Logic Pro 9 Disk too slow, Memory Errors

I was hoping that someone here on the forum might be able to clear up a new issue I've run into with my Home DAW system using Logic.

My setup:
MBP 17" 2.16 Ghz / 2gb Ram
G-Drive: 1TB USB2 Drive or FW800
Motu 896hd, 8pre: Firewire 400 connected
Logic 9 (most recent update)
OSX 10.6.3

I don't know if that's enough info or not, but my system has run perfectly fine until a recent switch onto this Hard Drive. My old setup used an older EZQuest 250gb Firewire 800 drive.

The issue I noticed yesterday with the new setup was that the G-Drive 800 was completely unstable when plugged into the Firewire 800 port only when the Motu equipment was ran through the 400 port simultaneously. I couldn't keep the Audio Equipment recognized through 400 while keeping the 800 drive mounted simultaneously. One at a time, fine, both, no go. This never used to be a problem with the EZQuest drive.

I then jumped to USB2 on the 1TB drive. The drive mounted fine and the system could run both the FW400 + USB without a problem. However, this seemed to be a major problem with glitches and errors stopping ANY project file that I opened on the drive with at an interval of every 15 seconds.

My question the forum is if anyone can recommend the best way for me to run this setup?

I would like to be able to run my 1TB Drive, My Firewire 400 Audio Interface(s), then any additional USB midi controllers through my USB hub. Any help would be appreciated!

-Chris
 
Why don't you buy a FW 800 PCI express card for your MBP and run the drive off of that. I had a similar setup last year and it worked quite well with a FW 400 audio card running off of the FW port and my hard drive coming off of the PCI slot.
Good luck!
 
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Why don't you buy a FW 800 PCI express card for your MBP and run the drive off of that. I had a similar setup last year and it worked quite well with a FW 400 audio card running off of the FW port and my hard drive coming off of the PCI slot.
Good luck!

Thanks, Justin. What would the difference be of running off of a FW Pci card vs. using the 800 port in my MBP? Are they on a different bus / circuit / something? I'm clueless with this and any insight would really help.
 
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And get more memory... 2Gb is way too small for Logic 9.

And when it needs more than what's available, the system will start to shuffle thing to and from memory on to Your system disc. This will have higher priority than anything else so the files streaming in Logic will get delayed and You'll get "Disc too slow" errors.

I had 4Gb and Logic complained in a regular sized project that I didn't have enough memory. Now I'm on 12Gb and running Logic in 64-bit mode and enjoying it!
 
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And get more memory... 2Gb is way too small for Logic 9.

And when it needs more than what's available, the system will start to shuffle thing to and from memory on to Your system disc. This will have higher priority than anything else so the files streaming in Logic will get delayed and You'll get "Disc too slow" errors.

I had 4Gb and Logic complained in a regular sized project that I didn't have enough memory. Now I'm on 12Gb and running Logic in 64-bit mode and enjoying it!

I hear ya, but my MPB 17" won't allow for any more than 2gb upgradable (at least that I know of?).. I ran Logic with many sessions of much higher demand in the past with no problems - this is a new situation that I've recently run into. I'm starting to wonder if it has nothing to do with the external and if it's something on my system. I had a battery problem today and had to reset Pram or NVram or whatever it is. I'm thinking there's something else fishy going on but I don't know what it is yet..
 
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I would try reformatting the external drive, using this Mac. Now that you're working with a known-compatible set of disk drivers, try again. If the problem persists, I'd look at the Firewire chipsets/versions in each unit, and search the web for any known conflicts there. You might also try daisy-chaining the interface and the drive off the same FW port, just to see if the problem persists, worsens or improves...
 
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I would try reformatting the external drive, using this Mac. Now that you're working with a known-compatible set of disk drivers, try again. If the problem persists, I'd look at the Firewire chipsets/versions in each unit, and search the web for any known conflicts there. You might also try daisy-chaining the interface and the drive off the same FW port, just to see if the problem persists, worsens or improves...

Thanks, I will definitely try that out!

Can anyone give me a little more insight about what Janne was saying with the system swapping memory in and out? Would that be the large "swap file" that ends up on my hard drive, or am I thinking incorrectly here? If so, that comes from not having enough RAM in the system? I never knew of this before.
 
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The swap file is used as virtual memory by the operating system. The *only* thing you can do with it (if you're not a developer) is to make sure your System drive has more than 20 gigs free space available *at all times*.

If your system drive is starting to get near-full, your Mac will definitely start flaking out, especially during low-memory situations where the swap file is being heavily used.

You can learn more here
and here.

Good luck.
 
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