Hard drive options for Logic Express with a Mac Mini

I'm considering getting a Mac Mini to use for recording video from a medical endoscopic camera. The reasons for choosing a Mac Mini are 1) low cost 2) small size and 3) no fans - blowing dust around an operating theatre can be a risk (therefore even if cost wasn't an issue, the fans would preclude other mac models).
I've been looking at the spec of a Mac Mini - they have 5400 rpm hard drives and only 1 firewire 800 port. I'm using a Canopus ADVC 55 to convert analogue video to DV which connects using Firewire.
Will the built in hard drive be ok, or should I consider replacing it with a 7200 rpm drive, or get an external Firewire drive. PResumably, with only 1 firewire port on the Mac Mini I would need to find either a hard drive with 2 firewire ports to chain devices (which I've heard can be a problem) or perhaps get a firewire hub (similar problem?).
Currently I'm using a MacBook Pro with an internal 7200 rpm drive and this works fine (except when it gets low on hard drive space and I get dropped frames, leading to complete loss of the recording...).

Thanks - I just did a quick search and there are some Firewire 800/400 'bilingual' hubs around at reasonable prices.
I'm tempted to try the Mac Mini server, and perhaps have the 2 drives in a Raid 0 configuration. I could then have it backing up to a Time Capsule overnight (to mitigate the risk of using Raid 0).
Recording to an external drive might be useful though - as it would be a quick way of moving the data to a Mac Pro for compression for archiving. I find moving 10-20GB files over 802.11n to be very time consuming.
I'll certainly bear the dust in mind in terms of the risk to the Mac Mini (I've seen PC's having failed power supplies because the air inlets have been clogged with dust). My main concern however would be the risk of infection due to the fans causing air movement. There is an enclosed space it could be located, not great for cooling though.

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Which is the optimal hard drive configuration for Logic Pro ?

hello people
i would like to ask your advices about possible hard drive configurations for Logic Pro
I have a Mac Pro and thinking to buy 4 x 500GB drives .
there are several combinations in my mind to configure , but first of all i would like to ask which is the best for an optimal system for Logic Pro
model 1 :
1 stripe Raid 0 array drive for ''System'' (500+500 = 1000)
1 stripe Raid 0 array drive for ''recording + sound banks'' (500 + 500 = 1000)
which means to using 4 hard drives as 2 drives
model 2 :
1 stripe Raid 0 array drive for ''System'' (500+500 = 1000)
1 Single drive for Sound banks (500)
1 Single drive for Recording (500)
which means to using 4 hard drives as 3 drives
Or , it is more healthy to use the drives as single , without raid , stripe sets but with its own capacity instead of combining .
and also if someone has an idea regarding to compare of Seagate and Westerndigital drives (which is the best for audio recording) , would be really helpfull
I am kinda rookie for these subjects :/
thanks in advance

heelo blayzay
thanks for the reply and assistance.
1) how can i create a back up set for the 4th HD to be make back up of the 2nd and 3rd HD
2) what about to make 1st HD for system and 2nd3rd4th (1.5TB) for audio recording, and an external drive for backups ?
For the back ups , is there a special process for the backing up HD (internal or external) ? Or should i just need a Clone software to make the back up
thank you again.

Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows?

Hello,
Can I mount my external hard drive which will be compatible with both Mac and Windows? If yes, then please let me know, because I intend to use my hard drive for both Windows and Mac, without losing any file.

Yes. By default, Mac OS X and Windows can read and write drives which are formatted as FAT32 or exFAT; NTFS drives aren't writable from Mac OS X without additional software.
(124553)

I am considering purchasing a new Mac desktop. I have, at present, a Liteon 851S ext CD/DVD write and a Maxtor 3200 USB ext hard drive. Will these work with a Mac desktop? My local Apple store could not answer my question.Happy New year to all.

I am considering purchasing a new Mac desktop. I have, at present, a Liteon 851S ext CD/DVD write and a Maxtor 3200 USB ext hard drive. Will these work with a Mac desktop? My local Apple store could not answer my question.Happy New year to all.

Yes the Mac can read that drive but you would need to Copy the data off of it to the Mac as apposed to Move, which implies Deleting them from the drive as they were transferred from the external to the Mac. Since the Mac can Not Write to NTFS drives it can't Delete anything as that is really a Write operation, IE Making changes to the NTFS formatted drive.
Once you have that Data on Both your New Mac and you Older Windows PC you can format that drive to work on both system.
If you want to and plan on doing that post back and I'll explane how, it is simple but should be done on a Windows PC.
If you only plan on using it on the Mac from now on that is fairly simple also and is done on the Mac, Once you have the files from it stored on the Mac.
Yes you could burn those photos to DVD but that is just a waste of DVDs, you don't need to.

Can you use logic express on a mac mini for recording

Can i use logic exprees on a mac mini for recording? Ive seen alot of 8,12, and 16 track recorders with a cd burner and it seems like a logical and more productive gues for me to buy a macmini for the same thing of recording and then I can uses logic express, a far better program for recording. can the mac mini handle the load of processing tracks and how much ram should I uses? thanks tim

sorry, I'd like to butt in here:
I would like to do the same thing, so I am curious about this forum and rather than starting a new one, can I get some advice on this possibility:
Mac Mini
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
80GB Serial ATA drive
Glyph External HD 250 Gig
Mackie Onyx 1620 w/Firewire
Logic Pro 7.2
thoughts?
The most number of tracks I could see at once would be 16.
Here is something I am most curious about...
Firewire Hard drive
Firewire Interface/mixer
Firewire camera for FCP
to much firewire?
Please let me know if you have other thoughts aswell...
Shuke
thanks guys, this forum is fantastic!

Which hard drive option for pro apps use on new Macbook Pro?

I'm trying to decide b/t either a 500 GB 7200 drive or the 1 TB 5200 drive on my new 17" MBP. I mostly use FCP, but am learning the other apps as well. The salesman told me today that:
1- The 1 TB 5200 would probably be about 10% slower than the 500 GB 7200 in rendering if my media is on these drives. This assumes neither drive's capacity is too filled.
2- More importantly, if I use an external hard drive for my media then my boot drive will have nothing to do with performance. He said all it would affect is how quickly FCP et al opens originally and that the rest of its active running is done by the RAM. The rendering would be dependent upon the external drive. So, the boot drive wouldn't really matter with this setup.
Does this, especially #2, sound right? If so, I'd definitely take the 1 TB option. But any info or thoughts on this are greatly appreciated, especially as the MBP will be replacing my G5.
Thanks ahead of time for any help!

Oh sure, I know it's always advisable to use a separate video drive. A SSD and that Caldigit VR mini do sound like a great combo and thanks for the heads up about them, but that would be something down the road for me. SSD boot drives aren't big enough for me and are too pricy at this point for my budget. I do plan on using some external storage as my video when I'm editing something bigger than SD. But right now I'm just trying to figure out what my best option is for the boot drive. Primarily I trying to find out if the boot affects the performance of FCP (and the other Pro Apps) when using external storage. If it doesn't, then I know what I should buy.
Thanks!

External Hard Drive Options for Back Up - USB 2.0 or FireWire

Needing some advice on this one. Looking to purchase an external hard drive for back up through Time Machine - also running Win XP via Parallels. Should I go USB 2.0 or FireWire or have both options? Is there any difference in speed? I will be also using the external hard drive as needed for other manual back ups and data transfers eg movie projects. (and yes the Macbook has Firewire).
Would appreciate some comment / recommendations.

Hey Pluke and welcome to the forum -
Firewire is faster overall for data transfers especially large or lengthy ones. With this in mind, I would use an external enclosure that has both Firewire and USB.
I'm not sure if this was part of your question or not but I would not include your virtual machine (xp) in your Time Machine backup. The reason is it will fill up your backup drive quickly because your TM backup copies hourly every file that has changes made to it. Your VM file is both large (the size of the virtual drive) and has changes even if you just have it open and not really using it. You should include your VM file in your manual backup instead.
-GDF

Best hard drive setup for Logic Pro?..

Hi all,
I'm about to get a Mac Pro, and I was wondering a bit about the best hard drive set up for running Logic Pro.
1. Should I go with Western Digital Caviar SE ? Noise is a primary issue, I'd like them to be as silent as possible. Could anybody tell me their experiences with this disc?.. I also hear that Samsungs Spinpoint are almost silent. Any truth to this? (I want my discs in sizes of 500Gb.)
2. Is this a good setup:
D1: Mac OS, Logic Pro
D2: Audio for Logic Pro
D3: Sample libraries, including direct from disc streaming.
3. I seem to remember from another post that someone wrote that raiding discs could actually decrease performance when working with audio. Is this the case?
Thanks,
Curvebender.
Message was edited by: curvebender
Message was edited by: curvebender

curvebender wrote:
2. Is this a good setup:
D1: Mac OS, Logic Pro
D2: Audio for Logic Pro
D3: Sample libraries, including direct from disc streaming.
Yes, excellent way to go. One suggestion: on your sample or audio drive, or an external FW, install a basic system + Logic app only. This enables you to have another system to boot from in case of trouble, or you can use it as a test bed for future updates etc. without affecting your primary system. You'd only boot into this drive in case of problems or for testing. I currently have Leopard running on one drive to test it out as I don't want to move to 10.5.x yet.

Hard Drive Configuration for Logic Studio 9

Based on a lot of prior feedback on this forum, we plan to utilize three separate hard drives on a Mac Pro for Logic 9 -- The System Drive, plus a separate work drive to store and work on the audio/MIDI files, and another hard drive dedicated to sound libraries. My question is, when we go about loading the sound libraries and their engines, do we load them onto the system drive (where Logic will live) and then just copy the actual sample/loop folders to the other hard drive? Or perhaps we should load the entire library and all its files onto the dedicated sound library drive?
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heelo blayzay
thanks for the reply and assistance.
1) how can i create a back up set for the 4th HD to be make back up of the 2nd and 3rd HD
2) what about to make 1st HD for system and 2nd3rd4th (1.5TB) for audio recording, and an external drive for backups ?
For the back ups , is there a special process for the backing up HD (internal or external) ? Or should i just need a Clone software to make the back up
thank you again.

New Hard Drive Errors for Logic Studio????

I have just replaced my system drive and used Carbon Copy cloner to clone to the new drive from my back up. For some reason when I attempt to open certain Locig songs, I get an error message that says "Registry error, please ensure this product has been installed properly" I have reinstalled to the new hard drive and still certain songs will cause this message????? It's weird how only certain song projects cause this..??? Please HELP!! I have trashed preferrences, and repaired permissions, and am desperate to figure this out.??? HELPPPPP!!!!!

To be honest, your messages are a little bit confusing…
First of all its not clear to me if you created the Recovery Disk in the past.
Please check this HowTo document “How to use the TOSHIBA Recovery Media Creator”
http://aps2.toshiba-tro.de/kb0/HTD16036F0000R01.htm
If recovery disk creation would not work, here is a page where you could order the essential disks: http://backupmedia.toshiba.eu
The recovery disk will help you to recover the notebook back to factory settings even using new HDD.

Hard drive options for New Macbook Pro 17 inch

I'm interested in purchasing a new MAcbook Pro 17 inch. I'll be using it primarily for work in Adobe Illustrator. I'm wondering if the speed difference of the 500GB 7200 drive will be noticeable compared to the standard 750GB 5400 hard drive. Are there any bench tests out there?

I'm interested in purchasing a new MAcbook Pro 17 inch. I'll be using it primarily for work in Adobe Illustrator. I'm wondering if the speed difference of the 500GB 7200 drive will be noticeable compared to the standard 750GB 5400 hard drive. Are there any bench tests out there?

Logic Nope With G4 Mac Mini (Non-gigabet version)

Does anyone know if that will work? One of the genius' at the apple store said I need gigabit and the only thing I could do was to buy a new Intel Core Duo Mac Mini. (Oh BTW, does anyone have predictions on when the Mac Mini will go core 2 duo) Does anyone know of any non-gigabit to gigabit converters out there? Thanks!
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.8)

you can in theory run logic node with less than gigabit ethernet, but the word is that it's too slow to make it worthwhile.
also, there's no such thing as a non-gigabit to gigabit ethernet converter. a datsun to porsche converter would be nice too.
you can probably get a gigabit ethernet PCI card to add to a machine, but mac minis don't have PCI. honestly you're best off just getting a machine that has gigabit ethernet built in.

What is the maximum hard drive height for installing two hard drives in the 2011 Mac Mini

In a few months I'll be buying a Mac Mini. I want to upgrade the stock hard drive with a Seagate Momentus XT Solid state Hybrid Drive(720 RPM), which is 9.5 mm tall.
I would like to add a second hard drive, a Seagate Constellation(7200 RPM), which has a "15mm z-height".
I want to use those hard drives so I can have a speedy Mac Mini, but also have a great amount of storage(1.75 terabytes). My largest priority is storage space, but I also would like to use 7200 RPM hard drives as speed is also a priority.
I would like to know if those two hard drives would both fit in the 2011 Mac Mini.
And also, what does "Z-height" mean in regards to hard drives?

9.5mm is the standard 2.5" drive height. This thread says one 15mm drive may fit, but recommends against a Seagate Constellation drive, due to the amount of power it draws.
One option would be to add an external mini-stack, then storage space becomes a secondary concern. If you want speed, install an SSD for the operating system then put everything else on secondary storage.

I'm trying to install Mac OSX on an external drive with my Mac Mini

A few days ago, I picked up my new Mac Mini. I'm using the install disk included with the Mini in an attempt to install Mac OSX 10.4.5 onto my external hard drive - a LaCie d2 200GB.
The installer knows the LaCie is there - but it won't let me install it there. I had no problem doing this with my last Mac (Power Mac G4). Does anyone have any suggestions?
Mac Mini Duo Core 1.66Mhz Mac OS X (10.4.7) LaCie d2 Firewire Hard Drive 200GB

If you are using an Intel mac mini you need to change the partition scheme. Without doing this the Intel Macs cannot boot from the drive.
To do this you need to open Disk Utility, select your drive (not the partition), then select the Partition tab. In there you'll see an Options… button. Click on it and change the partition scheme to GUID Partition Table. Click OK and then apply the reparitioning.
Please be aware that by making this change you will be able to boot your Intel Mac from the drive although a PowerPC drive will no longer be able to use the drive as a boot drive.

Can I set up multiple usb hard drives- one for time machine and a second for media? Can one also print wirelessly with an old HP C6280 printer?

Can I set up multiple usb hard drives- one for time machine and a second for media?
Can one also print wirelessly with an old HP C6280 printer?

Can I set up multiple usb hard drives- one for time machine and a second for media?
Yes.
Can one also print wirelessly with an old HP C6280 printer?
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Hard drive options for Logic Express with a Mac Mini

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