• How many tracks of audio can my Glyph drive reliably handle?
• Does my GT 062 support RAID 1? If not, can I upgrade it to support RAID 1?
• Is it appropriate to unmount FireWire devices from my Mac computer before shutting down?
• Which software utilities should I use to fix and maintain my drive in OS X?
• Does Glyph offer data recovery services?
• Why does Pro Tools report that my drive is not a valid audio volume?
• Where can I get a manual for my Glyph?
• How do I format my drive for my operating system?
• What is the correct way to remove a FireWire or USB drive from your system?
• What is the correct boot-up sequence for hard drives and computers?
• What is the difference between FireWire 400 and FireWire 800?
• What is the difference between SATA (Serial ATA) and eSATA (external SATA)?
• How can I make my drive work across Windows and Mac platforms?
• How can I use my drive with Windows and Mac Pro Tools systems?
• What is the Mac OS Journaled File System?

This depends on many factors: Which Glyph product you are using, what interface it uses to connect to the computer, what sample rate and bit depth the audio files are recorded at, how many edits are in the session (or song), how fragmented the hard drive is, which computer, etc. Many overlapping factors together predict the track count. We have done extensive testing with Pro Tools using our "Density Tests" in an effort to approve new generations of hard drives and Glyph products, and to judge the performance of each product. You can view our track count test results here.

GT 062 drives shipped as triple drive mode (without RAID 1) from the middle of January 2007 through October of 2007. At AES in early October 2007, Glyph announced the addition of RAID 1 to the GT 062. Along with RAID 1, new GT 062 units will ship with Glyph Manager software to change drive modes and monitor drive health. You can send in your GT 062 to be upgraded with RAID 1 functionality, and the upgrade is free in the first year of warranty, aside from shipping costs. Please read our GT 062 upgrade policy for more information.

Our service department has identified instances where simply shutting down a Mac OS 10.4.x machine while FireWire drives are still mounted can result in the directory of the drive being corrupted the next time the computer boots. We are not sure what causes this, as it has been reported with many drive brands, but always on Mac OS 10.4.x. At this time, we are recommending that all Mac OS 10.4 users unmount all FireWire drives before they shut down the computer. If you are having problems with your drive relating to this problem, please call our tech support.

Glyph recommends several utilities in OSX. First, Disk Warrior by Alsoft is a great utility for fixing directories. Disk Warrior is the first thing we use to repair bad directories. It can remount a drive after the directory is damaged, so you can continue using the drive or copy the data off to another drive.

Data Rescue and Drive Genius from Prosoft Engineering are other applications that we use quite frequently here at Glyph. Data Rescue is simply a recovery program, and it does its job of recovering lost data very well. Data Rescue does not repair directories, but will allow you to access data on a drive even when nothing else will see it. Drive Genius is an all-in-one utility that will format, repair, rebuild, re-map bad blocks, clone drives, test drives - basically everything. Note that Norton Utilities is not recommended for OS X drives.

Glyph now offers first level data recovery for both Glyph hard drives and non-Glyph hard drives. We recover data using one or more software applications to fix the directory, scan the disk, and copy data to a new drive. If your Glyph drive can be fixed using these utilities, we cover it for free in the first two years of warranty. If you have valuable data on a Glyph drive being sent in for repair, we make securing your data our first concern. Please read our data recovery policy for all of the details.

We're not exactly sure why this happens, but we're sure it has nothing to do with your Glyph hard drive. Here's how to fix it: In Pro Tools, click on the "Window" drop down menu, and select Workspace or Show Workspace from the drop down menu. Find your Glyph drive in the list on the left, go the A column and click on the letter there. It should be set to Record, if it's set to Transfer or Playback, you won't be able to record to the drive.

In an effort to reduce packaging and waste, Glyph products do not ship with printed or electronic documentation. All documents including manuals and data sheets are available online, under the corresponding product pages, and under Documents.

Glyph drives come preformatted HFS+ Journaled (Mac OS Extended) as part of the testing procedure when they are built. If you need to partition or reformat your drive for a different operating system, please refer to your drive's manual located in the Documents section of our web site. Or you can choose to follow the quick Windows XP formatting directions below:

• Click on the Start Menu and choose "Settings" and then choose "Control Panel".
• From the Control Panel list choose "Administrative Tools" and then choose "Computer Management".
• Under "Storage" click on "Disk Management" and your drives should appear in the window.
• If the Wizard comes up, click cancel.
• Choose your Glyph drive, right-click on it and choose "Initialize" or "New Partition". If you want to delete the current Windows partition, choose "Delete Partition" here first.
• The Wizard should pop up again, choose "Primary Partition".
• Next choose the partition size. Select the maximum if you only want one partition.
• Click "Next" and assign the drive letter, then click "Next" again.
• If you're primarily using Windows XP/2000, then leave NTFS as the File system. Use FAT32 for Windows 98SE/ME.
• Click "Perform a quick format", and give the volume a new label in the "Volume label" field. Then click "Next" and "Finish".
• Your drive will then format and will show under "My Computer" ready for use.

If you're using a Mac and removing a FireWire or USB drive while your Mac is still booted, drag the icon of the drive to the trash. This will spin the drive down, and correctly dismount it from the computer. If you're using a PC (Win XP, 2000), do the same thing by clicking on the Safely Remove Hardware button in the bottom right task bar, and choose the drive from the list that appears.

In general, the best practice is to power on peripherals, and then boot your computer. With FireWire and USB devices, it doesn't matter which is powered on first, the devices will be discovered by the computer once they are turned on. With SCSI devices, you must power the devices on first, or use a mounting utility to access them after the computer boots. For more about SCSI, click here.

FireWire-A (1394a), or FireWire 400 has been around for many years, and is widely available on both Macintosh and PC computers, as well as many proprietary systems. FireWire-B (1394b), or FireWire 800 is a higher-speed standard which appeared on the market in 2003. FireWire 800 (FireWire-B) offers higher speed, longer cable length, more functionality, and a better connectivity experience. To read more about the differences between the two, go to our technology pages, and click on the FireWire and FireWire-B links.

eSATA is an external interface technology that grew from the internal Serial ATA interface. Serial ATA built upon the original ATA interface that connected hard drives to motherboards. eSATA delivers improved performance and ease of use over the older ATA multi-pin interface.

eSATA, or external SATA, allowed for the use of shielded cables outside of an enclosure. Shielded eSATA cables are available up to 2 meters in length. eSATA cables are not the same as SATA I cables, they are shielded and have a different connector than the 'L' shaped design of internal SATA I connectors. This prevents the use of unshielded internal cables in external applications. eSATA uses a point-to-point connection, therefore each eSATA drive needs to be connected to its own eSATA port.

The GT 050Q's eSATA port supports speeds up to 1.5 Gb/sec (150 MB/sec), much faster than FireWire 400 or FireWire 800. If your computer does not have built-in eSATA, you'll need a PCI card to connect your drive with eSATA. PCI cards are available with 2 or more ports to accommodate your drives.

The only file system that works well between Mac OS and Windows is FAT 32, otherwise known as MS-DOS file system. This is a native Windows file system, but Mac OS 9 and X will mount FAT 32 volumes. Mac OS 9 and 10.1.x would only work with FAT 32 partitions less than 32GB. While Mac OS 10.2.x increased that limitation to 128GB, it wasn't until Mac OS 10.3.x that you could use FAT 32 partitions of any size. Mac OS 10.3.x can additionally read NTFS volumes but cannot write to them. See next question for information specific to Pro Tools software.

If you are trying to use a hard drive between Windows and Mac Pro Tools systems, FAT 32 will not work for you because a Mac running Pro Tools can only work with HFS formatted volumes. Your best option is to install MacDrive on your Windows machine to mount your Mac formatted volumes.

Glyph drives come preformatted for Macintosh using a journaled file system called "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)". Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 incorporate journaling by default, which will automatically maintain file system transactions in a separate log file. If your computer crashes and a restart is required, the OS will then use the journal file to help fix the damaged file system. Mac OS X 10.3 and 10.4 ship with journaling on by default, and volumes with journaling enabled can be used by older versions of the Mac OS. Glyph drives with journaling enabled can be fully used with Digidesign Pro Tools and other DAW software. Glyph recommends that all users reformat Glyph drives with journaling enabled using Apple's Disk Utility software.