I have a two gig usb external hard drive formatted for Mac OS Extended, and fcp x won't show it in the Event Library, even though it is seen in the finder. I've put Logic Pro projects in there, but all I see is my other external firewire drive, 1 gig, and the Mac HD on FCP. I have a quad core i7 with the 2.3 gHz ... 8 gig ram. Aaaargh ... help? Thanks for your time! Tim
Final Cut Pro X, Mac OS X (10.6.8)
Can you give a screenshot of the top level of your hard drive?
Thanks for your help! I've attached screenshots of the the hard drive, etc. I put the "Movies" FCP event and project folders in there myself manually to see if it would pop up in FCP.
There are two screen shots as I have two screens. You'll see the one gig on both the finder and fcp, and the two gig only on the finder.
Tim
Whoops ... here's the two gig top level:
Movies can only be in the home folder. FCP doesn't work with Time Machine-designed drives.
That makes sense ... but frustrating - there's so much extra space on that drive. I guess I'll have to reserve that for Logic projects .. hmmmm...
Now I'm out of room on my 1T drive ... Do people typically back up their FCP projects on DVD once they've completed them? Is there a simple way to do this as I would need a pile of DVDs ... or do I need to buy another big hard drive?
Appreciate your time, Tom.
Tim
If you're backing up project and media I don't think discs will do it, and you will have to go with more hard drives.
Actually you CAN use your TimeMachine disk with FCPx!
Use the DiskUtility to create a DiskImage on that drive (preferable SparseDisk). When you mount that DiskImage, it will show up in the FCPx Event Library as a regular Volume and you are ready to go.
DiskImages are quite powerful but kind of underrated. They are very flexible, easy to move, password protectable and they work on any drive.
BTW: the statement "Movies can only be in the home folder" is incorrect. FCP can access any mounted HFS+ formatted volumes (TimeMachine volumes being the exception)
You can find more details in my new manual:
"Final Cut Pro X - How it Works"
http://DingDingMusic.com/Manuals/
Edgar Rothermich
Interesting .... so what format do I use ... and where do I put the image file? ... encryption? Is the image file separate from the drive then? And how large can it be; ie how many gig can I allot to it?
Thanks Edgar. I'll check out your manuals ...
Tim
In the DiskUtility go to "File>New>Blank Disk Image"
Save As: This is the name of the Disk Image File that you create ending with the dmg (or sparseimage) extension
FIle Selector Box: Select any location on any mounted drive where you want to store the Disk Image File.
Name: This is the name of the embedded Volume that shows up when you mount the disk image
Size: Select how much space you need
Format: select Mac OS Extended (Journal), this is the one that FCPx recognizes
Encryption: set to none unless you are working on sensitive CIA instructional videos "How to start War No4 and pretend it is for national security"
Partitions: I think you can leave that to "no partition map"
Image Format: select "sparse disk image" "or sparse bundle disk image". They are pretty much the same where the bundle chops up the data into small block. Both have the advantage that they expand meaning, even if you select a 2GB size, the disk image will only as big as the data you are storing into.
Once you created the Disk Image, it is just a file that you can move around (drives, Flash, Disc, etc). If you can see the file you just double click on it and it mounts like a mounted hard drive and voila it will show up in FCPx in the Event Library and Project Library.
This little trick enables you to work off volumes that FCPx can't see: TimeMachine Volumes, network drives, SAN, non HFS+ volumes.
You can find more details in my new manual:
"Final Cut Pro X - How it Works" and in the upcoming "Advanced" version
http://DingDingMusic.com/Manuals/
Edgar Rothermich
Hi
I had the same issue. I am a new MAC user and thought I had screwed up something major. I thought it a good idea to back up, so plugged in a new drive and did that. Started FCP X and my main RAID drive that holds all video work was not showing up. 4 Hours later and a ton of frustration. I deleted the backup folder that time machine had created and then restarted FCP X. Bingo the drive showed up. One "niggle" is that three of my "events" are missing (actually there but not showing) but the medis IS on the time line. Mmmm
Well at least I can get on with some work.
Edgar - that worked perfect, and saved me $$ on a new drive! Thanks so much! Tim
Great suggestion - however, if you need a space like 500G and you only have 100G free on a non-SAN drive what are your options?
Guess you first have to temporarially manually move files to create space then create the sparse disk image on the original HD then move the sparse disk image to the SAN drive you want (such as time capsule drive) - then cope these files again to this sparse image.
Is this correct?
Also, this workaround is great, but won't the performance still be poor for video editing? I thought the whole reason they didn't want to use SAN type drives was that the data rate was supposedly more - correct? Does this solution work fine in terms of performance?
I had the same exact problem and was able to solve it by putting a bunch of loose raw pictures and xml files into a folder instead of the root of the drive. Keep the root clean and FCPX doesn't reject the drive.
Absolutely right! Your advise resolved my issue as well and I found video guide for others.
http://play.macprovideo.com/finalcutprox204-managing-media/8
External drive not showing in fcp x but showing in finder
