Fostex D-series saving

[WayStar]

Hi all!

Question: Is it possible to transfer from one D2424 to another D2424 using SCSI as the SaveDevice? I don't have the cable to attempt it for sake of experiment, was hoping someone might already know the answer.

In the manual, there are instructions for saving to an external or internal device, and these intructions involve formatting.

There are no instructions for transfering from one D2424 to another, using any of the SaveDevice options. (At least not that I've found.) Nevertheless, I am successfully saving and loading from one to another using adat as my SaveDevice option.

Of course, the adat option only allows to save one program at a time, whereas the SCSI has the option to load and save ALL.

I have two D2424 units, and three drives. Two of these drives must be identical and ready to use - in other words, not in a "backup" format. At 40 GB each for these two drives, that can take awhile for one program at a time. (At least most of the programs are 45 minutes in length.)

Can't afford an external scsi drive for backup up and restoring to make my duplicate drive.



For anyone new to my saga - I'm not a musician or recording studio person. I'm a planetarium production designer, which means that I work in a planetarium and am responsible for making sure that all of the shows go smoothly. It's a really fun and awesome job, but we have itty-bitty tiny budgets. I learn more about how to work with unfamiliar equipment from my homerecording contacts here than from anywhere else, on or off the web.


So - anyone have experience with transferring between two D-series units via scsi?

Thanks,
Waylena

 

[skippy]

If you're talking about connecting the two D2424s directly with a SCSI cable: it can't be done that way. You really do absolutely have to have an external SCSI drive to do that. The reason is that both 2424s are SCSI bus masters, and they can only talk to a slave device- one master can't talk to another master. So the news on that front is all bad.

If you're having success doing it one program at a time via ADAT, then I'd suggest just biting the bullet and doing them all that way. If the budget is really tiny, then that's the minimum-cost approach- even though it will be expensive in terms of your time. The right thing to do would be to get the external drive, because then you could keep it around as a thrid level of backup...

I thought that you could duplicate the 2424's drive to a drive in the second bay. IS that not actually possible? I haven't laid hands on a 2424, so I'm just speculating here...

 

[JR#97]

External SCSI drives are damn cheap. For backup, you don't need a screamer, just the proper amount of space. I picked up a few 9 gigs for about $30 a piece on ebay. Much cheaper than ADAT!!!

 

[WayStar]

Skippy - thanks for the lowdown on the scsi issue, makes good sense.

JR -thanks for the tip on external drives, I'll have to look again. Last time I checked was a few months ago, and I found that 40GB or higher was a bit more on the pricey side. I have a few $$ left on a grant for audio stuff, but if it's a choice between studio monitors (which we curretnly do not have) and an external scsi drive, I'll get us the monitors.

As for something being expensive in terms of time, $100 worth of my time is not as valuable to our payroll department as $100 is to our PTB in budgeting. (This assumes that there is no overtime, which I'm not allowed to work.) And saving me from aggravation is worth even less... but I digress.


As for 2nd bay...

I could (and can always) be mistaken, but I believe the second bay is an option requiring dealer installation. Peeking in through the first bay when the caddy/drive are removed reveals no obvious connections for a second IDE drive.

Also, I thought that a second drive, be it IDE or DVDRAM or whatnot, uses the backup format rather than duplication. Again, I can always be wrong on that.

In any case, once I get the two identical drives setup, maintenance (adding new shows, removing retired ones) should be a breeze.

Thanks!

-Waylena

 

[WayStar]

Come to think of it, what is the maximum capacity of the approved scsi drives? My list of larger drives (downloaded on 12-09-2002) do not say OK for backup use.

curiouser and curiouser...

Waylena

PS- even with these final bugs to work out, our operations are a lot smoother than the were using reel-to-reel for playback. Switching from one show to another is a lot faster now.