Question for the Mac users

[rando]

I have 2 soon to be 3 Macs running bootcamp to get the best of both worlds. I use Macdrive on Windows and format all my partitions Mac. I am having a few problems because of that. Would it be overkill to run Macdrive on the Widows side and Paragon NTFS on the Mac side and then just leave all the partitions alone?

[Geoff]

I use MacDrive and Paragon with no problems. However, it is necessary to export any Edius edited footage using a codec that can be recognised by FCP.
Geoff

[hedleyw]

Will Paragon see a Windows Raid 0?

[Rusty]

Mac can't use NTFS natively and although Windows can use HSF+ (with MacDrive), Edius cannot.

So I don't see a "best of" yet.

[GrassValley_KH]

I believe that's what's being asked. Paragon = Third-party NTFS read/write for Mac OS.

[WTS1]

Both (Paragon & MacDrive) have their limitations. I have both, and have used both extensively. IMO, MacDrive does a better job on the Windows side than Paragon on the Mac. Paragon works reasonably well reading or copying files, but does a very poor job when it comes to saving application files (ie DVD Studio Pro saved files, Motion files, etc). MacDrive does work just fine with Edius--you just can't save the Edius project file on a Mac formatted drive. You can keep all of your asset files on a Mac formatted drive, and they will work just fine (at least I've never run into any problems). Edius is about the only Win application I've run into any problems when saving a project file from an application to a Mac formatted drive. Paragon was another story, and because I had so many get corrupted or unusable, I don't try saving ANY mac application files to NTFS. Many Mac programs bundle a lot of files into the save file for the application, and if any of the resource forks are affected, the whole project file can be ruined.

My current process is to use both of the applications only to access isolated files, and to not use either to save project files.

[STORMDAVE]

I recommend that you use a native NTFS drive (or RAID) for Windows and an HFS+ drive for OSX. If you are doing authoring and need to go back and forth between windows and OSX (let's say render out of EDIUS via PC3 and then use DVDStudioPro for authoring) then use Paragon NTFS to read the files. I would not recommend that you do EDIUS projects on drives with MacDrive or Paragon software, it's just not stable enough imo for real work.

[GrassValley_KH]

It's possible that the EDIUS EZP format is rejected by the Mac OS drive due to the nature of that file (it's a kind of ZIP file).

In fact, see what happens when you rename your EZP file (or rather a copy of your EZP file) to .ZIP... ;)

[STORMDAVE]

There is also another major problem if you try to access clip properties of files that reside on an HFS+ drive via Mac Drive, it gives an error making the property window unusable.

[WTS1]

Stormdave raises a good point, if the clip's property function in Edius is important to you, then you want to have your assets saved on an NTFS formatted drive. That and the inability to save the Edius project file to a Mac formatted drive are the only limits I've experienced, but maybe there are others. I personally don't find the properties limit a big deal, and have assets for my projects often on both types of formatted drives. If I've created titles with live type or FCP or motion segments in Motion, I don't take the extra step of copying them to a NTFS drive--I just save them on the Mac drive, and access them via Edius. I don't trust Paragon to write the files to an NTFS drive (which is the only other option other than running windows and then using MacDrive to copy the files over). If the assets you are sharing are small enough, you can read and write to a FAT 32 formatted drive from a Mac (which is another option, with obvious limitations).

On the Mac side, it should be noted that the Mac can READ files on an NTFS drive (and access them), but can't write to the NTFS drive. You can create a project for DVD Studio Pro (and save the project file on your Mac drive), and simply access the m2v/audio files on the PC side. When you go to final output, you would have to write to your Mac HD, or direct to disc--but you don't have to have them all copied to a Mac drive to start. I just output from Procoder or Edius to a Mac formatted drive, and then I can also save my DVDSP project file with the asset files.

There are a lot of ways to skin the cat, but as others have pointed out, none of them are 'perfect'.

Jim

[GrassValley_KH]

Just curious - has anyone tested the new 7.2 version of MacDrive, which adds Vista x64 support?

I've not had a chance to give it a go. Maybe it plays nice with EDIUS? *hopeful*