FireWire Drive Requirements on Mac Systems


With all Pro Tools systems, drive performance depends on a number of factors, including track count, edit density, and the use of crossfades or processing such as plug-ins.

Pro Tools System Compatibility



FireWire 400 Hard Drives
The Avid MediaDrive rS80, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party 7200 RPM FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 chipset interface have been qualified for record and playback with the following Mac & Windows systems:
  • Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools 6.2 or higher)
  • Pro Tools|HD Systems (with Pro Tools 5.3.1 or higher)
  • Pro Tools|24 MIX Systems (with Pro Tools 5.1.1 or higher)
  • Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools 5.1.1 or higher)
  • Pro Tools M-Powered Systems
  • Pro Tools Academic Systems

Granite Digital Mac OS 10.4 "Tiger" Support Notice

FireWire 800 (or FireWire 400) Hard Drives
FireWire 800 (or FireWire 400) drives with the Oxford 912 or 924 chipset interface have been qualified for record and playback with the following systems on Mac OS X 10.4:
  • Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools 6.9.2 or higher)
  • Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools LE 6.9.2 or higher) with the following exception:
    • FireWire 800 drives are not supported for record and playback with Mbox 2 Pro systems
  • Pro Tools M-Powered Systems (with Pro Tools M-Powered 6.8r2 or higher)
  • Pro Tools Academic Systems
  • Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" only (not tested on Mac OS X 10.3 and earlier)
  • Please Note:
    • Hard drives using the Oxford 924 chipset interface have FW800, FW400, USB 2.0, and eSATA ports on them. (In our testing, Digidesign qualified Glyph GT Series Hard Drives with the Oxford 924 chipset)
    • Hard drives using the Oxford 912 chipset interface have USB 2.0, FW400 and FW800 ports on them.
    • Only the use of the FW800 or FW400 interface is supported on these drives with Pro Tools.
  • Up to 4 FireWire 800 daisy-chained drives supported when used without other FireWire drives
  • FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined
  • For additional information when using an M-Audio FireWire interface when also using a FireWire 800 hard drive, please see this M-Audio Knowledgebase item:

Mercury Elite-AL Pro
The OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro line of Dual Interface drives is now tested and certified for use with Pro Tools 8.0 for Mac and Windows with FW 400 only.
  • The Dual Interface (FireWire 400 + USB 2.0) models use the following Chipset: Oxford Semiconductor 934
  • If you are using a FW 400 LE device we recommend running the drives on a separate FW400 bus for maximum track counts and disk performance.
  • For more information on these drives, please see the Other World Computing website:

FireWire Hard Drives - Maximum Performance
FireWire drives have been qualified with Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel systems with Pro Tools 6.9.x and higher for the following:
  • Supported track count (per drive): 24 tracks per drive at 48 KHz/24-bit
  • Maximum 8 FireWire 400 drives for a total of 192 tracks at 48 KHz/24-bit
  • Pro Tools|HD Accel systems: maximum 192 tracks

Mac OS X System Requirements


  • Pro Tools 8.0/8.0.1 for Leopard requires Mac OS 10.5.5 or higher
  • Pro Tools 7.4.2 for Leopard requires Mac OS 10.5.3 or higher
  • Pro Tools HD 7.4.1 for Leopard requires Mac OS 10.5.1
  • Pro Tools 7.0-7.4 for Tiger requires Mac OS 10.4.2 or higher
  • Pro Tools 6.9.2 for Tiger requires Mac OS 10.4 or higher
  • Pro Tools 6.2.3/6.4/6.7/6.9 for Panther requires Mac OS 10.3.2, 10.3.4, 10.3.5, 10.3.7, or 10.3.8
  • Pro Tools 6.1/6.2 for Jaguar requires Mac OS 10.2.6 or 10.2.8
  • Pro Tools 6.0.x requires Mac OS 10.2.3, 10.2.4, 10.2.5, or 10.2.6
Not Supported: Mac OS X 10.0 (Cheetah), 10.1 (Puma), 10.6 (Snow Leopard)

Additional Drive Requirements
  • Drives must be dedicated for audio (internal or external)
  • Mac OS file system: Mac OS Extended (also known as HFS+ format)
  • Mac OS Standard (HFS) formatted drives can be used for transfer, but are not recommended for recording or playback
  • Pro Tools does not support RAID technology. Please do not activate this feature on any Pro Tools recording drives.

Formatting Instructions - Mac OS X
Supported formatting utility: Disk Utility, included with Mac OS X
  • Open from the following location: Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility, or in the Apple Menu when booted from the OS X installation CD.
  • From the list of drives on the left, select the actual drive (the one on top, with the GB and drive manufacturer listed) rather than the user defined name of the drive below it.
  • Choose either the Erase or Partition tab
  • Choose Mac OS Extended (Journaled) - also known as HFS+
  • If you plan on using your drive on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, check the box next to "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers".
Note: partitioning is not an option using the Erase command. To increase performance and improve seek time Digidesign recommends that you allocate a portion of your hard drive for recording. In Pro Tools, Choose Setups/Preferences and click Operation. Under the Open Ended Record Allocation option, select Limit To and enter a number of minutes to be allocated.

Macintosh Journaled File System Recommended for Pro Tools
Mac OS X 10.3 and higher incorporates a journaled file system, which will automatically log any file modifications. If your computer crashes badly enough to require a restart (or a restart from a power failure), the OS will then use the journal to aid in fixing any disk problems caused by the crash.

Mac OS X 10.3 and higher ships with journaling on by default. Digidesign now recommends that customers format their media drives with journaling turned on. When using Apple"s Disk Utility program to format drives, Digidesign recommends choosing "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format, instead of "Mac OS Extended."

To enable journaling on an existing drive in Mac OS X 10.3:
  • Run the Apple Disk Utility, located in Application/Utilities.
  • Select the disk or volume in the left column of the Disk Utility windows.
  • Click "Enable Journaling" in the toolbar, or choose "Enable Journaling" or Command+J from the File menu
If you want to turn journaling off for any reason, select the volume and choose "Disable Journaling" or Command +J in the File menu of Disk Utility. Note that disabling journaling will slow recovery if your system has to be rebooted to recover from a kernel panic or power failure.

Note: Mac OS 10.4 and higher includes two new formatting options:
  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled)
  • Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive)
Digidesign has not tested these new formatting options with Pro Tools, and therefore these are not recommended. Please choose the following option for drive formatting:
  • Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

Third-party Drive Utilities Not Supported
While third-party drive format utilities may work on the owner's CPU where that application's software and extensions are installed, the best way to ensure compatibility on all Macs with firewire drives is to use the Apple Erase Disk function in Mac OS 9 for formatting, or the Mac OS X Disk Utility. If you plan to also use your FireWire drive on other machines that may not have the same third-party drivers, your drive may not mount on that machine, or you may experience DAE or system errors.
  • If you plan on using your drive on both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, check the box next to "Install Mac OS 9 Drivers" when formatting or partitioning using the Mac OS X Disk Utility.
  • Supported file format: Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
  • HFS standard formatting will result in finder copy problems with files over 2 GB
  • For additional information see the Digidesign Storage Guide or your Getting Started Guide

FireWire Hard Drives with Avid Video Peripherals on Pro Tools|HD & Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems
The Avid MediaDrive rS80, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 chipset have been qualified for record and playback of video with data transfer rates equal to DV25 or less. FireWire storage must be connected to a PCI FireWire card when used with Avid Video Peripherals:

Mac HFS+ Disk Support Option for Windows Systems
Pro Tools 7.3 and higher only

The Mac HFS+ Disk Support option lets you interchange sessions between Mac-based and Windows-based Pro Tools systems using local HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) formatted hard drives.

With the Mac HFS+ Disk Support option installed on a Windows computer, you can mount an HFS+ drive on a Windows-based Pro Tools system, and record and play back Pro Tools sessions directly on that drive as if it were natively formatted (for example, NTFS or FAT32) for Windows.
  • A Digidesign-qualified Pro Tools|HD® system or Pro Tools LE™ system running Pro Tools 7.3 or higher on a Windows computer
  • A qualified hard drive formatted on a Mac computer as HFS+ (Mac OS X Extended)
For more information, including installation instructions and session compatbility, see the Mac HFS+ Disk Support Guide (available for download below).

For systems lower than Pro Tools 7.3, Mac HFS+ formatted drives are supported on Windows XP for transfer only by using MacDrive 6 software by Mediafour (purchased separately).

Mac OS 9 System Requirements


  • Mac OS 9.1 or higher, 9.2.2 recommended
  • FireWire Enabler (version 2.7 or higher)
  • FireWire Support (version 2.7 or higher)
  • FireWire Enabler v2.7 and FireWire Support v2.7 are Mac OS Extensions included with OS 9.1. run the Software Update Control Panel to update to the latest version of these extensions in OS 9.1 or higher. Both of these extensions must be enabled in your System Folder/Extensions folder in order to mount and use firewire drives.
  • If you are running a non-English version of the Mac OS, you may need to download the version 2.5 FireWire extensions

Formatting Instructions - Mac OS 9
Supported formatting utility: Mac OS 9 "Erase Disk" command
  • Select firewire drive (highlight drive icon on desktop)
  • Go to the "Special" menu in the Apple OS menu bar
  • Choose "Erase Disk" command
  • Choose Mac OS Extended (HFS+)
Note: partitioning is not an option using the Erase Disk command in Mac OS 9. To increase performance and improve seek time, Digidesign recommends that you allocate a portion of your hard drive for recording. In Pro Tools, Choose Setups/Preferences and click Operation. Under the Open Ended Record Allocation option, select Limit To and enter a number of minutes to be allocated.

General Technical Specifications



Performance Expectations
  • Supported track count (per drive) with Pro Tools LE systems: 32 tracks per drive at 48 KHz/24-bit . Two drives required for 32 tracks at 96 KHz/24-bit
  • Supported track count (per drive) with Pro Tools TDM systems: 24 tracks per drive at 48 KHz/24-bit
  • Maximum 2 drives for a total of 48 tracks (Pro Tools|24 MIX systems)
  • Maximum 4 drives for a total of 96 tracks at 48 KHz/24-bit (Pro Tools|HD systems)
  • Maximum 8 FireWire 400 drives for a total of 192 tracks at 48 KHz/24-bit (Pro Tools|HD Accel systems)
  • Digidesign has qualified configurations containing a maximum of 8 DigiDrive FireWire drives daisy-chained to a Pro Tools workstation using Digidesign supplied cables.
  • Up to 4 FireWire 800 daisy-chained drives supported when used without other FireWire drives
  • FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined
  • Individual user experience regarding track count and performance may vary depending on edit density and available CPU cycles. (things like automation, RTAS plug-ins, or other CPU-dependent processes)

Additional Configuration Requirements & Guidelines
Keep in mind the following when configuring FireWire drives:
  • The FireWire cable between the Pro Tools workstation and the first drive (or between any two ports) cannot exceed 14.76 feet (4.5 meters).
  • The total FireWire cable from the system to the last drive cannot exceed 236 feet (72 meters).
  • A 12-inch (30.5 cm) FireWire cable ships with each DigiDrive FireWire drive to daisy-chain the drives.
  • Either FireWire connector on the drive can be used to connect to the system and other drives.
  • Maximum compatibility is achieved when your system has dual FireWire ports. Daisychain DigiDrive FireWire drives to one port and use the other port for cameras and video decks.
  • FireWire drives do not require a terminator.
  • Although firewire drives can be hot-swapped without rebooting the host computer, it is necessary to quit Pro Tools before swapping drives and then re-launching Pro Tools.
  • Windows formatted drives will not be recognized as audio drives by Pro Tools on the Mac.
  • It is highly recommended that you not spread audio files from one session across different types of storage (i.e. SCSI, FireWire, IDE/ATA). This is not possible on Pro Tools HD systems, and may cause bus problems on other Pro Tools systems. On the other hand, you may see improved performance if you store QuickTime video files on one type of drive and play the audio off another. This is because QuickTime video results in high bus traffic, while audio requires a lot of drive seeking. So storing QuickTime video files on your FireWire drives and audio on your SCSI drives may provide better performance than having audio and video playing together over the same bus.
  • FireWire drives are not qualified for use with AVoption or AVoption|XL. AVoption and AVoption|XL require SCSI storage for recording and playback. However, you can use FireWire drives to back-up your video storage SCSI drives.

Other FireWire Drives


Although not all FireWire drives have been fully tested with Pro Tools systems by Digidesign, you may be able to use FireWire drives from other manufacturers with similar results, given the same guidelines noted above. To date only FireWire drives with the following specifications have performed well with Pro Tools systems:
  • 7200 RPM drive
  • FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 FireWire chipset interface on Mac OS X & OS 9
  • FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 912 or 924 FireWire chipset interface on Mac OS X 10.4
  • FireWire 800 drives with the Oxford 912 or 924 FireWire chipset interface on Mac OS X 10.4
  • FireWire 400 and FireWire 800 drives should not be combined
Check with the drive manufacturer to verify that their drive has the "Oxford 911", "Oxford 912", "Oxford 924" or comparable chipset & drive speed of 7200 rpm.

Additional Notes for Macintosh System Compatibility and Portability
While third-party drive format utilities may work on the owner's CPU where that application's software and extensions are installed, the best way to ensure compatibility on all Macs with firewire drives is to use the Apple Erase Disk function in Mac OS 9 for formatting, or the Mac OS X Disk Utility as outlined above. If you plan to also use your FireWire drive on other machines that may not have the same third-party drivers, your drive may not mount on that machine, or you may experience DAE or system errors. The guidelines listed previously on this page will generally yield the best results when using FireWire drives with Pro Tools.

FireWire Drives — Approximate Track Count


Test results with Avid MediaDrive rS250, Avid MediaDrive rS80, and DigiDrive FireWire 80:
Drives
44.1/48 kHz
96 kHz
192 kHz
1
24
12
6
2
48
24
12
3
72
36
18
4
96
48
24
5
120
60
30
6
128
72
36
8
192
96
36


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Mac HFS+ Disk Support Guide v7.3
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