Sound Devices 744T - Manual (Page 59)

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which will, in turn, stop the hard disk from rotating. Condensation tends to occur when the tempera-
ture inside the drive suddenly falls, for example, just after the unit is moved to a new location, or
after operation is stopped in a cold environment.
Sudden changes in temperature or air pressure can cause disk surface material to evaporate, which
can also cause the head to adhere to the disk surface. This can happen when a hard disk drive is left
unused for a long period of time.
Storage Medium – Removable CompactFlash
CompactFlash (CF) is a practical, portable storage medium for audio recording. Its speed, capacity,
and price continue to evolve to the benefit of portable recorders. The 744T can write to and read from
CF cards as either its sole storage medium or simultaneously with the internal hard drive.
When to Use CF
The key benefits of CompactFlash include:
• wider temperature range capability than hard drives
• greatly increased shock immunity versus hard drives
• convenient, portable, removable media
• ubiquitous card readers and transfer tools
Formatting
Upon insertion of an unformatted (or non-FAT32 formatted) CF card, the 744T will prompt the user
to format the card. If the card is formatted as a FAT32 volume the card will be ready to be selected as
a storage medium. To reformat the CF medium, follow the same procedure as formatting the hard
drive, substituting the CF menu selection for the hard drive.
The 744T can format and use CompactFlash cards with capacities of 64 MB and greater.
Formatting the CF rebuilds the FAT (file allocation table) and erases all audio and data files present
on the card. While some PC and Mac utilities can recover files immediately after formatting a CF
card, consider that the files have been permanently erased. FAT32 volumes generated by the 744T
may not be compatible with some consumer electronic devices, including entry-level digital cameras.
After recording to CF has stopped, it may take several seconds for the 744T to finish “housekeeping” on
CF. When preparing to remove the CF, always observe the amber CF activity LED. If it is lit, wait until it
is off before removing the card. If the CF is removed while the LED is lit, at the very least the file will be
corrupted and there is a possibility of FAT corruption as well.
Speed Testing
CF cards varied widely in their read and write throughput. Later generation “24x” and greater CF
cards can reliably read and write multi-track, high sample rate audio. The 744T includes a drive
speed test to measure the throughput speed of CF medium.