Apple Final Cut Server 1.5 - Manual (Page 14)

14 Chapter 2 About Building a Final Cut Server System
Storage Device Strategy
Before you install Final Cut Server, you need to decide how you want to store your media.
About Devices
Final Cut Server uses the term devices to refer to media storage locations that you
configure Final Cut Server to use. Devices can be folders on the computer’s boot hard
disk, a second hard disk, a FireWire drive, or on a network-connected volume.
When you install Final Cut Server, several default devices are created. When the
installer finishes, you can also configure other devices. These can include existing
folders on volumes that already contain media that you would like to include in
the Final Cut Server catalog. Using Device Setup Assistant, you can configure a scan
automation that will add a device’s existing media to the Final Cut Server catalog.
One thing to keep in mind is that using separate hard disks for some devices can
be more efficient. For example, when you upload assets to the catalog, a variety of
proxy files are created and placed in the Proxies device that the installer created.
Having the Proxies device on a different physical hard disk than the device the asset is
stored on (not just on a different partition on the same hard disk) can make the proxy
transcoding process more efficient. One hard disk can focus on reading the asset and
the other can focus on writing the proxy (as opposed to the same hard disk jumping
back and forth between reading and writing).