Pro Tools Hard Drive Problems - Formatting and Partition Issues
Pro Tools Hard Drive Problems - Formatting and Partition Issues
Drive Stuck on Transfer or Playback, won’t record, or throws -9131 errors when recording
Here’s a response I wrote for a friend who switches back and forth between a G5 and an Intel Mac using Pro Tools 8.01. His external hard drives were being marked “T” for Transfer Only or were giving errors immediately on playback or record.
Here are some things to check out:
1. Drive format
- On Intel and G5 macs the drive must be formatted "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)"
- To check this go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility
Select your drive NAME from the list (it's indented a bit from the left edge)
Check where it says Format:
Note: MS-DOS formatted disks will work on a mac for everyday use, but will be marked "T" for transfer-only in the Workspace window in Pro Tools.
2. Drive Partition Scheme
- On Intel macs, this can be GUID Partition Table or Apple Partition Map
- On G5 macs this must be Apple Partition Map
- To check this go to Applications>Utilities>Disk Utility
Select your drive Size from the list (it's something like 465 GB Maxtor STxxxxxx)
Check bottom right corner where it says Partition Map Scheme:
Note: If you use a GUID Partition Table-partitioned drive on a G5 it will appear to work at first but then will throw up lots of -9131 errors on play or record.
3. If this isn't the problem, you could have corrupt Digi Database folders. The easiest way to fix this is to delete them, and the easiest way to delete them is using a free utility:
- Get the Pro Tools Prefs and Database Helper. Run it and select AT LEAST:
Select Digidesign Database Folders
Select Volumes Folder
Click on the big trash can
Then restart pro tools, open the workspace window, and change your rogue drives back to "R"
4. You have incompatible plugins in your plugin folder.
- Even though you can do tricks with installers and renaming of plugins to get old plugs past the plugin verifier on startup, this is a bad idea. I tried it myself. It's a bad idea. If I understand this correctly, the reason is that Digi has changed the way plugins address memory, and old plugins can overwrite memory locations used by the Pro Tools application in RAM, corrupting the program. You don't even have to use the plugin for it to corrupt things - plugins allocate memory on launch of Pro Tools, so if it's in the plugin folder it can cause problems like the looping crash, drive corruption, unexpected quits, etc.
It's not easy to determine if your plugs are compatible. Some dude wrote this to help:
http://web.me.com/trombino/EmptySoftware/Plug_Tools.html
In my experience almost every Pro Tools problem can be traced to one of these issues. If it still doesn't work correctly, use the Prefs and Database Helper to delete everything, reboot your mac and try again.
If that doesn't work you probably have a corrupt OS or hardware issue. Methodical process-of-elimination testing is the only way to get to the bottom of these kinds of problems.
Friday, February 19, 2010