Can You Install Pro Tools On External Hard Drive

Can You Install Pro Tools On External Hard Drive

Pro Tool is a DAW that comes with many features that you would expect from a regular DAW; simple recording, mastering, mixing, film scoring, music editing, film/television audio post-production, etc., but it also comes with many additional features like digital processing, a tremendous amount of automation, and even surround sound mixing. As such, this is a heavy software and takes a lot of space. So the question here is, can you install Pro Tools on external hard drive?

Can You Install Pro Tools On External Hard Drive?

Yes, yes, you can. Pro tools definitely allow you to install it on an external hard drive. As for whether you should do it or not, that is an entirely different story.

Should I Install Pro Tools On An External Hard Drive?

Let’s cut the chase, shall we? Regardless of the external drive’s size, quality, and speed, you really should run Pro Tools from the system drive. In other words, Pro Tools should be installed on the same drive as your operating system. But that does not mean that having an external hard drive is not recommended.

How Will An External Drive Help?

You can just have a hard drive other than the drive containing your operating system dedicated to the sessions. That session drive can either be internal or external; it is entirely up to you. But why should you do that? Well, even though it’s recommended to have the Pro Tools on the main drive of your computer, using it also for the sessions can slow the software down. When recording in Pro Tools sessions, audio is saved on the drive. The more tracks you do, the more audios pile up. The Pro Tool simultaneously tries to operate the software and plugins of the system drive and read from and write audio to the same drive. Consequently, this will bog down the performance, causing many errors.

To combat that, you can just use a separate hard drive designated as an Audio drive. In other words, install the Pro Tools and software on the main system drive like normal, but when it comes to creating a new session, save it to the external drive. Now, whenever you record audio, the software will be writing to one drive, which will free up your system drive to run Pro Tools. Simple.

You May Also Like: Best Amp for klipsch rp-600m

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q: How much space do Pro Tools take up?

Ans: According to the owners, you need 15GB of disk space for installation and an additional USB port or FireWire-port for an ASIO-supported audio device.

Q: How do I move Pro Tools to an external hard drive?

Ans: Again, instead of moving the DAW, move the sessions and resulting audio files to the external hard drive. To achieve that, follow these steps.

  • Open the original session from the original drive.
  • Co to File>Save Session Copy
  • Check the box for Copy All Audio Files

Or, you can just drag the original session folder to the new drive.

Q: What are the best hard drives to use with Pro Tools?

Ans: Here is a list of the best hard drives available right now.

  • WD 5TB Elements Portable External Hard Drive 

  • WD 2TB My Passport Portable External Hard Drive

  • Toshiba Canvio Advance 4TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 

You May Also Like: Best Electronic Accordion