• Registered: 2012-07-15
  • Posts: 6

Topic: Newbie UFX Stand alone

Hello, I am new to RME and have just finished my first two weeks with my new FireFace UFX and I am very impressed with it but I have one problem I can't seem to solve, I can't get the machine to recognise an external hard drive. I made sure I formatted the discs to fat 32. I have tried two separate drives and it keeps saying no media in the window. My usb stick is fine. I have tried to solve this with the manual and through the forums with out success, Is it something I have failed to do?
regards
James

  • Registered: 2011-09-29
  • Posts: 94

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

is the (Enable Rec/play) option set to ON on the UFX menu? (press METERS button and turn knob 1 to the right to get to that menu).

FF UFX - ARC - U87Ai - 828Mk3 Hybrid - Digimax FS - Tascam MH8 - MIDI Express 128, 24GB RAM, i7-3630
  • Registered: 2012-07-15
  • Posts: 6

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

thanks for your prompt reply, Yes Enable Rec/Play is on.
Record/Playback window keeps blinking and tells me, no file and no media connected this is happening in front of me now

  • From: Washington DC, USA
  • Registered: 2007-08-06
  • Posts: 442

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

dowdytom wrote:

HMy usb stick is fine.

Just want to make sure I am clear on this. When you say your USB is fine do you mean the UFX recognizes it and you can use it to record?

First I would try a different USB cable.  Could be as simple as a bad cable.

Next, I would check to see if your hard dives have partitions that may be causing a problem. I seem to recall earlier threads where people had trouble with certain brands of HD that were partitioned in such a way that they could not remove the partition.  The partition may be hidden Windows Explorer, but in Windows you can use the Disk Management feature under Computer Management to see if there are any hidden partitions.

I also suggest you also list the types of HDs you have.

  • Registered: 2011-12-02
  • Posts: 28

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

How was the drive formatted, FAT32 or NTFS?

  • Registered: 2012-07-15
  • Posts: 6

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

thanks neirbod
yes my UFX recognises and records perfectly to any USB stick.
ext. drives are WD my passport studio 500 gb new and an OWC mercury elite.
The both drives were formatted/erased in disk utility on my macbook pro I will check them on my pc  with disk management as you suggest.
captainfaggo they were FAT32'd

thanks again for your help

  • syah
  • AD/DA expert
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  • Registered: 2012-02-18
  • Posts: 42

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

I've used a few WD drives in the past and they often (maybe always?) include a hidden partition. This is a small partition at the beginning of the drive on which some backup tools are available. I guess this could be the source of the problem you are experiencing. The hidden partition is probably the primairy, which makes the partition you are seeing a logical partition. AFAIK the UFX can only handle primairy partitions.

If this is the causing the problem you should delete all partitions first and them make a new (primairy) partition of the whole drive. If you cannot obtain this by using the Windows administration toolset, you maybe can try a third party tool like "Partition Magic" or "Paragon Partition Manager".

  • Registered: 2012-07-15
  • Posts: 6

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

arrggghhhh! After many fruitless hours I have just about given up on the idea of running an external hard drive off my UFX. I have tried the possible solutions offered on this forum, thanks for your help guys, I have formatted and reformatted on both the mac and windows systems, I have tried third party formatting programs all with no luck. I have tried to find help on rme(a dead end!) and other forums with no luck.
I am willing to spend MORE money and purchase the right external hard drive.Is it possible to find one, or does anybody know of an external hard drive that will work on my UFX? does one exist? I would have thought that this is such an important feature of the RME FireFace UFX that compatible hard drives would be prominently listed.
I am about ready to give up on stand alone as an option.

9 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,604

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

WD My Passport Studio is a double FireWire 800 drive. How did you connect that to the USB port on the front of the UFX?

If you search this forum you will see that many external WD drives have a special encrpytion partition that can NOT be deleted.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • From: Washington DC, USA
  • Registered: 2007-08-06
  • Posts: 442

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

MC wrote:

WD My Passport Studio is a double FireWire 800 drive. How did you connect that to the USB port on the front of the UFX?

Actually it has two Firewire ports and a USB port:
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=420

I had trouble finding a good external drive as well. See here:
http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=13609

I currently use a LaCie Porsche Design 500 GB.  It works well enough for what I need, but not as well as I expected based upon RME's previous statements that suggest any modern external HD will record all available channels with no errors. I understand Dowdytom's frustration and would encourage RME to list known working drives.

11 Reply by neirbod (edited by neirbod 2012-08-07 20:53:32)

  • From: Washington DC, USA
  • Registered: 2007-08-06
  • Posts: 442

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

MC wrote:

If you search this forum you will see that many external WD drives have a special encrpytion partition that can NOT be deleted.

Matthias, I hope you can appreciate that a customer may not be pleased to learn he/she must search forums for information like this when RME could post a list of drives that are either known to work or are known not to work in a more obvious location on the web site.  The great thing about RME units is "they just work."  Easy installation, no wrestling with drivers etc.  Finding a working HD for DUSB recording is an exception to this rule as it can be quite difficult to find accurate information even after digging through many posts.

  • syah
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  • Registered: 2012-02-18
  • Posts: 42

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

MC wrote:

If you search this forum you will see that many external WD drives have a special encrpytion partition that can NOT be deleted.

Maybe this might be useful:
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835

13 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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  • From: Germany/Thailand
  • Registered: 2007-04-06
  • Posts: 25,604

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

I don't think this helps. The UFX looks for partitions with low level methods, which might still find and prevent it from using the drive. Note that we have an update in the cue that might help in such cases - and would seriously affect a 'these drives don't work' list, which is one of the reasons we don't have such right now.

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • From: Germany
  • Registered: 2007-04-10
  • Posts: 9,783

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

I have seen a similar undeletable initial partition on an external Toshiba drive...


Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

RME Support's Website

  • Registered: 2011-08-20
  • Posts: 8

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

Hi I too had a lot of trouble with a 1TB WD my passport.  No matter how I formatted the drive the UFX refused to recognize it.

The problem was a Virtual CD that the drive loads upon installing into a USB.

The way I got the UFX to recognize it was to disable the Virtual CD.

The Virtual CD icon should pop up on your computer desktop when you plug in the drive.  If you see this open it and run the executable or application on the drive.  In the application is a setting where you can disable the virtual cd and launch the disk.  Now the UFX can recognize it.  UFX does NOT like virtual cds.

As others have said, this partition is not deletable.  It is however possible to bypass so that the UFX will recognize the fat32 formatted drive.

  • syah
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  • Registered: 2012-02-18
  • Posts: 42

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

BenMcEntarffer wrote:

Hi I too had a lot of trouble with a 1TB WD my passport.  No matter how I formatted the drive the UFX refused to recognize it.

The problem was a Virtual CD that the drive loads upon installing into a USB.

The way I got the UFX to recognize it was to disable the Virtual CD.

The Virtual CD icon should pop up on your computer desktop when you plug in the drive.  If you see this open it and run the executable or application on the drive.  In the application is a setting where you can disable the virtual cd and launch the disk.  Now the UFX can recognize it.  UFX does NOT like virtual cds.

As others have said, this partition is not deletable.  It is however possible to bypass so that the UFX will recognize the fat32 formatted drive.

Glad hear that it can be done. I thought it would be possible. For other having the same problem check out my link to some instructions in an earlier entry in this thread.

  • Registered: 2011-06-01
  • Posts: 45

Re: Newbie UFX Stand alone

Why not try the $102 Crucial 128Gb SSD available thru Amazon?