trying to open sound designer II files recorded in protools

[banjoshark]

I brought over some files via a firewire drive, and when I plug them into my home computer, the file types aren't recognized. I tried renaming them with both .aif and .sd2 extensions but DP still wouldn't bring them in. any ideas? the engineer i worked with says he goes back and forth all the time. thanks.

[schwarz]

Which OS/ Version of Protools were the files recorded with? Which OS do you use? Which format is the FW- Drive formatted?

[banjoshark]

Not sure of the ProTools, but he runs OS 9, and I use OS 10.3.9. (He says he's never had problems with this, though.) You may be onto something with the drive. It's a LaCie, and I believe it was formatted FAT32. I've since revisited LaCie's help site and they say they recommend formatting for OS Entended (hfm+ or something like that... i forget exactly at the moment) when only going from Mac to Mac. I even found a mention of trouble with ProTools on their site, but it was pretty vague. Does this ring any bells with people? Does this sound like the culprit? Thanks so much.

[Timeline]

Thats a good guess banjoshark.

I don't remember having a problem with SDII files in DP either in the OS9 days.

I have had recent problems sending SDII over the web. That's really messed up. Headers are cut and the files go unrecognized in any application.

[schwarz]

Hm... AFAIK you're going to lose the resource- fork (where the file-type- information is stored) on a FAT32- drive. I would highly recommend to format in HFS+ (MacOS Extended) if you're not going to use the drive with a PC. If you do, maybe a FAT32 and a HFS+ partition.
If transferring the project with an other drive is not a solution, I'm sure there is a tool somewhere out in the web... Let us know.

[Tim]

If the file folder is stuffed before transfering (Stuffit Expander-Drop Stuff or Drop Zip, prefs set for no compression) they should come out fine on the other end, with all headers intact (Mac, FAT32, of FTP xfr.).

[banjoshark]

After posting this, I reformatted my drive (a LaCie) to be Mac OS Extended, and I was able to load the files on there and have them recognized on my home computer. So that seems to have done the trick. Thanks for all your help, everyone.

The only scary parts of this are that 1) the engineer who was giving me the ProTools files originally said this type of thing has now come up with at least one other client sinc me... and 2) As a backup I brought a second firewire drive over (an EZQuest) and that one wouldn't even mount properly--his computer was telling us it couldn't read the drive and did we want to format/erase it?

SO--a happy ending for now, but I don't feel 100% confident about moving files around to various collaborators' systems yet!

[Tim]

As a backup I brought a second firewire drive over (an EZQuest) and that one wouldn't even mount properly--his computer was telling us it couldn't read the drive and did we want to format/erase it?

Maybe the OS9 driver was not installed when formatted.