copying files to new disk took up twice as much room

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copying files to new disk took up twice as much room

I have my fcp projects and events on a 3TB external hard drive and am upgrading to the new final cut 10.1 which manages media differently. Before upgrading, I bought a 4 TB external hard drive and copied all the files from the 3tb to the 4 as a back up in case something went wrong in the upgrade. I was surprised that copying 1.5 TB from the old took up 2.6 TB on the new hard drive. I suspect it has something to with imovie events and final cut events sharing information on the old hard drive and being duplicated on the new drive? Can I delete the imovie events from the new drive if it has all the same movie files ?

Posted on Dec 28, 2013 10:40 AM

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Answer 1

judysings

Community Specialist

Dec 30, 2013 11:51 AM in response to Dale Garber

Hi Dale,

Welcome to the Support Communities!

The articles below will explain the best practices for backing up your data before updating to FCPX 10.1

Once you've followed these steps, and confimed access to all of your events and projects in the new version, you may decide later to delete extra copies to free up space on your external drive. I believe in the practice of maintaining at least two separate copies of your important data.

Final Cut Pro X 10.1: How to back up important Final Cut Pro X 10.0.x files before updating

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5550

Final Cut Pro X Help: Update your projects and events to Final Cut Pro 10.1

https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.1/#ver2df430747

Update All: Click Update All to allow Final Cut Pro to organize your existing projects and events into libraries. This is the simplest option. The projects and events on each volume are combined into a single library for that volume. After the update, you may want to organize your libraries and events to suit your particular workflow. For more information, see Organizing libraries overview.

Update Later: If you’re not sure what to do, you can defer the update. When you choose this option, a new library is created. You can immediately start using Final Cut Pro 10.1 to create new events and projects. You can always update your existing events and projects later, by choosing File > Update Projects and Events.

Managing Media with Final Cut Pro X Libraries

http://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Media_Management.pdf

Final Cut Pro X 10.1: Updating and working with libraries FAQ

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5958

I hope this information helps ....

Happy Holidays!

- Judy

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Answer 2

Dec 30, 2013 12:22 PM in response to Dale Garber

Yes, iMovie and FCPX use hard links to point to the same files so you do not duplicate disk space. However, if you copy to another drive, the iMovie and FCPX projects will each be copied so you double the space.

I just moved all my Events and Projects to a big DROBO 5D drive.

Here is how I did it.

1) In iMovie 11, I moved each event and project to the new drive, using Command-Drag.

2) I deleted the existing FCPX events that were transferred from iMovie AND the existing iMovie 10 Libraries. Do not delete any FCPX events or projects that you originally created in FCPX. Do not delete the iMovie 10 libraries if you no longer have your iMovie 11 projects and events.

3) In FCPX 10.0.8 I ran the command to import all iMovie Projects.

4) Then in iMovie 10, I ran the command to convert to iMovie 10 projects and events. (IF YOU DONT NEED IMOVIE 10, skip this step)

5) I made a backup of the FCPX app before upgrading, just in case. TO do this, I followed the advice in the Ripple Training video e.g. compress the app and store it in a folder.

6) Install FCPX 10.1

7) Convert all FCPX projects and events.

This should leave you with all your iMovie projects and events available to FCPX on the new drive, without doubling the space.

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