Is this workflow flawed?

[FilmBoy77]

okay. i got the hvx like two weeks ago and just got my 4GB p2 card a coupla days ago. i've been getting random footage and have stored it on the p2 card and now its time to figure out my workflow going forward.

what i have: a PC laptop with not much hard drive space, a desktop mac with FCP and the HVX. tomorrow i'll be buying an external hard drive but after reading a few of the threads i've seeen a few comments about the 4 GB cards not being able to transfer more than 60GBs or something? so should i buy an external hard drive no bigger than about 80GBs? will this external hard drive only be able to be used for mfx files and nothing else (misc files, etc)?

i'll admit i've been overwhelmed with a lot of the info on this site i've been reading being as i am a newbie pretty much. i have an idea of how the workflow is supposed to work but i'd like to be sure.

this is how i'm planning my workflow after getting the footage i want:
import footage on PC laptop/external drive using p2 genie > plug external drive into mac via firewire and simply import mfx files into FCP

please comment if i'm way off the mark here thanx...

[Matt Sconce]

Here is my workflow. i slide card into PCMIA slot in PC desktop. Double click P2 card. Drag a copy of the MXF files to a folder. Edit in AVID Xpress HD.

My other for Premiere Pro. Drag the MXF files off card (just like the card was a harddrive, put in a folder and use Raylight to convert to AVI. Edit in Premiere.

[nsoltz]

You might be getting a couple of things mixed up... If you are downloading directly from HVX to external hard drive or offloading P2 cards to P2 store, then you are talking Fat32. Fat32 can support no more than 15 partitions. Hence, if you have 15 partitions of 4 gb each, well that's 60 gb. If you copy the contents of your P2 card to hard drive either by putting cards in PC slot of notebook or just connecting computer via firewire or USB and copying files, then you don't have those partition issues. It is only when you use the HVX in host mode that the HVX needs to format the drive. It then creates a separate partition for each card.

Ned Soltz

[FilmBoy77]

cool thanx guys! sorry for the constant questions but i'm out of town and away from my camera and computers to actually try this. can't wait to get back home.

so basically i can just do like msconce is saying and put the card into the laptop, it'll show up as a drive on my cpu, then i just copy the mfx files onto the external hard drive and finally i can hook up the external hard drive to my Mac and import the mfx files into FCP?

[AbstracTheory]

be careful, when using a PC (fat32) as a passthrough to transferring files to a mac (ntfs)... make sure you drag both the whole contents folder and the lastclip.txt file and put them in their own folder each time... especially when bringing it into FCP.. and backup your files, and dont get rid of your MXFs once FCP converts them into quicktime files..

[FilmBoy77]

be careful, when using a PC (fat32) as a passthrough to transferring files to a mac (ntfs)... make sure you drag both the whole contents folder and the lastclip.txt file and put them in their own folder each time... especially when bringing it into FCP.. and backup your files, and dont get rid of your MXFs once FCP converts them into quicktime files..

what if the external hard drive is formatted as NTFS? would this avoid errors?