Troubles with my external hard drive

Whenever I try to do anything with my external hard drive via FCPX it never seems to work. It's quite annoying as the only reason I bought the hard drive was for this reason.

If I try to move videos from my hard drive to external hard drive via FCP it freezes and so I've decided just to do it via the finder window which seems to work ONLY WITH VIDEO'S THAT HAVEN'T BEEN OPTIMISED. (Original Media)

When I try to optimise video's in FCPX that are already on my external hard drive they reach a certain point and then the program freezes. It's reached a stage now where final cut wont even open when the hard drive is plugged in but as soon as I unplug it, it opens fine.

Please help me because I've been using FCPX for about a week now and I've faced one problem after another. What can I do????

What format is the external drive?
What Mac, how much RAM, what brand/model is the external drive?

I have a Macbook Pro with 4GB Memory.

My hard drive is a Seagate GoFlex Desk External Drive 3TB. It's connected by USB.

How would I find out what format it is? Sorry if that's a noobie question but that's exactly what I am

On your Desktop, click once to highlight the USB drive, use Command-i to open the Get Info window, look for "Capacity" and "Available" so we know its size and how much is left free on it. Repeat for the OS drive.

What year MBP is this? Is that a USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 port/drive?

You barely have the RAM to run FCP X, and if that drive is USB 2, you're sorely under powered.

I have about 2.99TB left on the hard drive and about 60gb left on my internal hard drive.

I bought the Macbook Pro last year so I'd say it was 2011.

The USB is a usb 3.0

When I click on info I see that it says Mac OS Extended (Journaled) under format.

What are the Capacity of those drives? Be sure at least 15% of the Capacity is free space on all connected drives.

OK, so download "Preference Manager" for free at Digital Rebellion dot com. Run it to delete your FCP X preference files.

If that doesn't work, I'd go into the Applications folder, move the "Final Cut Pro" app into the Trash. Then launch the Mac App Store and go to the Purchased tab, click the Install button to the right of Final Cut Pro. See if a reinstall works.

If that doesn't work, I'd try running a copy of Disk Warrior to repair the directories of both drives.

P.S. Repair Permissions in Disk Utility is pretty much a waste of time, it really won't fix anything.

I'm being very cautious with all of this because already I've lost some of the files I uploaded forever.

If I delete preferences from FCPX it's not going to delete anything else is it?

What will deleting preferences actually do in practical terms?

Everything I listed to do is perfectly safe, people do these all the time. Preference files do not effect any media or events or projects or anything. When FCP launches (or any Mac app), it looks for preference files. If there are none, it write factory default new ones. Sometimes these preference files can become corrupted. Here's a resource for you.
www.fcproxuniversity.com/documents/FCSystemMaintenance.pdf

Okay I've downloaded preference manager and now it's giving me the option to "trash"

Is this what I need to do? And do I need to back up anything before clicking trash? I'm following blindly here so I'm being cautious lol.

There is no need to back up anything, just delete the prefs.

Okay deleting preferences didn't do anything so now I'm re-installing it. I'll let you know how I get on.

Thanks for all of your suggestions so far.

I don't believe a 2011 Mac has USB3? My guess is that you are running at USB2 speeds with the external. That isn't going to cut it for video editing.

JT

If you have the same GoFlex 3TB that I have, you can get a FIreWire base for it. Might even be able to get a Thunderbolt one.

Okay so what you're saying is that although I have a USB 3 external hard drive it's actually running at USB 2 because of my mac's capabilities?

My question then is this. If you're not supposed to use the internal hard drive and must always use an external hard drive for editing but I am not able to use an external hard drive for editing then what am I supposed to do? haha

Okay. Well I'm willing to pay for firewire and thunderbolt connections as long as it's going to solve the issue. If I'm honest this project is costing a ridiculous amount!!

How much am I looking at for a firewire or thunderbolt connection and do you really think it will solve the issue?

Can you confirm that your Mac only has USB2? Also, I'm not sure if the HD is the only problem. Also, it would probably depend on what speed drive is in the GoFlex. It would need to be a 7200 RPM drive to make a difference.

Hopefully some others will chime in to see if this is indeed the issue.

Any thoughts on this Ben?

Always do homework before making purchases.
Drives for video editing must be 7200rpm, or SSD.
FW800 minimum, T'bolt preferred, USB 2 is a huge no-no, USB 3 I've never personally tested, nor have I seen any USB 3 drives tested specifically for video editing, but they should be ok.

That USB 2 port on your Mac is disrupting your video editing for sure.

Okay so the problem is that my mac is running a USB 2 regardless of the hard drive being USB 3. What would be the solution to that? Or is there any?

The physical port on the computer must be USB 3.0. The one on your Mac is only USB 2.0.

Does that drive have a Firewire 800 port? If so, just buy a cable.

You will probably need a new adapter for FireWire:

www.amazon.com/Seagate-FreeAgent-GoFlex-...dapter/dp/B003KGBBRM

Just make sure your GoFlex will work with that adapter!

Also, although that should help, you may have other limiting factors as well. As mentioned above, 4Gigs of ram is not really enough. Could be some other things slowing you down as well.

JT