[ This article was first published in the November, 2007, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe. ]
Dave Steward writes:
I know how important it is to save only video files on the second drive and everything else on the system drive. But what about other apps? Should I save DVD Studio Pro projects and its materials on the system drive or the 2nd drive. Same thing with Livetype, After effects, Motion, etc…
Larry replies: Dave, it all depends upon whether the files play in real-time. If you need real-time playback, it is good practice to store the files to your second drive. If you don’t need real-time playback, they can be stored anywhere.
In the case of your question, I make it a practice, though it is not required, to store all data files on my second drive. With DVD Studio Pro, I put group all similar assets in one folder, then store all the individual folders into a single folder for importing into DVD SP. This simplifies organization and importing.
I generally store project files in a DVD Project folder on my boot drive because project folders in DVD SP, like Final Cut, never contain any data; just pointers to the data.
One Response to Where to Store Files for DVD Studio Pro
Hi Larry,
Like you I store all my ingest media and generated files on a second drive. My arrangement looks like this:
Client Folder holds FCP file, DSP File & and any generated art work (stills for disc face and case) on my boot drive. I maintain a master copy of the basic files I use for every job (preconfigured FCP, DSP and Art files) and just copy and rename the file for a new job.
Any media needed by FCP goes onto a second hard drive (my current working hard drive) in the Capture Scratch Folder under the clients FCP Name. Any client supplied images (photos and slides or negatives go in the same folder, as do the Photoshop generated FCP ready images I create from them.
As an aside, all hard drives are duplicated as backup – I always buy drives in pairs.
Generated media (Compressor encodes and such) also go onto the same hard drive in an appropriately labeled folder inside a folder named Encodes.
Lastly, created DVDs also go into a DVD folder on the same drive in a folder labeled with the clients name from where I can burn hard copies via Toast.
Erasing Files after a job just means opening and deleting the appropriate Capture Scratch, Render, Autosave and Encodes folders. I transfer the art folder and any DVD folders into deep storage on another pair of hard drives (when I have a spare moment) where they remain for at least 12 months, though it is usually closer to 2 years, depending on how full the drive gets.
I should note that this is my FCP 7 regime. (I’m still sorting out my workflow for FCP X)
Cheers, Ian