip). A day later, all of the renamed clips were offline. I noticed they didn’t have reel numbers, which is bizarre as they originally did have them. I tried to input the reel numbers again, but after inputting and hitting enter or clicking outside, the reel numbers vanished. As an experiment, I tried to rename another clip and sure enough the reel number vanished of the renamed clip as soon as I did the rename file to match clip bit.
Reconnecting the media isn’t an option - although the clips show up, i have to uncheck the box that says match name and reel no. even though the reel number is the same and I’m assuming the clip no. shld be the same as well.
I could just redigitise - but I’d love to figure out what I’m doing wrong!
thanks!
hi mac users,
ur kind help is needed here…. as i have big project to complete by this week my mac has started givin probs…when ever i try to open final cut pro it shows that my Mac HD is missin, but i can still see the icon and work on with other application but the prob is only with FCP….please help me with this…
thank you
Greetings from kingdom of thunder Dragon
Bhutan
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