byzantine

Q: Formatting a Thunderbolt drive

I'm trying to set up a Lacie Thunderbolt drive as my recording drive from a Macbook Pro. At present the 4TB drive is configured as Raid 0, Extended Journaled. But I see Apple advising that a recording drive should be Unjournaled. Yet when I try to select 'Unjournaled' from the file menu for this drive in Disk Utility, that option is greyed out.

 

Any views on where I should go?

Posted on Apr 7, 2012 11:40 AM

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Q: Formatting a Thunderbolt drive

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  • by mdee,Helpful

    mdee mdee Apr 7, 2012 1:03 PM in response to byzantine
    Level 2 (250 points)
    Apr 7, 2012 1:03 PM in response to byzantine

    No answer on the formatting... Just wanted to say I have a 2TB LaCie Thunderbolt HD and I'm using it as Plug and Play right out of the box. I have separate HD's for Audio & Video. Seems all of my HD's are Journaled. No problems to report.

  • by Blueberry,Solvedanswer

    Blueberry Blueberry Apr 7, 2012 1:31 PM in response to byzantine
    Level 4 (2,944 points)
    Apr 7, 2012 1:31 PM in response to byzantine

    Yes, don't format as unjournaled. In case of a crash it protects your hard drive and today it doesn't make a difference in performance anyway.

  • by byzantine,

    byzantine byzantine Apr 7, 2012 1:58 PM in response to Blueberry
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 7, 2012 1:58 PM in response to Blueberry

    Appreciate the info Blueberry, makes a lot of sense. I'll keep the formatting the way it is and see how things go.

  • by Pancenter,

    Pancenter Pancenter Apr 7, 2012 2:28 PM in response to byzantine
    Level 6 (9,913 points)
    Audio
    Apr 7, 2012 2:28 PM in response to byzantine

    Journaling only protects the smaller files, it will not save an audio track or protect large files. If Logic crashes while recording.. your audio files will be toast no matter the formatting.

     

    And... Journaling does affect performance if you're recording many tracks at the same time. If you have a studio that's recording 8, 12, or 16 tracks at once I can recommend formatting the drive with Journaling off. I've had ALL (including system) my hard drives formatted with Journaling off for years, never a problem.

  • by Blueberry,

    Blueberry Blueberry Apr 7, 2012 2:44 PM in response to Pancenter
    Level 4 (2,944 points)
    Apr 7, 2012 2:44 PM in response to Pancenter

    You are mixing up journaling with automatic defragmentation. Journaling protects your file system in case of a crash (of the whole OS, not an application; it could also be a sudden power failure) against damages. And because of this, the impact on recording is minor at best.

  • by Pancenter,

    Pancenter Pancenter Apr 7, 2012 4:26 PM in response to Blueberry
    Level 6 (9,913 points)
    Audio
    Apr 7, 2012 4:26 PM in response to Blueberry

    Since I pretty much know.. that you know what you're talking about.. I won't press the point.

     

    However, I agree that journaling is a good idea on a system drive and in fact it may help preserve disk integrity resulting from a system crash I maintain that it offers absolutely no benefit to a drive used exclusively for audio.

     

    And, if you haven't tested it...  try recording 12 tracks (approx 7-10 minutes worth) to a journaled drive, next, try the same test to the same drive formatted with journaling off.

  • by Pancenter,

    Pancenter Pancenter Apr 7, 2012 6:13 PM in response to Pancenter
    Level 6 (9,913 points)
    Audio
    Apr 7, 2012 6:13 PM in response to Pancenter
  • by byzantine,

    byzantine byzantine Apr 8, 2012 10:24 AM in response to Pancenter
    Level 1 (4 points)
    Apr 8, 2012 10:24 AM in response to Pancenter

    I'm learning things.

     

    Has anyone any firsthand knowledge of how performance on a t/bolt drive might be affected by journaling?

     

    I'm kinda tempted to leave it in journaled mode, I never record more than two audio tracks simultaneously. From what Pancenter is saying the drawbacks don't kick in at this kind of usage.