File space?

[raconteur]

So, I just joined and all I have are requests for help or info. Here goes.

My boot drive just crashed, now a three day old story, not to rehash the details but, on that old drive I had files that were labeled as rendered with a alpha numerical sting to identify them. My question is what are they. I'm using Premiere Pro CC and I wonder if they are stored there because I have needed to render exposure adjustments to see them previewed. They will not preview live on my MacPro 1.1 2x 2.66 dual core, 11 GB ram 5770 graphics card.
Are these files saved because they are the rendered previews. Is that what scratch disk space is used for, these saved files. I have deleted some of the projects that these files would be associated with if they are what I think they are.

If they are these previews don't they go away when the project is deleted?

As an aside, is it correct to use your boot drive where the application is to function as your scratch disk?

Thanks for any help in advance for what may be inane questions.

Steve

[budwzr]

Have you tried the Mac Forum?

[Cornucopia]

Render previews should be deleted when a project is deleted, but that doesn't necessarily mean the app is going to do it - you might have to be the one to do it.

What most pros save (archive):
1. Original RAW footage & supporting elements (though sometimes outtakes are removed)
2. Project / EDL / Adjustment files (which reference #1)
3. Master and/or Intermediate Renders
4. Processing, FX & Compression templates
5. (sometimes) Resulting Compressed distribution versions

Rarely are Previews or Test renders kept beyond a certain point.
BTW, this is not the same thing as BACKUPs of WIP (work in progress)

If you had #1 & #2, any unrendered or missing previews should automatically get re-rendered if needed.

Boot(/app) disc should stay boot disc, media discs should stay media discs, and never the twain should meet! Doesn't hurt to get a 3rd disc as scratch disc or "compress & copy-to disc".

The files are PROBABLY standard media files in whatever native format the NLE expects (e.g. if you are doing a DV project, the renders would be DV streams). They may or may not be in standard MM containers. They don't need to be named common, standard names, because the NLE doesn't expect any other app/service to make use of them except itself. If you dropped one of them into MediaInfo, I would be very surprised to find that it WASN'T actually a standard format underneath (Uncompressed, DV, MPEG2, MP4, AVC, etc).

Scott