Recovering projects done in FCP7?

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Recovering projects done in FCP7?

I need to rescue a film that was edited in FCP7. The only way to open FCP7 projects is to have a computer running on High Sierra, install 'Retroactive', install FCP7.

I have a second computer running on OS Big Sur. I want to install High Sierra. The installer for High Sierra won't work on OS Big Sur. So I can't install High Sierra.

Has anyone got an idea of how I could do this? Do I need to do a clean wipe? Is there a way, if I have to do a clean wipe, that I can just back up my own documents etc., not the whole drive?

All ears ... Ben

MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 11.7

Posted on Dec 23, 2022 5:07 PM

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Answer 1

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Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Dec 24, 2022 4:12 AM in response to Ben Low

You can install on an external drive, though if it's running the system it should be an SSD rather than an HD. MDS makes it really easy to download the correct OS, and make the bootable installer, usually on a small jump drive, and from there install onto an external drive. This is much easier on Intel systems, and become ever more difficult on M series systems.

If you're running an external OS, Retrospective and FCP7 should be on that external system drive. If there's space on the SSD, it would be easiest if everything is there and you ignore the internal drive.

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Answer 2

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Dec 23, 2022 5:29 PM in response to Ben Low

Download the HS installer. Create a bootable install drive for the HS installer. I used the Two Canoes MDS software for this. I assume the computer did not come with Big Sur preinstalled, but with High Sierra. A Mac cannot run a system older than the factory installed OS.

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Answer 3

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Dec 24, 2022 7:24 AM in response to Ben Low

Then just run the OS, Retrospective, and FCP7 on a smaller SSD, and keep the media on whatever drive it’s on, connected to the computer.

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Answer 4

Ben Low Author

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112 points

Dec 23, 2022 7:36 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Aha! Thank you Tom. I like the idea of installing High Sierra on a bootable external drive. I will check out the Two Canoes MDS. It would be great if I can avoid messing with the laptop, which is set up with a recent OS and all my apps in case my premier system goes down.

So is there an easy to understand protocol for running an OS from a bootable external drive? On which I could also install Retrospective and thus FCP7. I'm totally unfamiliar with how I would use the computer (with the keyboard, mouse etc.) to run the external OS (without the computer messing things up?).

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Answer 5

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Dec 23, 2022 7:43 PM in response to Tom Wolsky

Hey Tom,

I see I can find tutorials for doing this. Do think I could do just fine with a regular 7200rpm external drive? All I'll be doing is loading in the High Sierra OS, then installing Retroactive, then installing FCP7. All I need to do with FCP7 is create XML versions of the projects I'm missing. Which I'll then move back to my main computer to convert to FCPX.

An SSD external drive would be overkill right? I've got a box of those palm-size 7200 drives.

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Answer 6

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Dec 24, 2022 7:12 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Mmmm. With the HS OS / Retrospective / FCP project I'm looking at probably 8 TB's of space needed. That's an expensive SSD drive. I'm not so flush at the moment. I wonder if one can rent drives?

I'm not going to be editing the movie in FCP7, only loading it and exporting an XML. Do you think I could squeak by with an HD?

The MDS sounds terrific. I'm going to check it out this morning. And ask my IMAX brother if he has any empty 8TB external SSD's floating around his office at the moment.

Ha ha ha, I've got 2 X 16TB RAID Thunderblades sitting in front of me ... only they are loaded with another film, and the thought of dumping the data and reloading it from the HDD backup RAID drive ... there's got to be another way.

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Answer 7

Ben Low Author

Level 1

112 points

Dec 24, 2022 7:30 AM in response to Tom Wolsky

Then all I'd need would be 250 GB SSD. Now we're talking.

Thank you most kindly Tom. You've been super helpful. I'm going to down and espresso and go find myself a small SSD drive. If I knew I could recover these missing scenes (saving myself a month or six weeks work) I would be such a happy camper come Christmas day.

All the very best, and Merry Christmas!

I'll report back how this works, here in this post.

Ben

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Answer 8

Tom Wolsky

Level 10

152,819 points

Dec 23, 2022 7:49 PM in response to Ben Low

The HD should be fine for this if you have access to all the media.

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Recovering projects done in FCP7?

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