SSD as After Effects Disk Cache turning itself off / not working properly

[petef22007301]

Hi guys,

We bought an internal SSD hard drive - Samsung 850 EVO PRO (512gb) (by accident)

And ended up buying a PNY 2.5in Drive Enclosure to use with the Internal SSD with the USB 3.0 port of the imac

This SSD was intended to be used as a Disk Cache for After Effects, but it just stops working after some time when I'm working on After Effects.

I can work from 15min to 1 or 2 hours without any problem, then suddenly AE becomes very slow, and I notice the light on the enclosure turned off (when is writing/reading is blinking blue),

The drive is still "on" on Finder, but when I click on it it takes 5 to 10 min just trying loading (no folder inside the SSD loads) and the finders stops working.

I've already:

- Changed the USB port it was connected and still got the same problem

- Changed the USB cable that connects the enclosure to the iMac - same problem

- Changed the PNY enclosure to a new one - same problem.

I haven't changed the Hard Drive itself, and I would like to erase all other possibilities before I try that...

Maybe there's a proper way to set up the SSD for AE?

Before I was using a LACIE normal HD thorough Tunderbolt as Disk Cache and I haven't had any problems.

(but I can see the speed difference of the SSD when it actually works)

Also I've noticed that this only happens while using After Effects..

If the SSD is plugged but not being used the PNY enclosure's light turns off and as soon as I click on it on finder the blue light comes back on...

I'm using an iMac 27-inch late 2013 - OS X 10.10.5

And After Effects 2015.3

The error actually happen once while it was rendering... that's what showed up in the log:

Adobe After Effects v13.8.1 Macintosh 64 render log for project “project_012.aep”Rendering started on 23/01/2017 at 10:19:56 GMT
23/01/2017 10:19:56 GMT: Starting composition “FACTORY_SCENE2”.
Output To: /Volumes/Public/PROJECTS/ONGOING/Parcelive_090116_CFVxxxx_/Exports/WIPs/Scene_2_3_4_WiP003.movAfter Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
After Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
After Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
After Effects warning: Could not create the file '/Volumes/DiskCache/AfterEffects/Adobe/After Effects/13.8/Disk Cache - Pete’s iMac (2).noindex/ab/ab09bc3c-adf4-3d48-04f5-5d7a481833ab.ADBE LCV.76C0E26.BQAAAAYAAAAUAAAAFAAAAAUAAAAGAAAAFAAAABQAAAAFAAAABgAAABQAAAAUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZAAAAGQAAAAAAAAA=.aecache.tmp'.
After Effects warning: Could not create the file '/Volumes/DiskCache/AfterEffects/Adobe/After Effects/13.8/Disk Cache - Pete’s iMac (2).noindex/99/99d41c41-adc8-5ed7-317e-1cc7674ee13d.ADBE ICV.76C0E26.AAAAADIAMgA=.aecache.tmp'.
After Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
After Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
After Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
After Effects warning: Could not create the file '/Volumes/DiskCache/AfterEffects/Adobe/After Effects/13.8/Disk Cache - Pete’s iMac (2).noindex/5f/5fc9c4ef-4230-5d19-f511-a91e417435e8.ADBE LCV.76C0E26.BgAAAAQAAAATAAAAFgAAAAYAAAAEAAAAEwAAABYAAAAGAAAABAAAABMAAAAWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAZAAAAGQAAAAAAAAA=.aecache.tmp'.
After Effects warning: Could not create the file '/Volumes/DiskCache/AfterEffects/Adobe/After Effects/13.8/Disk Cache - Pete’s iMac (2).noindex/17/174f142a-bee0-1a88-15cd-ed6371e882db.ADBE ICV.76C0E26.AAAAADIAMgA=.aecache.tmp'.Render stopped by user.Render stopped by user.
Render stopped by user.After Effects warning: Unknown file i/o error
23/01/2017 10:39:52 GMT: Finished composition “FACTORY_SCENE2”.Total Time Elapsed: 15 Min, 58 SecLog closed on 23/01/2017 at 10:39:52 GMT

[Mylenium]

Those cache corruptions are common due to bugs. That and of course there may be a simple performance issue since your internal harddrives cannot keep up with the external one. Try limiting the cache size to something relatively small, so AE is forced to flush it from time to time. This may help and avoid ever running into this condition.

Mylenium

[Szalam]

Sounds like it's being put to sleep for some reason - such as it thinks it isn't being used - and then it takes way too long to wake back up (both of which are odd).

I'd check and see if there is a firmware update for the drive from the drive manufacturer. If not, did you get any software from the drive manufacturer that lets you tweak settings on the drive? If so, look in there for sleep/wake options.

If none of this works and nobody else has any suggestions, you might consider contacting Adobe support and asking for the video queue. And/or filing a bug report (be as detailed as possible). This might be something the After Effects engineers need to look into.

[petef22007301]

Okay did another test limiting the cache size to 20GB,

After 10 min of use I went to purge the memory and the option for that was greyed out,

I opened finder and tried to create a new folder in the drive and gave me this error:

--

Szalam  I just got a software that would let me clone another HD.  (Acronis True Image HD)

[Kevin-Monahan]

Hi Pete F,

Were you able to overcome this error with your SSD? If you are still running into issues, please work with one of our agents, which you can contact here. Let us know what happens w/ the agent or if you need more help, please also let us know.

Thanks,

Kevin