Can't Start New Project

[drummerdude1971]

Hello all, I'm hoping someone out there can help me. I have a mx2424 that I have been using for 9 months or so. Everything seemed to be working fine until last Saturday when I couldn't start any new projects. As soon as I tried, the busy light came on and the machine froze up. I have mx view, and I get the message "no connection between devices" or something to that effect. I tried doing it without using the computer and it still froze up.
The weird thing is that I can still load older projects. Like I said this just started last weekend. I'm hoping it's something easy as I'm not the most technical person out there. Thanks

 

[witzendoz]

How long has it been since that drive had a "Low Level Format"? When I had had problems with starting a new project it was because the Hard Drives register of project was full. This register does not get the Project folders removed when a project is deleted or when you do a disk clean up, when either of these is carried out it just empties the folder but the folder is still in place. Not only that, but there is also a back up folder of each project created automatically so there are twice as many.

I found this out when I mount the Scsi HD on a PC to solve another problem, I wondered why there were so many project folders when I had deleted some.

Another thing that happens with these folders is that if there are 2 drives mounted and one of the 2 drives has a full register, both drives refuse to create a new project.

So this would be my starting point in problem solving.
Alan.

 

[drummerdude1971]

I haven't done one before, before but I have done a disk clean up. I will try that this weekend. Will a low level format erase the songs on the hard drive? I read the manual and I considered that, but was worried about losing our content. I apologize my knowledge with this machine is low.

 

[witzendoz]

A low level format will completely erase everything on the drive. You will need to back up all your projects to another drive before you do this.

Read the owners manual, page 46 it will explain what to do and also that you have to initialize the drive after. There is also information on Page 47 of the tutorial I recommend that you read both these publications to have a good understanding on how the MX works, there are often a lot of features that owners don't know about.

It is recommended that a Low level format is carried out when ever possible when projects are finished or backed up to another drive to keep the drive fresh

Alan.

 

[drummerdude1971]

Okay. Thanks very much for your help. Ryan

 

[witzendoz]

Hi Ryan, Did you get the problem sorted and did my suggestion fix it?

Alan.

 

[drummerdude1971]

Hi Alan, We are still in the process of backing up our songs onto the computer. Thanks for asking, I will let you know what happens.

 

[drummerdude1971]

Hi Alan, I'm going to attempt a low level format this weekend, but I wanted to ask you something before I tried it. On mx view it says we have only used 30 percent of our disk space. So im assuming that the deleted files are still there? I made a back up file ( bu) for each project and saved it to the computer hard drive. I'll let you know what happens.

 

[witzendoz]

What happens is that when you delete projects the projects named folder is still on the drive (empty) even after performing a disk clean up. It seems that you can only have a maximum number of these folders on the drive before creating a new project becomes a problem, I don't actually know how many.

I did not figure out this until I had the same problem creating a new project and then mounting the scsi drive on a PC to see if I could sort out the problem. In actual fact you can mount the drive on a PC and delete the folders that are no longer used, but you should do a low level format at some stage to keep the drive in good shape as the next thing that will happen is a "Media Too Slow" message.

Not only does the MX create a folder for each project, if seems to create extra empty folders for each project? Signified by the-1 after the name. I think this is to do with the back-up, smart copy process.

By the way, if you have the means to mount the scsi drive on a PC it's a handy way of sorting out drive problems.

Cheers
Alan.

 

[drummerdude1971]

Hi Alan. We did a low level format and everything is back to normal. Thanks for helping me out. Ryan.

 

[witzendoz]

Great to see the problem solved.

Alan.