"Error:Out of Disk Space" message. Why?

Question

I've been using an Apple G4 with FCP2 to capture footage through a Sony DSR-11 deck. I've set up a LaCie 500GB 7200, with most of its 500GB available, as capture disk. As late as last summer I used this system to capture 70+ hours of footage which was then edited on another system.
This time I've met only problems. I've tried capturing 5 different DV tapes. They seem to be capturing but at the end of the hour I get the message "Error: Out of Disk Space".
Does anyone know why this might be happening? I've checked the set up and everything seems in order. (These tapes are 4:3, the ones captured last year were 16:9 DV, so the only adjustment I had to make was un-checking "anamorphic".) I even tried capturing to the MAC hard drive to see if the problem was the LaCie drive, but I get the same same message. (The LaCie I've been using had been full with last year's capture scratch and the disk had been erased through LaCie's Silverlining program, so for a while I began to think that this may be the problem; that maybe I'd have to reformat the disk, etc. but this test seems to rule that out.)
Thanks.
John

Answer 1

Since I last wrote I’ve changed hard drives, run tests on them, as well as trash my preferences, which I did earlier. Still, if I try to capture a tape (to disks with up to 460 GB available) I get the message “Error: Out of Disk Space”. The only thing I can think of doing now is deleting and then reinstalling the Final Cut software.
Here I’m kind of dumb and don’t want to make any mistakes. This Apple has been a stand-alone computer used only for Final Cut and the software was installed when I got it. The rest of my life has been conducted on a PC. So is there anything I should do before deleting Final Cut? Should I be doing anything to protect exiting project files, captured clips, thumbnail cache etc.? Will Final Cut just recognize these when I re-install? What do I do? Just open the Mac hard drive, identify the Final Cut application and drag it to Trash? Do I need to empty the trash first or should I leave it there for safety?
I look at the instructions that came with my ancient Final Cut 2 disks. Here’s what they say in full:
To install QuickTime, follow these steps
1) Insert the Final Cut Pro CD in your CD drive. (I see I have two disks: one “Final Cut Pro 2”, the other “Final Cut Pro 2:Tutorial Media” Do I need to install the second?)
2) Double-click the CD’s icon, then double-click the QuickTime Installer folder.
3) Double-click the QuickTime Installer icon and follow the onscreen instructions.
4) When the Choose Installation Type window appears, select Custom, then click Continue.
5) In the next window, click Select All, then continue
This replaces any previous versions of QuickTime and ensures a complete installation of all components required by Final Cut Pro.
6) When a message appears saying installation was successful, click Restart.
Is this all straightforward or might there be any potential pitfalls in the above instructions for someone unfamiliar with installing software on a Mac (In my case old software and an old Mac – a G4)? I guess I should also ask if you folks out there agree that re-installing Final Cut may be the answer to my problem, that this error message is the result of a glitch that has arisen in the installed version of Final Cut.
Thanks in advance for any help.
John