Comments

TVCmike wrote on 2/17/2004, 10:55 PM
When you change policies, does it say you're denied? A little more info on the error would be helfpul. I'm assuming you're logged in with Administrator privileges. If you're not, try that. Even if you are, go to Administrative Tools and verify the permissions that your account has.

Is your external hard drive attached through a HUB or directly to your computer? Try connecting directly if you haven't done that already, or to a different port. Hubs can cause havoc with hardware sometimes.

Have you tried copying using the Command Line prompt? (i.e. copy foobar.dv U: ). Sometimes Windows Explorer doesn't behave the way we like it to.

I'm too tired to think past that tonight, so hopefully some of this will help you. If not, we can always tackle it tomorrow.
johnmeyer wrote on 2/18/2004, 12:47 AM
Is everything NTFS? If you are going from NTFS to FAT32, you will get error messages. Also, although I don't think this applies to you, Windows 98 and Windows ME will not let you copy files greater than 2 GBytes using Windows Explorer. If you want to copy a file greater than 2 GBytes, up to the FAT32 maximum of 4 GBytes, you must do so using a command (MS-DOS) window.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 2/18/2004, 5:33 AM
What's the size of the external drive? Maybe it's to big for your OS to handle. Also, do you have enough space on the external (just covering all the bases).
lynj wrote on 2/25/2004, 9:46 PM
My, time gets away! I've not been able to get back to the forum for a few days but I thank you all for the replies.

I am stil lhaving problems. I am working on an Athlon 1800 on XP. The external is Buslink USB2 going to a buslink 4 port card. Buslink has been troubleshooting with me. I can transfer large files back and forth through the USB 1 port. Tech had me copy "Program" which holds about 1.5 gigs data. Works in the USB 1 but not in the USB 2, which made him come to the conclusion that it is the USB 2 card. Got a new one yesterday. Same problem. I switched slots, in case it was bad. Same problem. Windows freezes and I have to power button off. I'm not even getting the write failure message now (or maybe I'm not waiting long enough for it to come up).

The drive seems to work fine as long as I don't copy large data files back and forth to the C drive, but I'm concerned with starting a big new project on either of my USB 2 drives. I need some new externals. Should I go for firewire this time?

Thanks for all the help I get from this forum. I wish I had time to read everything on it. There is so much information and some of you guys are so smart.

Lyn
cosmo wrote on 2/25/2004, 9:59 PM
really interesting and quirky. I have a western digital 200GB firewire/usb 2.0 combo drive on windows xp. the firewire through the $30 add on 1394 card is amazingly fast. the usb 2.0 doesn't work at all - throught the same 1394 card(it's a combo). usb 1 works but not 2.0 so maybe it is an xp thing.

if going to a firwire external disk is an option for you, I for sure would recommend it.
lynj wrote on 2/25/2004, 10:06 PM
I have a 2 port firewire card. I connect my camera to one of the ports for capture. If I use the same card, other port for the external drive, will that be OK? I will be capturing to that drive. Also, can you daisy chain firewire drives?
cosmo wrote on 2/25/2004, 10:09 PM
I don't know about daisy chaining, but I've used multiple ports on the same card. Mine has 2 ports and I always have 2 devices plugged into them with not one problem, ever! That's one hell of a jinx...
lynj wrote on 2/25/2004, 10:16 PM
How about size? Would you go with two 60's or a 120...or bigger? What about optimizing? I've never optimized any of mine. Does that really make a difference on rendering time. How full can you really get a drive and have it still work up to best speed?

How about brand names anyone?
cosmo wrote on 2/25/2004, 10:24 PM
You'll have to wait on some of the better pc guys in here to hit you with the hard drive specs, brands and advice. I know there's a lot of info saying bigger drives are slower because of having to search to far on the disk to get data. Don't go slower than 7200. If you wanna use several smaller - I say go for it. I work off of a 30gb ide secondary drive. Then I transfer the project to my firewire drive for storage and move on. I keep a small 20gb drive for windows and software. This way, whenever i have weird unexplainable computer problems...I'm just 2 hours away from a fresh system. More semi-useless info...
jester700 wrote on 2/26/2004, 5:04 PM
Bigger drives are not slower. If anything, they are faster, as the areal density means the head actuator usually moves less distance. Think of it this way - a 30GB drive's actuator moves as far from the start to the end of a 30GB file as a 120GB drive does for a 120GB one. Or, the 120GB drive needs to go a much shortr distance to get to the end of a 30GB file.

The only issue is that with huge drives, there may well be many more files to keep track of, but this has never been an issue for me.

For purely using as a DV capture drive, 5400RPM is fine, but 7200RPM gives you more speed for other possible uses.