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SpeedTools

• [http://www.philmug.ph/forum/showthread.php?p=782450]
• [http://www.speedtools.com]

Can use Wester Digital’s MyBook drive on a network featuring multiple OSs, such as Mac OS as well as Windows, provided one does not install MioNet (bundled with the drive).  My instincts were right then (I did not install it).

• http://raoulpop.com/2007/06/25/hardware-review-wd-my-book-world-edition-ii/
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t/t-300586.html (which references the above)

In my case, the drive is formatted as NTFS, on a Mac it simply appears automatically in Finder then Mac OS is able to read it (Mac OS is able to read NTFS).  In retrospect, maybe would have been better to format it as HFS+ since then Windows could use MacDrive to not only read but write to it.  Meanwhile on Windows I found it necessary to run the “Discover” application bundled with MyBook, which configures the network drive mapping (to a drive letter).

What’s a good folder structure for FCP?  I read and heard lots of tips from great sources, but some of them (e.g. keep [.fcp] files on local drive not Media drive) sounded questionable, at least from my context, and anyway I always want to know the underlying reason for anything.  So it’s research-time again…

• .

There are several aspects:

• .

Context

• Participants
  • Individual, small team or large team
  • Standards-based, methodical or haphazard
• Application(s)
  • Apple (FCS etc.) -centric?
  • Combination of several apps e.g. several makes of NLE
• Media
  • File size and value.
• Storage system(s)?
  • Local
    • Normal or (relatively) slow drive
    • Fast drive e.g. RAID
  • Remote (probably shared).
    • Exceedingly Slow (e.g. web via standard broadband)
    • Slow (e.g. NAS such as WD MyBook)
    • Fast but with possible latency (e.g. “Fibre Channel” / SAN)
  • Integrated
    • Final Cut Server giving seamless access to all storage including near-line (easily-retrievable archive)?
      • Near-line storage is any medium that is used to copy and store data from the hard drive to a source that is easily retrieved [http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-near-line-storage.htm].

Requirements

• Tidy organization
  • Easy to find stuff, including serendipitously.
  • Easy to manage stuff, e.g. archiving / shelving and reinstating.
• Performance
  • User-level.
    • Keep
  • System-level
• Security

My Conclusions (so far):

• The typical professional situation involves multiple users on a SAN.   In this case:
  • Each user should configure their apps (e.g. FCP) to save small and transient files to local disk.
    • Local disk has less latency and minimization of small-file traffic on SAN improves its performance to all users.
  • An individual (or item) -specific project file, which counts as a “small and transient file”, should not be saved routinely or automatically to shared media server but only saved there on an occasional basis (e.g. at end of day or project).
    • Restricting this operation to end-of-project might “discourage” users from corrupting each other’s files, though really that’s what Permissions are for (in Mac OS X / unix).
• Much advice relates to the “typical professional situation”, not all of it is appropriate to other situations.
• .

(more…)

Based on [http://www.bresink.com/osx/sha1.html] as of 2010-05-15:

• Apple recommends the use of the so-called SHA1 standard (Secure Hash Algorithm Version 1). Apple is using this method for their own security updates as well. For more information please also refer to Apple Support Article HT1652.
• Perform the following steps:
  • Make sure you have the downloaded file displayed somewhere in the Finder.
  • Open the Terminal application.
  • Enter the command: [/usr/bin/openssl sha1 ] with a space at the end (not a Return).
    • Note the last character of ‘openssl’ is a small ‘L’ not a ‘1′
  • Drag the target file from the Finder window into the Terminal window. A path specification will appear in the Terminal window.
  • Now press the Return key (Enter).
  • You will see output similar to the following example:
    • SHA1(path specification)= 2eb722f340d4e57aa79bb5422b94d556888cbf38.

Reading book “Final Cut Pro Workflows” by Osder & Carman, 2008.  On page 284 it relays advice that it is best to put Project Files [.fcp] on a separate drive to the Media Drive (e.g. Media Drive= XSAN), due to:

• Safety - not all on one drive
• Avoid fragmenting the media drive (project files, cache and to a lesser extent render files) are written often (transient files?)

I’m not immediately convinced by these arguments:

• Media drive should be backed-up in any case.  I use (slower) USB drives and file-synch.
• Fragmentation may be an old-school issue, less of an issue on Mac’s HFS +.
  • Example: article at [http://www.macmousecalls.com/files/1f6efbb25f58d77390499af1f984d2c7-33.html] linking-on to [http://www.kernelthread.com/mac/apme/fragmentation]
  • Example: Larry Jordan, “Final Cut Pro Power Skills” 2010, page 34, Chapter 2, “Defragmenting Your Hard Drive”: Once popular, this technique is no longer recommended.

How to view degree of fragmentation on an HFS volume:

• [http://osxbook.com/book/bonus/chapter12/hfsdebug/fragmentation.html]
  • Command-line app to report a variety of storage-volume statistics, including fragmentation.
  • After download, can check the sha1 checksum, but this is of the executable, not the download itself ([.dmg] file).  The ’sha1′ command is inbuilt to Mac OS, as: [/usr/bin/openssl sha1].  Note the last character of ‘openssl’ is a small ‘L’ niot a ‘1′.

 Mobile eSATA (via ExpressCard) for MacBook Pro.Sonnet Fusion F2.  Up to 1GB (when configured as Striped i.e. RAID0).  Sustained Read/Write of 126MBps=1008Mbps.

• FireWire 800 bitrates (for comparison):
  • Sustained 100 MBps (per bus) = 800 Mbps for a RAID0 drive [http://www.lacie.com/download/more/WhitePaper_FireWire_800.pdf].
  • Not much less than the eSATA drive.
• Video Bitrates [http://www.march21.nl/learningzone/files/7a3bdb9c2f07c7e76be79ba6c3b34bc5-43.html]
  • ProRes HD 1920×1080 @ 50p: Just under 35 MB/s.  126/35 = 3.6 such streams.
  • Prores HD 1920×1080 @ 50i: 26MB/s.  126/26 = 4.8 such streams.

Links:

• http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/reviews/index.cfm?RSS&ReviewID=3203
• http://www.macvideo.tv/editing/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=102494 
  • Includes a video of usage.

It connects via two eSATA cables to ExpressCard adaptor and also via a FireWire connector purely for the power (no bandwidth).  The intention is that the FW bandwidth is still free for use by other devices e.g. “AJA’s Io external capture and effects box – which requires all of the FireWire bandwidth to itself”. [http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/reviews/index.cfm?RSS&ReviewID=3203]

• Note - for Sony EX1 and EX3 users the Fusion F2 uses th Express 34 slot on the MacBook Pro, meaning one would need to transfer SxS data to either a FireWire or USB drive and then across to the Fusion 2.

Thinks: It works as Software RAID for the Mac.  Is there any practical way to also use it from Windows?