Archive for the ‘storage’ Category

How to Format as exFAT from Windows Command-Line

Friday, April 4th, 2014

Following on from my previous post entitled: “SSD Format Details for BlackMagic Cinema Camera”:

Here is how to (re)format a volume as exFAT , whether or not it is already in that format, from Windows 7, via Command-Line (cmd):

  • Windows Start:[cmd]
  • format E: /q /fs:exfat
    • The type of the file system is EXFAT. Enter current volume label for drive E: <your volume’s name>
    • WARNING, ALL DATA ON NON-REMOVABLE DISK DRIVE E: WILL BE LOST! Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y
    • QuickFormatting 457860M
    • Format cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.
    • Format may run if this volume is dismounted first. ALL OPENED HANDLES TO THIS VOLUME WOULD THEN BE INVALID.
    • Would you like to force a dismount on this volume? (Y/N) y
    • Volume dismounted.  All opened handles to this volume are now invalid.
    • Volume label (15 characters, ENTER for none)? <your volume’s name>
    • Initializing the File Allocation Table (FAT)…
    • Creating file system structures.
    • Format complete.      447.1 GB total disk space.      447.1 GB are available.
    • 131,072 bytes in each allocation unit.     3,662,754 allocation units available on disk.
    • 32 bits in each FAT entry.
    • Volume Serial Number is <your volume’s serial number>

External Storage Devices and their Bandwidths

Saturday, September 1st, 2012
  • Summarised info from http://forums.adobe.com/thread/784220?tstart=0
    • Average transfer rates in MB/s for different interfaces:
      • USB2:    20 – 25, depending on other USB devices sharing the same bandwidth
        • archiving for storage only
      • FW400:  30 – 35
        • archiving for storage, and light editing to/from (just very slow)
      • FW800:  50 – 60
        • archiving for storage, and regular editing to/from (fairly fast)
      • USB3:    65 – 80, depending on other USB devices sharing the same bandwidth
        • (no experience)
      • eSATA & SATA: 100 -140
        • archiving for storage, and regular editing to/from
    • RAID Speed-gains over a single disk:
      • RAID0:    0.9 x N disks over a single disk
      • RAID3/5: 0.8 x (N-1) disks over a single disk for read, 0.6 x for write.
        • ICHR10 figures are a bit lower than hardware controllers.

USB3, eSATA, Thunderbolt: Comparison: I like the look of eSATA

Sunday, August 12th, 2012

Mobile Editing Blues: FW800 Unusable on MacBook via BootCamp

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

This is a problem I encountered some time ago, when I was running Boot Camp v3.1 on my MacBook Pro.  Since then I upgraded to v3.2.  I know there’s a v3.3 around but before upgrading I thought it worthwhile to see whether v3.2 had fixed that problem (especially since I couldn’t rule out the possibility of v3.3 reintroducing it).   Only one thing to do: prevaricate test.

  • Copy file from GRaid Mini (GRm) to Desktop:
    • 2GB fine
    • 12GB appears ok initially but then fails (to zero b/s transfer rate, then the Grm device “no longer exists”, at least until reboot)
  • Reverse: 2GB fails (same way) almost immediately.

OK not good thus far…

Next tried an alternative approach: run W7 as a Virtual Machine on Mac Os via Parallel.  I have Parallels v6.  Forum search revealed that there is no FW support in either v6 or v7, though the developers seem interested in knowing why people want it.

  • 2GB GRm to W7 Desktop: ok
  • The reverse: ok.

Had to stop there due to other work – and a very full W7 disk.

The next workaround to consider is attaching a NAS.  Ethernet bandwidths can be 1Gbps, hence more than FW800’s 0.8 Gbps, though I wonder if there could be any issues of lag / latency in this approach.  I’ll do some research and put up another post about this idea.

Training: Den Lennie’s “Music Video” Experience

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

I attended, working on one of the camera units.  Had a great time, learnt lots, at all sorts of levels.  Even how to make good use of the Movie Slate application on my iPhone!  Link: http://www.fstopacademy.com/

SpeedTools – disk speed test for Mac & Windows

Friday, July 16th, 2010

SpeedTools

MyBook on a multi-OS network (eg Mac & Win)

Sunday, May 16th, 2010

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).

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).

FCP Project Folder Structures: Advice

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

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)?

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…)

sha1 Checksums

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

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.

FCP Project Folder Structures: The (Non?) Fragmentation Issue

Saturday, May 15th, 2010

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:

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

Sunday, February 7th, 2010

 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.

Links:

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?