Need help with this dilemma

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:51 am

Hey RO'ers, I need help with the following, I have purchased a used desktop to replace the notebook in my DAW setup, with the notebook I have a firewire drive and it contains all of the session data for every session we have done. At this time I have not upgraded the desktop PC with firewire ports of any kind. I would like to make use of the sessions on the firewire drive, but at this time I can only use the usb harddrive with the desktop. I have tried copying the session data from the firewire drive to the usb drive and I found that it will copy all of the files except for the instrumental mix, which I then have to go back to the notebook and find the track music and import it into that session. Has anyone had this same dilemma, and if so what was your workaround to solve the issue? I do plan on purchasing a pcmcia to pc adapter which will allow me to use the firewire drive with the desktop DAW, but until then I would like to use the usb harddrive temporarily with this setup. I hope that this makes since, but if it doesn't please ask for more clarification. As always thanks for any input.

BigTrey

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 10:15 am

You don't say this explicitly, but I assume you are transferring the files by having both the FW and the USB drives connected to the notebook at the same time and then re-plugging the USB drive into the desktop. Correct?

The computer OS does not look at the content of files when copying, so if that file won't copy, it's something to do with the properties of the file. Is it protected in some way (restricted access) or is it simply too big?

BTW, I think you would be better off getting a FireWire PCI card for the desktop rather than going through the PC Card (PCMCIA) route. Check first that the desktop motherboard doesn't have FireWire already fitted but not yet cabled to an external connector.

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 10:40 am

Hi i couldn't work out exactly what was going on regarding the instrumental mix from your description but i can think of three reasons why files won't copy....

1) Not enough space on destination drive
2) File in use (or recently in use - bloody windows) by another appliaction
3) Unusual file name (illegal characters etc) usually a mac/win issue (could rename it?)

Think and try again.

Check there's not already a firewire port on the motherboard (look round the back). Buy a firewire card, i don't understand the way you describe and can't think of any reason to do it another way. If you are using protools, it may prefer some firewire cards to others (i think not sure). Think about a second internal drive (cheaper, less wires, faster? more secure), if only to back up stuff to. BACK UP THAT DRIVE WITH ALL YOUR SESSIONS ON IT NOW IF YOU HAVE NOT DONE SO ALREADY !!! RIGHT NOW!!! You are entering a phase of operation when things can go wrong, and if they can, they will.

Hope that helps

Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:23 pm

Thanks guys, I think to solve my dilemma I am just going to shell out the $60.00 or so bucks for the pci firewire bus. I have been trying to transfer the files from the firewire drive to the usb drive but it's like a six hour process to do, but I have managed to just copy one file at a time, but that's too slow. Thanks for the input, but I believe that I will be better off just by buying a pci firwire card and bypass the hassle of transferring files altogether.

BigTrey

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