MACKIE HDR24/96 - Manual (Page 36)

HDR 24/96
If you're formatting a new drive or one that hasn't been previously used for recording in a
Mackie recorder, when the format operation has completed, another message will appear
prompting you to Verify the drive for recording and playback.
• Select Cancel to exit the Format routine if this is going to be strictly a backup drive
(an ORB cartridge, for instance), or
• Select OK to run the performance verification test (see Verify Drive Performance).
If you’ve reformatted a drive that’s previously been verified for recording, you won’t be
prompted to run the verification test. The HDR24/96 detects that this is a verified recording drive
and will retain that information. The verification test should be run only on hard drives. It is a
useless test on a Media PROJECT drive. Also look ahead for notes on
Aftermarket Drives
including jumper settings.
To Format Media on a Computer
Install the Mackie Media drive in your computer (simple if you have a matching drive bay –
just plug it in and reboot) or insert a Mackie Media Project cartridge in your computer’s Orb
drive. Consult your computer’s operating system instructions for formatting if you don’t
know how. You’ll no doubt be warned several times that you’re about to format a hard drive
and that you could lose data. That’s okay, it’s exactly what you want to do.
BE VERY, VERY SURE YOU KNOW THE DESIGNATION YOUR COMPUTER
ASSIGNS TO THE MACKIE DRIVE YOU’RE ABOUT TO FORMAT. Most
computers assign " C: " to the drive that has the operating system and other essential file on
it. If there's a second hard drive, that is going to be " D: " in most cases. Particularly in
computers that are used in audio workstations a second disk drive is used for audio projects.
And then there’s probably a CD drive, and maybe a JAZ or ZIP. Sometimes these drive
assignment letters change when adding a new drive to the computer. DON’T FORMAT
THE WRONG DRIVE BY MISTAKE ! ! !
When you install a computer-formatted drive in your HDR24/96, it will be recognized, but
only as a backup-only drive. If you want to use it for recording, you’ll have to run the Verify
utility. When it passes, it will be “branded” as a recording drive and you’ll be good to go.
Verify Drive Performance
Verify Drive Performance tests the read/write speed and overall transfer rate of the external drive
under simulated worst-case scenarios to determine whether it can sustain 24 tracks of recording and
playback. Although any IDE drive can be used for backup, only UDMA IDE drives that pass the
performance verification test can be used for recording and playback.
The verification test should be run only on hard drives. Don’t bother to run the test on Mackie Media
PROJECT drives – the cows will come home before the test finishes, and it will fail anyway. A
Media PROJECT drive is not intended for recording.
When a drive passes the performance verification test, a zero-byte file is written to the disk to identify
it as a real time recording drive and it will be recognized as such by the HDR24/96 or any other
Mackie hard disk recorder. Also if the drive is reformatted in an HDR24/96 or any other Mackie hard
disk recorder, this “brand” is detected and restored after reformatting, so it still appears as a real time
recording drive. Formatting on another computer of course erases this designation.
In fact, you can’t re-run the recording verification unless you reformat the drive outside of the
HDR24/96 so that the recorder recognizes it as an unverified drive. You can start the verification, but
once it sees that the drive has already been verified, the HDR just tells you that it’s OK without
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