Drobo and Avid MC Adrenaline

C

craigw1

New member
Just purchased a 4T Drobo and with the intention of using it to backup Avid projects. I have an HP xw8000 and purchased an add-on Firewire 800 card for the faster xfer rates. After some initial issues determining the proper PCI slot (FYI-the top PCI-X 100) slot, I was up and running. However, the firewire card runs at the firewire 100 speed. So I switched to USB-2. That worked. But after launching Avid with the Drobo connected via USB, Drobo dissapears--all the status lights turn off and it's gone from My Computer. I have to quit Avid, power down Drobo, then re-connect. It appears that Avid wants to index the Drobo drive just like it does with other drives looking for OMF/MXF files. I have a feeling the same problem woudl exist regardless of whether connected via firewire or USB.

Is there any way to tell Avid not to look at the Drobo during the application launch phase? Thanks!
 
So, the Drobo isn't working at all with Avid?

Thats a damn shame. I was really excited to use one. It seems like a great idea, and it would have been great for post work.
 
Well, I don't know if my situation necessarily means that it doesn't work with Avid. I'm going to call Drobo and see if they can offer any suggestions. I may update the firmware for starters. Speaking of starters, I hope Beckett is on his game tonight!
 
Hi All,

Mark Here from Data Robotics, makers of Drobo. Getting good FireWire performance on Windows is an ordeal because of driver issues.

On XP Microsoft sets the default speed to 100 Mbps -- which would be "FireWire 100". On XP you can get up to FireWire 400 speeds by editing The Registry as described in this article from Microsoft’s knowledgebase http://support.microsoft.com/kb/885222. We have seen that with XP SP3 FireWire is locked down to the 100Mbps speeds. Third party drivers get back to FireWire 400 levels.

On Vista 32 bit you can get up to FireWire 800 performance, but it requires a third party driver and card both from a company named Unibrain to do this. For Vista 64 bit we are working with Unibrain to help them bring a higher performance driver to market. This should be available soon.
 
also i get the feeling that avid hates firewire 800, actually avid kind of hates fire wire drives to begin with, it's very finicky.
 
xmesphestox, I run FW800 drives on my 2nd Media Composer 3.05 GRAID from G-Tech as my only video drives. The system runs smoothly.
 
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