User guide

Pro Tools|HD User Guide70
SCSI Hard Drives
Avid recommends qualified SCSI hard drives
and a qualified SCSI host bus adapter (HBA) card
or (on Windows systems) a qualified built-in
SCSI HBA connector on the motherboard.
For complete information on track count and
the supported number and configuration of
SCSI drives, visit our website (www.avid.com).
FireWire Hard Drives
Avid recommends qualified FireWire drives for
all systems. On systems without FireWire ports,
a qualified FireWire host bus adapter is recom-
mended.
For complete information on track count and
the supported number and configuration of
FireWire drives, visit our website
(www.avid.com).
SAS, SATA, ATA, and IDE Hard Drives
Qualified SAS, SATA, ATA, and IDE hard drives
may be used as dedicated audio drives.
For complete information on track count with
supported hard drives, visit www.avid.com.
Formatting Audio Drives
Formatting Windows Audio Drives
For optimal performance, audio drives should
be formatted as NTFS.
To format an audio drive:
1 Right-click My Computer and choose Manage.
2 Under Storage, choose Disk Management.
3 If the volume is “Healthy,” do the following:
• In the Disk Management window, right-
click the hard drive you will use for audio
and choose Format.
• In the Format window, name the volume.
• Choose a file system. For optimum perfor-
mance, audio drives should be formatted as
NTFS.
• Select “Perform a quick format.”
•Make sure “Enable file and folder compres-
sion” is not selected.
• Set the Allocation unit size to Default.
• Click OK.
Disk Management window
Healthy volumes are volumes that have pre-
viously been partitioned and formatted.
Pro Tools only supports Basic drive types.
Do not convert the drive to a Dynamic type.