FAQ

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Q : I've edited the footage but when it came time to render I seem to be out of hard disk space which has also made it difficult to open the project again. What should I do?

A: Just like when you run out of space in your closet, the only thing you can do when you run out of space on your hard drive is to clean it up and throw away as much junk as possible. Back-up older projects onto CD or DVD and keep them in a safe palce, then delete the files from your hard drive. If you have backed-up and cleared off everything that you can live without and still don't have enough space, it is time to add on. We recommend getting an external FireWire drive with as much space on it as you can currently afford. We recommend LaCie which makes top-knotch external hard drives. Don't worry, if you don't fill up the disk with this project there is always the next project.

Q: What causes Final Cut Pro to freeze up? (that little spinning rainbow makes us crazy!)

A: Even thoughOS X is pretty much un-crashable (it happens on rare occasions) individual applications are prone to freezing, especially processor intensive ones like Final Cut Pro. The first things to check are the obvious:

• Do you have enough space on your hard-drive? If you are capturing 30GB of footage into 20GB the computer may just give up.
  
  
• Do you have the required amount of memory (RAM) to run the application? Some applications will start up even with inadequate memory but then freeze when the going gets tough.
  
  
• Are the cables all secure? Programs can hang if they are waiting for an answer from another device.
  
  
• Are you transferring to an external disk? Sometimes this can cause slow downs that look like the machine is stuck. Try going straight to your internal hard drive.

If none of these ideas help, then try deleting the FCP preferences files:

User>Library>Preferences>com.apple.FinalCutPro.plist
User>Library>Preferences>Final Cut Pro User Data>Final Cut Pro 4.0 Preferences
User>Library>Preferences>Final Cut Pro User Data>Final Cut Pro MOA Cache
User>Library>Preferences>Final Cut Pro User Data>Final Cut Pro POA Cache

Don't worry, these files will be automatically recreated the next time you run Final Cut Pro, but if they are corrupt, they can create all sorts of problems, like crashing or program freezes. You will however, have to re-customize Final Cut Pro which can be a bit of a pain.