How do I write to a FW drive and load onto a mac?

Why won't my Mac see a Panasonic formatted Fire Wire drive. I wanted to transfer footage to a HDD in the field and process it from that drive on my Mac. The HDD formatted by the camera are not recognized by my Mac. Am I doing something wrong? Is there a software or firmware upgrade that I need?

Thanks from a Noobie P2 user

Cheryl
 
I have an iMac intel core duo 2.4 GHz with 4 GB ram running OS X 10.5.7. The HDD is a Seagate 1.5 TB Fire Wire 400/ SATA / USB 2.0.

I formatted the drive with the AG HPX170 in 1394 Camera Host Mode and the Mac did not recognize the hard drive and asked if I would like to initialize it, I initialized the drive in FAT 32 and tried to load again from the camera, I formatted the hard drive with the camera again and was able to again move the files to the drive and not read them with my computer.

I am able to transfer the files to the drive through the computer with the camera in 1394 Device Mode and import the files into FCP. I also have a Macbook Pro with an express slot and an older macbook pro with a PC Card slot, so I know I can get the footage onto the hard drive via a laptop, but in the field it would be better to go directly to the hard drive.

My problem is, what format does the HPX170 camera format the Hard Drive in and can I get it to work with my Mac?

Thanks
Cheryl
 
Could you give us the enclosure manufacturer for the quad interface drive?

Because some manufacturer use two 750 GB drives in an internal array, such as Lacie.

That doesn't seem to work with the 170.
 
It's a Seagate Branded enclosure, and it looks like it's only big enough for a single drive. The camera seems to work fine with it, it's the computer that doesn't recognize the Panasonic drive formatting.
 
Last edited:
I don't know what drivers I need. The mac sees the Seageate hard drive, but will not recognise the Pannasonic formatting. What "drivers" do I need for the Mac to recognise the Panny formatting.

The mac recognizes the camera and the P2 cards, I can load the clips into FCP on a FAT32 formatted drive, what else do I need to do?

Thanks
 
Watching intently...

Watching intently...

This is just the kind of situation that has me leery about investing in a P2 camera.
 
It's the drive that is causing the problem, not the p2 cam.

for the OP, please explain what you mean by "The mac sees the Seageate hard drive, but will not recognise the Pannasonic formatting?"

Does the drive mount?
 
The drive does not mount, but is listed in Disk Utility, I can format it with the mac, but not read it when formatted by the camera. I can write to the drive from the camera via a laptop, but I can not write to the drive directly from the camera without reformatting the drive with the HPX170.

The drive mounts on the Mac when formatted with FAT32 or any of the Mac format protocols. I've processed clips from it that were loaded through a laptop over Fire Wire in 1394 device mode, I have not been able to load clips into FCP that were transfered to the HDD from the camera in 1394 Host Mode.

If I have to process through a laptop that is OK, but directly to the HDD is preferable.

thanks
 
Last edited:
It looks like my workflow needs to be using a Macbook pro with PC Card slot and bus powered FW HDD for field capture, and I'll use the 1.5TB Seagate for archiving. It adds some steps, but I can do field transfers unplugged, and the files will be stored in a couple of different places.

What is the workflow with a Fire Store drive and a mac? Are there any difficulties importing footage into FCP with a Fire Store drive?

Thanks
 
Back
Top