FireWire Drive Requirements on Windows 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, Avid MediaDrive rS250, DigiDrive FireWire 80, and third-party FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 911 chipset 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

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 Windows XP:
  • Pro Tools|HD and Pro Tools|HD Accel Systems (with Pro Tools HD 7.0 or higher)
  • Pro Tools LE Systems (with Pro Tools LE 7.0 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 7.0 or higher)
  • Pro Tools Academic Systems
  • 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:

Windows System Requirements


  • Digidesign Pro Tools TDM, LE, M-Powered, or Academic system
  • Digidesign-approved Windows-based computer with FireWire capability
  • If your Windows CPU does not have an IEEE 1394 (FireWire) port built in, you will need to install a qualified PCI-to-FireWire card:
  • PCI FireWire cards should only be installed in the CPU itself, not in a PCI chassis
  • While other Windows FireWire cards may work, Digidesign cannot guarantee results or performance on all cards. With any multi-port card, connect to the first port if at all possible.
  • Note: When used with Windows 98 SE or Windows Me, a third-party disk utility such as PartitionMagic is required to format the drive before it can be used
  • For additional information see your Getting Started Guide or the Digidesign Storage Guide

Please Note: PC vendors change or remove components such as Firewire hosts often. Please confirm with your vendor that your machine includes a compatible card from the list of Digidesign-Qualified FireWire/1394 HBA Cards for Windows XP.

General Technical Specifications



Performance Expectations
  • Supported track count (per drive) with Pro Tools LE and M-Powered 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)
  • Digidesign has qualified configurations containing a maximum of four DigiDrive FireWire drives daisy-chained to a Pro Tools workstation using Digidesign supplied cables. (more than 4 drives may result in -6042 errors on all systems)
  • 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 80 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 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.
  • 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|XL, which requires SCSI storage for recording and playback. However, you can use FireWire drives to back-up your video storage SCSI drives.

FireWire Drive Formatting
  • Drives should be formatted with Windows XP disk administration without Dynamic Disk selected
  • NTFS or FAT32 file system for Windows XP
    • Windows XP is unable to create a FAT32 partition on a drive that is larger than 32 GB. If your drive is larger than 32 GB, either use a partitioning application such as PartitionMagic or use the NTFS file system.
    • Windows NTFS or FAT32 formatted drives supported on Mac OS X for transfer only
  • Please Note: FAT32 Volumes & Future Versions of Pro Tools for Windows
    • Pro Tools 7.3.x will be the last version of Pro Tools that will support FAT32 for Recording.
    • Future versions of Pro Tools for Windows XP and Windows Vista will not support FAT32 for recording, but will continue to support FAT32 formatted volumes for Playback and Transfer.

Mac HFS+ Disk Support Option
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).

DV Tookit 2 & Music Production Toolkit Options — Maximum Track Count Information



The purchase of DV Toolkit 2 for Pro Tools LE or Music Production Toolkit for Pro Tools LE & M-Powered expands a Pro Tools LE or M-Powered system from 32 total voiceable tracks to up to 48 mono or 48 stereo tracks. Note that maximum track count may vary depending on CPU, OS, number of edits, drives, or other factors. To help achieve maximum track count, Digidesign recommends the following:
  • 2GHz or higher processor
  • 1GB total system RAM or more with Pro Tools 7.1-7.3
  • 2.5GB total system RAM with Pro Tools 7.4
  • 2 or more qualified hard drives dedicated for audio record and playback

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
  • FireWire 400 drives with the Oxford 912 or 924 FireWire chipset interface
  • FireWire 800 drives with the Oxford 912 or 924 FireWire chipset interface
  • 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.
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