#REORIG PROBLEMS
34 messages in this thread
Chuck,
As you will recall, I have said in the past that except for the original .9
version of the software, I have had no problem doing a REORIG of my hard
drives.
Well, your development team must have done something with version 4.04B,
because last night I REORIG my A drive. A Seagate 9GB drive and this morning,
although the picture is fine, the sound track that was part of the video is
very distorted.
Fred
>>Well, your development team must have done something with version 4.04B,
because last night I REORIG my A drive. A Seagate 9GB drive and this morning,
although the picture is fine, the sound track that was part of the video is
very distorted.>>
That is very interesting fred..I have done several restores on 4.04b but the
audio was still on the audio drive so it did not have to copy it back.
You might try a test back up – restore again….maybe it was a fluk or maybe
there is really a problem with the audio part of the backup AREXX.
Ed
Ed,
Not a restore, a reorganization (defragging) of the drive. Almost every file
had a sound problem after it was done.
A backup system is going to be my next major purchase. Which one would you
recommend? I've been reading where some work and some don't.
Fred
Fred, Guess I am confuded….
I have not been able to reorganize the audio drive since it is not an
option….When you hit the reorg. buton for audio nothing happens…
several on the forum here have expressed the same.
Asa far as restore….I use the 8mm exabyte 7 gig tape solution.
I am very happy with it. Works great.
Ed,
Ah, I think I know where the confussion came in. I wrote that I REORIG my "A"
drive. You probably took this to mean my "audio" drive. I don't know why I even
bothered to put in the drive name.
My "A" drive is my 9GB Seagate drive "FlyerA0". It was the video drive that I
REORIG.
I have not been able to reorig my audio drive at all.
Today, I was playing back the same project and now the tracks sound better. I
don't know what is going on.
Anyway, I copied the project to tape and pulled everything off of the drives.
Then I reformatted them. I just realized that I have not reformatted the drives
for several upgrades.
It seemed to take a lot longer for the formatting process and it definately
took longer when I pressed the cache button. So, maybe the formatting has been
upgraded.
I'm just starting to record new clips on the drives, so maybe things will start
to act better. Always the optimist.
Fred
Fred,
I just upgraded from 4.03 to 4.04B.
Should I have reformatted my drives before the upgrade?
Also, what fixes and features are there in 4.04B that were not in 4.03?
>>what fixes and features are there in 4.04B that were not in 4.03?<<
For one thing, TPaint has a lot more bugs now! Also, on many systems you get
the new "slow down you move too fast" CD ROM decellerator.
Regards,
Gary
Does this include the "Save to CLip" not doing anything? On my system if I try
to save a graphic to a new clip, even doing the 4 successive saves as described
in the docs, no drive light activity occurs and no clip is created.
wmc – via Autopilot!
>>Does this include the "Save to CLip" not doing anything?<<
Sorry Wayne,
I have lost track of what you are referring to. If you are talking about the
Macros…..well let's hope they work again when 4.05 is out<sigh>.
A big pain in my ass is the SOLID tool. It seems to work only when you turn it
OFF! (sometimes).
Regards,
Gary
Sam,
You would not gain anything by re-formatting your drives before upgrading, but
after you upgrade it might be a good idea. It couldn't hurt and there may be
something new in the formatting program. Chuck could better answer that.
What I did was to move any scenes that I wanted to save onto one of my drives.
Then I formatted the other drive. ie: move all scenes to drive B and format
drive A. Then move all scenes to drive A and format drive B.
I know that 4.04B was suppose to fix split edits, but I'm still having a
problem with sound glitches on split edits.
I think that Hank had posted a list of fixes or maybe Chuck did.
At this point, each upgrade will probably fix only a few things, but it will
keep you current. Of course there is also the case where the upgrade fixes one
thing and breaks another.
Somewhere between 4.03 and 4.04B, the ability to use the Toaster Paint effects
on Flyer Clips got turned off. (slow motion for example)
From what I keep hearing, 4.05 is suppose to be the upgrade that fixes just
about everything. Then once the bugs get worked out of that upgrade, NewTek is
suppose to release 4.1.
Fred
There are changes to FlyerFormat, but not to the Flyer drive format, so the
upgrade does not require reformating the drives. Set Cache might be a good
idea, just in case your first Flyer rev was one that did not properly set the
Caches on Seagate drives.
ReOrg does not work on audio drives.
Regarding the TPaint macros. Check the directory NewTek/ARexx/ToasterPaint.
You should find a directory "Old" in there. Make a directory "Temp", and copy
all the macros that are in NewTek/ARexx/ToasterPaint into the new
NewTek/ARexx/ToasterPaint/Temp. Then copy the macros contained in
NewTek/ARexx/ToasterPaint/Old out into NewTek/ARexx/ToasterPaint.
Then try the processes out.
Chuck B.
<<Asa far as restore….I use the 8mm exabyte 7 gig tape solution.
I am very happy with it. Works great.>>
Hi Ed
Is that the Exabyte 8505XL? If so, can you clue me in on any configuration
secrets you may have come across??
I've got, supposedly the fastest, bestest drive on the market and still having
problems. I was trying to access the drive from the Flyer interface ("Backup"
in the Save window) but no good. We then put the tape drive on the Warp Engine
bus and tried using Quarterback. It kindof works, but some files show as
"corrupt" when the backup is complete – they won't restore. These are Flyer
A/V files that work just fine as they are on the drives. Can't really find any
difference between those that show up as corrupt and those that (seemingly)
backup fine.
Thanks for any help
BarryVedros
ISI
James, the only thing I can tell you is that the Project name must have no
spaces in it….
Other thatn that…my exabyte works great.
Ed
Barry,
When I do a QB backup, the only files that mis-compare are the ones that are
the source of my "Crouton Failed to Load" and drive hang problems. Those that
don't miscompare operate fine, so I've concluded that there really are faults
in the ones QB objects to even though they may playback some precentage of the
time.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Fred,
If your backup solution is not connected to the Flyer SCSI, you should have
very few problems. Most of the trouble reported here is with the Tape
connected to the Flyer SCSI using NT backup solution. I use Quarterback off
the GVP scsi with little trouble. Someone else used Diavolo, also to a SSCI
not connected to the Flyer SCSI. Heck, even HDBackup might work!
wmc – via Autopilot!
Wayne,
Since the only SCSI connection I have on my Amiga is the Flyer's, I guess I'm
doomed to use this connection.
In reading about the work that will be done on the Seagates, and the fact that
I can't afford to be without a drive for even a day, I'm thinking about
purchasing another 9GB drive. The I could send in each drive, one at a time and
thereby still have access to the Flyer.
After the firmware has been replaced on my two drives, I would end up with
three drives for the Flyer. Not a bad idea, since I'm now filling up the two
drives with almost every project.
After all of the hallabaloo about all of the drives, which drive do you think I
should consider. So far, I don't think that NewTek has approved any 9GB drives,
so I'm looking for good educated guesses.
Fred
I think Frank Vanella had pretty good luck with Microp 1991 NON-AV. He can
probably better update you on that.
wmc – via Autopilot!
Fred,
I have tested and continue to have good success with the Micropolis 1991
(Non-AV) 9 gig drive. It only deals moderately with the HQ-5 setting
(performing well only if the drive is less than 75% full) but it handles up to
90% at "Standard" mode. Longest clip length I tried (at Standard mode) was
about 22 minutes, and it handled it well. Best mail order pricing I have seen
on the 1991 runs about $1950. That's over $600 less than the best price I can
find on the Seagate. Quantum will be shipping their own 9 gig Atlas drives
within the next 60 days or so, maybe sooner than later. It might be worth a try
to contact Quantum to see if they will have those units out by the time you
need to do your Seagate retrograde.
Frank
Frank
Thanks Frank,
My Seagates record at HQ5 without a problem as long as I don't go beyond about
8 or 9 minutes. And if I start the drives cold, like when I first boot up, they
will usually play a long project with very little stutter.
As the drives warm up, the stutter increases.
I've been trying to keep about 8 minutes of unused disk space on each drive,
which is around 25% of empty space. So, maybe they are performing about the
same as the Micropolis.
Since the introduction of the HQ5 setting, I have not been using the STANDARD
setting.
You are probably right about waiting to try and get a Quantum. If they were
able to make a 2GB drive that NewTek approved, maybe they can do it with a 9GB.
We both have the Flight Recorder tower. Is there room in that for a third 9GB
drive? Am I correct, that if I install a third 9GB drive, the Flyer will
recognize it as well as the other two drives, so that all three would operate
at the same time?
Fred
Fred,
I'm not certain that running that third 9 gig drive in the FLight Recorder is
such a good ideea even if it does fit. As you have already experienced, the
drives are are prone to studder when overheated and the ventilation with all
three 9 gigs in that tower would likely be very poor. Running the other drive
externally (in a seperate case w/ scsci cable) isn't all that much more
expensive (about $90) and would isolate the heat from at least one of the
drives from affecting the rest.
Frank
Frank,
If I have a third drive in a separate case, how do I attach it to the SCSI
cables?
Fred
Fred,
Attatching an external drive usually isn't any great hassle (assuming you have
the appropriate SCSI cables available).
Are you using an external housing for your other drives? (such as a Flight
Recorder or similar tower) Assuming that you are, and that you were issued one
of the Newtek "octopus" sacsi cable assemblies here are the steps.
WITH POWER OFF TO YOUR HD's AND FLYER.
Attatch one of the three octopus cables to the external drive, then use a SCSI
cable (centronic style male at both ends) to run from the external drive into
the drive tower which contains your other drives. Make certain that the SCSI
address of this new HD conforms to the protocol that NT specifies for the SCSI
chain. In other words, if adding a new drive to the "B" SCSI chain where one
already exists, then you would first verify (by using the Flyer format utility)
that the existing drive is using SCSI address 0. Then you would physically
remove the termination from that drive (remember to power off the unit first).
Then make certain that the new drive you are attatching externally is set for
SCSI address 1 and that it is terminated. There are usually physical
terminating resistors or a jumper that will set termination for you. There are
also jumpers on the drive itself which will cjange the SCSI address. On most
externally installed drives, these jumpers are attatched to externally mounted
switches that can be used to set the SCSI address.
A few things to remember:
Your Flyer expects to see all Video capable drives to be on SCSI chains A & B,
and all audio (and other SCSI storage devices not used for video) to reside on
SCSI channel C.)
It is possible (and some times desireable) to use a seperate SCSI controller to
address SCSI devices that are not being used for Flyer audio/video purposes. In
which case, the procedures I describe below are not required.
Once you have added the drive to the desired SCSI channel, it will need to be
formatted by the Flyer format utility (assuming that it is either a FLyer audio
or video drive). Before the Flyer can recognize this new drive, you will need
to add a device driver and reboot the machine.
To add a device driver, locate the system drive on your computer and the
storage/dos drivers drawer. open it on the workbench screen or use a utility
such as Directory Opus to examine the directory of the drive. You will then
open the devs/dos drivers drawer. The required device driver that you are
looking for is specific to the SCSI chain and physical address of the new
drive. As an example.. If you are attatching the new drive to the "B" channel,
and there already is one drive present (using FB0 as it's device driver) then
you would copy or move the file called FB1 from the storage/dos drivers drawer
into the devs/dos drivers drawer. This would correspond to the SCSI address 1
that you have set for the new drive that you have attatched to drive channel B.
Remember that when you use the Flyer format utility, you will have the
oppourtunity to give a name to the drive that will be used by Amigados and the
Flyer to access the drive. Once you name the drive, be certain not to change it
anytime afterwards, or it's highly probable that your software will no longer
mount or recognize the drives contents of previously saved projects.
If you are using some sort of all-in-one casing (such as a Toaster oven) you
will not have the octopus cable and the procedure will vary somewhat from the
one I described. In this instance you may need to purchase or make a special
ribbon cable that will attach to conventional SCSI/centronics style connectors.
Frank
Thanks Frank,
Yes, I'm using the Flight Recorder.
Fred
Hi Fred,
You can put seven devices on each of the Flyer's three SCSI busses, so that
means 14 audio/video drives atleast. With Asha's RAID interface, you could fit
28 9GB drives with twice the throughput performance. Naturally, each drive that
the Flyer sees must have a unique ID (0-6) for that buss, and the device driver
for it moved from the Storage/DosDrivers drawer, on the WorkBench, to the
Devs/DosDrivers drawer so it will be mounted at bootup.
I've had some real problems with Micropolis drives, but Micropolis was great
for RA cross-shipping so they minimized the effect on my client.
The Flight Recorder only has room for two 5.25" drives, if I remember right, so
you'll have to put them on edge in a 3.5" bay, install them in the bottom, or
go for another drive chassis with SCSI cabling. We found the Drive-In the best
solution when PC power slots weren't a necessity. Now we recommend the High
Flyer, so long as your first two drives are 3.5" form factor.
Hope all is going well. How is Flite Gear working? Do you still have the demo
tape? If so, please return a copy when you can. We just got another update, and
I feel the product is getting away from me.
Hank
Videology, Inc Where you always get P.O.M.P. and
Service under all circumstances
Hank,
Thanks for the info on the drives.
Sorry I didn't get the tape back to you sooner. I've been so darn busy since I
got back from Orlando, I've hardly had time to do anything other than edit.
I have not had a chance to use Flite Gear since I got it. I did get the upgrade
disks and have not even installed them yet.
Things have to slow down eventually. Either that or I will.
I'll put the tape in the mail to you tomorrow. I did make a copy and will send
you back the original.
Think about coming to the New Orleans conference. It would be nice to see you
again.
Fred
What New Orleans conference are you speaking of?
(sorry, Ed, I didn't post according to the thread title again. It IS a useless
battle!)
Brian,
I belong to the Association of Professional Videographers. It is an
organization made up of video people in all catagories.
Industrial, event, deposistions, special interest videos, etc.
They have an annual meeting ever year and this year it is in New Orleans. If
you are interested I can post more information or even send you a membership
application.
Dick Reizner (the guy who writes for A/V Video Magazine) is a member. That's
the famous person. On the other hand, I'm a member, so you realize they will
let anyone join.
No kidding. It is an excellent organization. Puts out a bi-monthly newletter
and has offered classes in different video subjects.
Fred
P.S. I changed the thread heading.(g)
Fred,
Thanks for the quick response.
When is the conference in New Orleans. I have relatives that live in Metarie,
including a god child. Might be fun to see them and you again, also.
Hank
Videology, Inc Where you always get P.O.M.P. and
Service under all circumstances
Hank,
January 14th thorugh the 17th.
Fred
I will pass your message to the product team, and if you could, a bug report
form would be appreciated (forms are in the libraries).
Chuck.
Will get the bug form.
Fred
Thanks!
Chuck.
Chuck B.,
Could you kindly clear up the issue of either having to or not having to
re-format the video drives from version 4.03, 4.04, 4.04b etc.? Was there any
change made to the format of the video drives? I have seen this item come up
before and nobody seemed to pick-up on it. (While we're at it, were there any
changes made to the format of the audio drive?)
I have been working with the same video and audio data for the last few months.
I have never re-formatted the drives even though I have installed the new
versions of the software. It still seems to me that I did not have any
noticable audio & video stutters when I used 4.03.. seemed only to occur after
I installed 4.04 & 4.04b. (I have run the recal between versions only). It
seems now that I have a simultaneous video & audio stutter that occurs at the
near end of a 13 min project that I cannot get rid of no matter what I do other
than to delete (or shorten) the project. I have not tried going back to 4.03
yet because it sounded as if 4.05 was just around the corner. In short, I have
a new project to start work on next week and would love to start off with 4.05
…. I think …… (hoping audio sync problems are solved).
Should I wait?
Mark
The format has not been changed anywhere in the 4.0x series, although a couple
of revs in there did not properly set caches etc, on the seagate drives.
Persons who originally formatted drives under those revs did need to at least
do Set Drive Cache with the newest software, but did not need to entirely
reformat drives. Recal is also usually not needed between revs.
Chuck.