If these are EIDE drives, you should have DMA enabled on both of them. You have to do a little digging in XP to find this setting, it was a snap on W98.

First thing I'd try is defragmenting the drives.

Jack

I sounds like perhaps the file system itself has corrupt file links.

I would run a check disk on that drive. Right-click on the drive icon in My Computers and select Properties > Tools > Check Now... then check both boxes (fix errors and recover bad sectors) and press Start. It can’t hurt and if there are any cross-linked files this will fix them so new files don’t get corrupt.

~jr

Ok... when I am done capturing, I get a window that says that the file has been corrupted and could not be saved. However, I did find the file and tried to play it using WMP... the video is pixilated with red, green, and blue squares and occasionally you can see the actually picture--but only for a split second. The sound is nothing but static, except at the time you can see the picture for that split second. I deleted the file.

I used the DataGuard program that came with the new drive and it says that DMA is active--is this the same as enabled?

I defragged both drives (and usually do after every project). This always helps but didn't solve my problems.

Thanks for the help. I have done this before with Norton System Works but am doing it now as you suggested. There were no problems before but we will see what happens this time. Thanks.



Subject: RE: A New problem capturing video
Reply by: JohnnyRoy
Date: 10/30/2005 2:33:28 PM

I sounds like perhaps the file system itself has corrupt file links.

I would run a check disk on that drive. Right-click on the drive icon in My Computers and select Properties > Tools > Check Now... then check both boxes (fix errors and recover bad sectors) and press Start. It can’t hurt and if there are any cross-linked files this will fix them so new files don’t get corrupt.

~jr
Message last edited on 10/30/2005 2:33:55 PM, by JohnnyRoy.

Here is what I found:

DMA is active on both drives. I Ran hdtune and here are the results--

Primary Drive: Transfer rate-- 34MB/sec minimum
59.1 max
51.1 ave
Access Time-- 13.0 ms
Burst Rate-- 70.1 MB/sec
CPU Usage-- 8.6%
Health-- all ok
Error Quick Scan-- ok no damage
Temp 43 degrees Celsius/ 109 degrees F

Secondary Drive: Transfer rate-- 2.0 MB/sec minimum
60.5 Max
33.0 Ave
Access Time-- 11.9 ms
Burst Rate-- 78.0 MB/sec
CPU Usage-- 5.8%
Error Quick Scan-- ok no damage
Temp same as primary

I saved a snapshot of this but don't know how I can add it to the forum if necessary. I ran a check disk on both drives just prior to using hdtune and all was ok.

I had a tech from Geek Squad originally set up my PC and as far as I know here is how it is:

Everything is on the primary IDE channel-- primary hard drive (300g), secondary hard drive (250g), 3 1/2 floppy, DVDRom, DVD Burner, and CD-RW. Nothing is on the secondary IDE.

I have recently read that I should have the primary hard drive and two drives on one cable in the primary IDE channel, and the secondary (video) hard drive and the remaining two drives on a different cable in the secondary IDE channel. I am not sure how to do this but is this what I should do? Because of the hard drives are over 130gb (I think this is right) I had to use an ATA or something like that. Does this affect anything?

I have Grisoft AVG anti-virus but I shut it down before capturing.

I have been capturing to the primary drive for almost a year w/o problems... I tried capturing to the secondary (no problems with dropped frames) but the files would be corrupted... so I went back to capturing to the primary drive. It just recently started dropping frames. I have noticed that if I capture very small clips (a few seconds to a minute or two) to the secondary drive, they are not corrupted. When I capture 60 minutes (which is my normal project--I have a tv program) then the file is corrupted. I don't understand this.

I sure appreciate your patience and your help. I am an amatuer at this stuff but can take directions!



Subject: RE: A New problem capturing video
Posted by: JohnnyRoy
Date:

10/30/2005 2:33:28 PM
I sounds like perhaps the file system itself has corrupt file links.

I would run a check disk on that drive. Right-click on the drive icon in My Computers and select Properties > Tools > Check Now... then check both boxes (fix errors and recover bad sectors) and press Start. It can’t hurt and if there are any cross-linked files this will fix them so new files don’t get corrupt.

~jr
Message last edited on 10/30/2005 2:33:55 PM, by JohnnyRoy.

From your description, it's very unlikely to be Vegas. Your PC and disk drives are fast enough and you are OK with both disk drives on the same IDE channel.

No one else seems to have caught this - you mentioned a "converter". Is this an analog capture?

Steve Mann

Subject: RE: A New problem capturing video
Posted by: n19093
Date:10/31/2005 11:53:21 PM
From your description, it's very unlikely to be Vegas. Your PC and disk drives are fast enough and you are OK with both disk drives on the same IDE channel.

No one else seems to have caught this - you mentioned a "converter". Is this an analog capture?

Steve Mann


Hi and thanks for the help!

I am using a Canopus ADVC110 converter for capturing from a DVD/VCR player but I disconnected it and tried my camera with the same results so I don't think it is the converter.

I also opened the pc up and traced the cables and it IS NOT like I thought. It appears that the floppy drive has a cable that goes stright to the board. The other disk drives are on one cable to an IDE channel (I don't know which is primary and which isn't), and then the two hard drives on one cable to the other IDE channel.

I do have a question... I opened the capture window and clicked properties to set the folder that the captured file will be saved to and set the folder in the secondary drive. Is this correct or is there a different place to do this?

Thanks again for the help and I sure appreciate it.

Joel.

I did a test on my drives using HDTUNE and posted the results here:

http://www.eternaltruthministries.org/hdtuneresults.htm

Does this help?

I did an extended test on the video drive using DLG (Western Digital) and it found bad sectors. I tried to repair but there was an error. Does this mean my hard drive is bad and could this be the reason that the files are corrupted when capturing to this drive? Any help is appreciated. Thanks!

Joel.

Could very well be. Can you backup the data you have off of the drive and reformat? Don't use the "Quick" reformat, you will need to use the looong format option, which will reread each sector and make bad parts of the disk unavailable after the drive is reformatted. Hopefully, you won't loose much available space in the reformat. If so, like if you drop 10 GB from what it was, you may have a disk that is rapidly going downhill and it probably should be replaced.


Edited: are you getting any intermittent clicking or whining sounds from the disk?

Hi and thanks for the help!

I did save the data to my primary drive but haven't reformatted yet. I will give it a try but when I tested the drive a couple of times using HDTUNE, it showed speed problems.

But these were quick tests so I am doing the loooonnnnggg test now to see what happens.

There is no sound coming from the drive which gives a false impression that all is okay.

I am able to replace the drive at little to no cost so I will probably do that and try again.

However, this doesn't tell me why I can capture to my primary drive a couple of times (60 minutes each) w/o dropped frames, then frames start dropping.

My problem with this drive was that I wouldn't have dropped frames, but the file would be corrupted and non-usable. So maybe I have a couple of different problems??

Thanks again for the counsel. I will post what I find out.

Joel.