Final Cut Express Freezing everytime

S

stel

Member
Hi guys, I am back :p

I don't know what the deal is. I have created a file on an external with a bunch of footage for a DVD I am working on. Everything was going great until I noticed I was running out of room on the external. So I went and bought another 2 TB external. I then transferred the whole folder over to the new external.

Last night I tried importing a tape over to the new external. Computer froze right at the end. Tape was done importing but the frame froze at the end. Turned the computer off and came back to it this morning. Imported the tape over, same thing happened. Now, I can't do anything with out FCE freezing. Heck, I just went to changed settings and FCE froze. I have tried importing the tape with the new external un-plugged and it freezes before I get to it. Unplug both externals and the FCE still freezes. I have tried trashing preferences but no help. I have been researching the net and even looked in a few books and I can't find anything that will stop FCE from freezing.

I am running FCE 4.0
Both externals are 2TB seagates
Computer is a Macbook pro running Mac OS X Version 10.6.8

Any help would be sooooo much appreciated.
 
Update: I just trashed the preference again, unplugged the externals, and tried capturing the video and it froze????

Nothing is making sense
 
How are the externals connected to the MBP? USB2, FW400, FW800, SATA?

Were they formatted MacOS Extended before you transferred the files over?

What cam and how connected when ingesting the tape?
 
David Saraceno said:
How are the externals connected to the MBP? USB2, FW400, FW800, SATA?

Were they formatted MacOS Extended before you transferred the files over?

What cam and how connected when ingesting the tape?
Click to expand...

Both externals are connected to my computer by USB.

I am not sure what you are talking about as far as formatting. I did have to go into disk repair and do something to get the new external off of read only.

The footage I shot was through a sony v1u. I am using a cannon vixia hv40 to transfer the footage over. I have transferred at least 50 hours of tape this way. The cord I am using is a 1394.

Yesterday I hit repair disk and that at least stopped the computer from freezing. I was able to transfer 2 tapes over after that and I thought I fixed the problem. However, my last tape doesn't want to transfer and keeps freezing towards the end and I have to restart it. However, it looks like the files are in under finder>today. The only thing is, it doesn't have the whole tape on. Wierd....

I do however still want to fix the issue. I don't know why it won't transfer the files to Final Cut Express. Getting quite frustrated like always...: (

I hope someone can help. I have a huge project going on and I have no time for this bs.

Thanks in advance
 
Nevermind the part about the computer only freezing when I am in the middle of capturing. Just hit file and Final Cut Express is no longer responding.....ugh
 
USB won't work well for video files in most cases.

Second, which USB drive manufacturer are you using? What is the brand name? How many gigabytes are each, and did you just plug them in to your Mac without formatting them?
 
How am I suppose to get the files in my external then? the USB's are what came with the externals. Plus, I have been using one of the 2TB for about a year with no issues. The second one I just bought and now I am having issues with both. They are both seagate 2 TB, USB 3.0.
 
OK, been doing a little research. I noticed the computer saying the start up disk was near full. I just went through and deleted a ton of old footage and moved some around. If all goes well, this issue will be resolved. Hopefully this works....
 
My educated guess is that those drives are formatted for a PC and not a Mac, and that can account for some of your issues.

Don't know of any USB 3 drives that arrived formatted for Mac.

How am I suppose to get the files in my external then? the USB's are what came with the externals.
Click to expand...

I don't understand what you are stating.

What I am stating is that PC formatted drives in FAT32 can cause issues when used with a Mac.

That is the reason that all drives that you purchased should be formatted at MacOS extended with the Apple Disk Utility before use.

And at the very least, use FW400 or FW800 drives for video, not USB 2.

And never, ever use your boot drive to store video.

That drive heads are competing with operating system, application, and media at the same time.

That also will cause stalls, freezes, and slow downs.
 
Last edited:
Both are formatted for a MAC according to the info.

What I meant is the both external hard drives came with USB inputs. I can't use any other cord to connect the external HDs to the computer.

The camera is hooked up to the computer to transfer footage with a 1394 cord. Not a USB. I looked up a FW400 and fw800 and it looks like an adaptor. Wouldn't my 1394 cord do that same thing. I also don't understand why I am having this issue when I have transferred 50-100 hours of footage using this same exact method. with no problems.


Since my last post I have cleared the internal hard drive of everything possible. I have up dated the software for Macbook and re-installed Final Cut express. I have gone into utilities and clicked the repair button. Still having the problems.

Here is what the computer has been doing.

Transfer footage from Cannon Vixia HV40 to Macbook pro through 1394 fire wire, tape comes to an end, FCE says "capture has been stopped." Force computer to get out of FCE. Computer then becomes useless by acting real slow or freezing. Then I need to force it to turn off.

Turn computer back on. Find the footage that has been transferred in the find folder and import it to FCE. Start to transfer what has not been transferred.

Repeat....

Although I have came up with a solution (probably will pay for it later) I would like to fix this issue. Any other ideas??
 
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