Raid 1 Firewire external drive, need to use on Mac AND Windows 7

[apollo1980]

Hi all.

I'm going to be doing a video production soon, recorded in 720p. I'm building an external hard drive enclosure that has usb and firewire ports, (I'll use firewire), with two 1TB hard drives, Raid 1 for mirroring. There is no networking ability from the enclosure.

All video will eventually come off of a Mac that will be out in the field and be stored on this external hard drive for future editing.

I'm not sure if editing will take place on a Mac or a PC. Probably the Mac, but I'd like the option of at least accessing the files on a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit PC.

I've tried to do some research as to what file allocation table type to use that is compatible between a Mac OS X and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I see that FAT32 is basically universally compatible all around (but I'd have to pull out my old Windows ME system to create a partition larger than 32MB on the 1TB drives, since 2000 and XP restrict the FAT 32 partition size deliberately to try to force people into NTFS.)

I am aware that there is a 4MB restriction on the file size written to a FAT32 partitioned hard drive, something I want to avoid.

So, my question is, how would I go about ensuring that the external hard drive enclosure is readable by my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit system, as well as Mac OS X?

Thanks in advance.

[edDV]

Hi all.

I'm going to be doing a video production soon, recorded in 720p. I'm building an external hard drive enclosure that has usb and firewire ports, (I'll use firewire), with two 1TB hard drives, Raid 1 for mirroring. There is no networking ability from the enclosure.

All video will eventually come off of a Mac that will be out in the field and be stored on this external hard drive for future editing.

I'm not sure if editing will take place on a Mac or a PC. Probably the Mac, but I'd like the option of at least accessing the files on a Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit PC.

I've tried to do some research as to what file allocation table type to use that is compatible between a Mac OS X and Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit. I see that FAT32 is basically universally compatible all around (but I'd have to pull out my old Windows ME system to create a partition larger than 32MB on the 1TB drives, since 2000 and XP restrict the FAT 32 partition size deliberately to try to force people into NTFS.)

I am aware that there is a 4MB restriction on the file size written to a FAT32 partitioned hard drive, something I want to avoid.

So, my question is, how would I go about ensuring that the external hard drive enclosure is readable by my Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit system, as well as Mac OS X?

Thanks in advance.

Pre-requisite questions.

What video format is coming in from the field Mac? What camcorder model number? 720p files will be large so you don't want that on a FAT32 formatted drive.

Why RAID 1? Keep a video backup elsewhere. RAID 1 is not a backup. This is server think.

Why 64 bit on Windows? That constrains your software choice and forces you to ungrade most apps. What is the benefit?


Background issues:

A stock Mac OSX can read a NTFS formatted drive but can't write without third party apps.

A Windows PC can't read a Mac formatted drive without a third party app.

Fat32 is universal but limits file size to 2/4GB depending on software.

A networked Windows or UNIX server can be used by both Mac and Windows but the connection needs to be fast depending on video format being used. Uncompressed 720p gets you into pro video server territory.

[apollo1980]

Pre-requisite questions.

What video format is coming in from the field Mac? What camcorder model number? 720p files will be large so you don't want that on a FAT32 formatted drive.

P2 will be the format.

Why RAID 1? Keep a video backup elsewhere. RAID 1 is not a backup. This is server think.

Once all of the video is done on the mac, I'll need to take it from the photographer, a hired individual, and take it to an editor, another hired individual. So this will be my only copy after I get the footage from the photographer. I'm going raid 1 for a mirrored, redundant backup in case a drive crashes.

Why 64 bit on Windows? That constrains your software choice and forces you to ungrade most apps. What is the benefit?

I have a new computer with windows 7 home premium 64 bit. I may purchase Sony Vegas Professional and edit the project myself. Not sure yet. I also may have an editor do the work for me using a Mac and Final Cut Pro. Even if I go this route, I'd like to be able to access this hard drive enclosure from my PC. Hiring an editor or not comes down to if I have enough money left in the budget to pay him.

[stiltman]

If the footage is shot on a P2 camera, then copied to a MAC, you should have no problems using FAT32. As long as the footage isn't edited first.

P2 cards use FAT32

[edDV]

Pre-requisite questions.

What video format is coming in from the field Mac? What camcorder model number? 720p files will be

large so you don't want that on a FAT32 formatted drive.

P2 will be the format.

P2 is a pro flash card. If 720p, the format is likely DVCPro-HD, 1280x720p/50 if "PAL" or 960x720p/59.94 if "NTSC".

DVCPro-HD uses 4x DV codecs resulting in 100Mb/s bit rate or about 50GB per hour. You will max out 32GB in 38 minutes.

I'm not real comfortable trusting your only copy to extended partition FAT32. I'd either get the Mac format reader app for the PC or the NTFS writer app for the Mac.

Why RAID 1? Keep a video backup elsewhere. RAID 1 is not a backup. This is server think.

Once all of the video is done on the mac, I'll need to take it from the photographer, a hired individual, and

take it to an editor, another hired individual. So this will be my only copy after I get the footage from the

photographer. I'm going raid 1 for a mirrored, redundant backup in case a drive crashes.

RAID 1 protects you from a drive failure but not more common data loss like accidental erasure or frame loss during writes. You should buy additional drives for true backup.

Why 64 bit on Windows? That constrains your software choice and forces you to upgrade most

apps. What is the benefit?

I have a new computer with windows 7 home premium 64 bit. I may purchase Sony

Vegas Professional and edit the project myself. Not sure

yet. I also may have an editor do the work for me using a Mac and

Final Cut Pro. Even if I go this route, I'd like to be

able to access this hard drive enclosure from my PC. Hiring an editor or not comes down to if I have

enough money left in the budget to pay him.

Vegas Pro 9 does not support DVCPro-HD. There is a third party app called "Raylight" from DVFilm that adds that capability to Vegas and works well. Premiere Pro CS 4 does support DVCProHD import.

If the project is going to be pre edited in Final Cut Pro on a Mac, they will likely convert DVCProHD to Apple AIC or ProRes422. Once they do that you will have difficulty moving the project to a PC without a recode to uncompressed or Cineform. You really need to think through your work flow so you don't paint yourself into a corner.

Why is the project coming to you via a Mac and not from original P2 cards? You need to specify they deliver the original camera DVCProHD MXF files, not a FCP conversion. Panasonic has a DVCProHD player codec that will allow you to play the files on a PC.

The only "common" edit format would be uncompressed YCbCr but the file size would grow to about 250-300GB per hour. The Mac or PC would need a three or four disk RAID video server to edit uncompressed.

[apollo1980]

Is there software that will allow me to take the external hard drive, formatted by a Mac OS X, and firewire it to my Windows 7 PC and recognize the drive, so I can copy over the files?

[edDV]

Is there software that will allow me to take the external hard drive, formatted by a Mac OS X, and firewire it to my Windows 7 PC and recognize the drive, so I can copy over the files?

MacDrive 8 ~$40
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20070502234618295
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B002L7HT7W/ref=asc_df_B002L7HT7W994674?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag...SIN=B002L7HT7W

Make sure they deliver the original Panasonic MXF files, not a Mac conversion.