Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Moving Libraries to external, speed things up?

Hello Everybody,


I just realized all my libraries are on my iMac's internal drive. And researching on here I see arguments for both internal or external.

I'm so used to FCP and FCE old days.


My only complaint with FCX is I get A LOT Of dropped frame messages and beach balls and I'm trying to address that.


Could moving my libraries to an external drive help? From reading on here I can just drag them over and then delete from the internal.


Or doing everything Proxy?

Or is it all abut the graphics card?


Specs:

iMac- Late 2013 model

3.2 ghz

memory - 24gig 1600 DDR3

GeForce GT 755M 1024mb


Thanks,

Al

iMac, OS X Yosemite (10.10.3)

Posted on May 6, 2016 6:12 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on May 6, 2016 6:50 AM

Are you using managed media? If so, and your libraries are in the internal, that would explain the slowness.

Unless you have an internal SSD, which is very fast, you should keep your libraries in the external - which should be connected via USB3 or Thunderbolt (USB2 is too slow). The internal drive is used by the OS all the time, and so it is not recommended to keep your libraries and media there.

You could, alternatively, keep the libraries in the internal, but use external media, keeping all the media in the external. The simplest solution, though, is to keep everything in the library, and have the library in the external drive.

24 replies
Question marked as Best reply

May 6, 2016 6:50 AM in response to UCanCallMeAl

Are you using managed media? If so, and your libraries are in the internal, that would explain the slowness.

Unless you have an internal SSD, which is very fast, you should keep your libraries in the external - which should be connected via USB3 or Thunderbolt (USB2 is too slow). The internal drive is used by the OS all the time, and so it is not recommended to keep your libraries and media there.

You could, alternatively, keep the libraries in the internal, but use external media, keeping all the media in the external. The simplest solution, though, is to keep everything in the library, and have the library in the external drive.

May 6, 2016 6:53 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Yes I'm using managed media if that means I'm importing the media into each Library when I start a new project.


Sys Prefs tell me I have an SATA drive.

My external drive is a 2 year old Western Digital which only has firewire which does no good with this iMac and USB 2 or 3 (how do you tell?) and no Thunderbolt.


I assume it would help to get a Thunderbolt drive for external and put my libraries out there?

And then drag all of my libraries to it?

Man I hope this solves the dropped frames and speeds up real time rendering.


Thanks Luis,

Al


PS..


Oops Darn if I didn't mark my own message as helpful. Now that's a laugh.

May 6, 2016 8:13 AM in response to UCanCallMeAl

UCanCallMeAl wrote:


Yes I'm using managed media if that means I'm importing the media into each Library when I start a new project.


Yes, that is managed media, which means that every library is self-contained, and as such you can copy it to another drive with much concern.


My external drive is a 2 year old Western Digital which only has firewire which does no good with this iMac and USB 2 or 3 (how do you tell?) and no Thunderbolt.


I assume it would help to get a Thunderbolt drive for external and put my libraries out there?

And then drag all of my libraries to it?

Man I hope this solves the dropped frames and speeds up real time rendering.



I assume your external drive is connected via USB3. If so and if the drive is fast enough you may get better performance by just dragging a library to the external.

You can hold down option key, go to the Apple menu, choose System Information... and then look and Storage to see information about your drives.


One other easy test you can do: download BlackMagic Disk Speed Test and try it on your drive. A USB2 drive cannot do more than around 40MB/s, with USB3 or TB you can get around 100MB/s or so, depending on the drive.


My suggestion is that you copy one library to the external, only have libraries open that you are working on, and try it. I expect you'll see much better performance by using the drive you already have.


FWIW, Thunderbolt when using a single drive will in general not make a difference, as the speed of the drive itself, not the connection, is the limiting factor. Both USB3 and Thunderbolt have more bandwidth than a single drive can typically use. If using a RAID, or an external SSD, you are likely to see a difference.

May 9, 2016 6:45 AM in response to Luis Sequeira1

Luis,


The 1 terabyte Western Digital portable that I use for Time Machine back up is 3.0 USB and according to the sys prefs does speeds up to 5gb/sec

so I'm going to make that my library drive and make the WD Usb 2.0 speed drive my Time Machine drive.


Anything wrong with that plan?


For the Black Magic test, does the app go through all the possible formats and how long does it take.

I got some green check marks for PAL and NTSC but nothing else and it's been running awhile.

Does it tell you when it's finished?

Thanks,

Al

May 9, 2016 7:00 AM in response to UCanCallMeAl

UCanCallMeAl wrote:

..Does it tell you when it's finished?...

you have to stop the BMDST manually....


5GB/s is the theoretically, 'moving just electrons' speed....

a mechanical platter gives on a sunny day, downhill, wind from back ~80-90mbps


ignore the green dots. a fast HDD via usb3 is an excellent file deliverer, in use here daily...

ok, when you start to request two streams simultaneously (compounds, multicams) things can get bumpy...

my simple rule:

one platter per stream; divide sources on diff. drives (managed media), and I edit 4x4k on my MacMini .... close 😉

for some projects, my desk is crowded with drives ....


latest toy are ext SDD... this is a new level, via usb3:

User uploaded file

and that thing is size of a matchbox, containing 258Gbs ....

(Samsung, ~120€)

May 9, 2016 7:16 AM in response to Karsten Schlüter

But when do I know to stop it?


I like your rules.

So my WD portable USB 3.0 is good enough...


I do a lot of multicam but haven't compounded or impounded or even pounded (except beer) anything yet.


If you have all your libraries on one external and have several libraries open vs only the one you're working on, does that make a difference?


ext SDD ? I know SSD but not SDD.


I see USB 3.0 drives cheap but as soon as you add a Thunder port the $ goes up.

Thanks Karsten,

AL

May 10, 2016 1:52 AM in response to UCanCallMeAl

UCanCallMeAl wrote:

ext SDD ? I know SSD but not SDD.


I see USB 3.0 drives cheap but as soon as you add a Thunder port the $ goes up.

spelling, sorry, SSD for sure.


TB on mechanical single drives is mainly useless.. imho.

the spinning platters are the limiting factor.

Diff. story on RAIDs...


Under Yosemite (ElCaps DiskUtility doesn't offer making softRaids anymore), I made me a <100€ softRaid0, made from two 2.5" Toshibas... = ~150-160mbps


ok, all the pros like "noooo, no Raid zero!" - yep, chance of dataloss doubles, but a) backups, b) I'm using it as 'working horse' only, c) hobbyist, in case, to rebuilt from scratch would be annoying but no drama... anecdotical empirics: never had a HDD failure on my private systems in 30y.. .


so, if Thunderbold, and platters = Raid ... cases-only cost a fortune; if you're pro=getting paid, a wonderful, superfast, reliable solution.

If you are on shoestring budget - ext SSDs + some huge spinner for backups......

Moving Libraries to external, speed things up?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.