Where to Store Big Projects

Big projects such as movies need to be stored locally on Lab Macs, because...

1. Audio/Video editing over a network connection is problematic, and
2. ITS cannot provide sufficient network storage for projects that may grow to gigabytes in size.

So store your big projects locally on the Mac's hard drive. Storage locations:

• The "Local Storage" folder at the top level of the hard drive, for general projects, such as photo or audio collections in progress.
• The "Video" volume for iMovie, Final Cut Express, or Final Cut Pro projects.
• The "DVD" volume for preparing finished projects to burn to DVD.

Respect the work of others - do not disturb - and hopefully others will treat your projects with the same respect. If you are concerned that someone might delete your project, then back it up to CD-R or DVD-R. (All our G5 Lab Macs have SuperDrives capable of burning archival CDs and DVDs.)

Four of our Lab Macs have Firewire-attached Digital Video (DV) decks for importing video from tape. These computers are the first to run short on space. So temporarily store your raw video on their local "Video" volumes, but as soon as possible move these files to another Lab Mac.

Guest Access for Moving Files from One Place to Another

Before moving your files, set permissions so that anyone can read/write. This will allow you to move your project to another computer.

Decide where you want to work on your project. Each Lab Mac has a name, such as "un001-03-g5". Move your project to another Mac that is not being used for video capture.

• Select your project folder and "Get Info" on it.
• Check the "Ownership & Permissions" section; you should be the owner.
• Set "Others" access to "Read & Write", and then click the "Apply to enclosed items..." button to set these same permissions on everything inside your project folder.

Now you can go to another Lab Mac where you want to do your video editing. Log in, and then connect to the video capture station. (In this example, it's name is un001-11-g5.goshen.edu.) You will connect to the video capture station using the "guest" login. (If you don't know the guest password, ask for it at the Help Desk.) The "guest" login allows you to select the video volume where your project is located. Drag the project over to the Video volume where you're intending to work on your project. Then delete it from the original location.