Apple Final Cut Express 4 - Manual (Page 151)

Chapter 11 Connecting DV Video Equipment 151
III
Specifying Scratch Disks
A scratch disk is a hard disk, internal or external to your computer, where Final Cut Express
stores captured digital video and audio, as well as rendered media files created during
editing. (Rendering is the process of creating temporary video and audio render files for
portions of your sequence that Final Cut Express cannot play in real time.) By default,
Final Cut Express uses the hard disk on which the application is installed.
You use the Scratch Disks tab in the System Settings window to choose where you
want to save the video and audio files that you capture and the render and cache files
that Final Cut Express creates. You can also specify other settings related to the size of
captured and exported files and the minimum available space allowed on scratch disks.
To specify one or more scratch disks and associated settings:
1 Choose Final Cut Express > System Settings, then click the Scratch Disks tab.
If this is the first time you’ve opened Final Cut Express, this window appears
automatically after you’ve chosen an Easy Setup.
2 To specify a disk or a folder on a hard disk as a scratch disk:
a Click Set.
b In the dialog that appears, locate and select the disk you want to use.
Only connected external disks or installed internal disks are listed. If your hard disk
doesn’t appear, make sure that it’s connected properly and correctly initialized and
mounted. For more information, see the documentation that came with your
computer, your hard disk, or your disk-formatting software.
c Click Select (the button includes the name of the disk you selected).
The specified disk is listed next to the Set button, along with the amount of available
disk space.