Dedicated Hard Drive For Mbox? Options

[CG2k6]

I need to know whether I can use the MBox and Pro Tools LE 6.02 with my Powerbook with the standard hard drive in my computer...

Here's my computer setup to get this out of the way:
Powerbook G4, Mac os 10.2.6, 512 mb RAM, 30 gb HD (5400 rpm)

I play the guitar and want to start creating songs on the Powerbook. I've been looking into either a Logic Audio setup or a Pro Tools one. The Mbox and Pro Tools LE setup seems to be the best solution for me right now, as I'm not a professional, and am a college student with a limited budget.

My question has to do with the minimum hardware requirements for Pro Tools LE with the Mbox listed at Digidesign's website.

They list for "Storage: Hard Drive Minimum Requirements":

-Minimum speed of 7200 RPM & average seek time of less than 10.0 ms
-Drive must be dedicated for audio. Note: Boot drives may be used for audio tracks, however performance/track count may vary.

Does this mean I can't just connect the MBox to my Powerbook and start recording? The example computer setups on the Digidesign page seem to show the Mbox plugged into a computer/laptop with no extra hard drive, but they do show a DAT connected.

I'd like to only invest in the MBox for now, and not have to purchase a separate hard drive, is this possible?

Here's the link to the hard drive requirements:

http://www.digidesign.com/compato/osx/stg/le.cfm

Also I have a quick question about my guitar and effects setup. I play a Fernandes Vertigo Elite through a cheap Digitech RP200 effects processor. When I run a standard guitar cable from the Digitech to the Powerbook (with an adapter to plug into the line-in on the Powerbook) I only get sound through the left channel. In other words I'm getting mono sound rather than stereo. Is there some way to get stereo sound out of a guitar cable? I thought about getting a couple y-connects and running a second cable into the powerbook, but wasn't sure whether splitting the signal and then going back to one cable would fix the problem.

This post has been edited by CG2k6: Sun 27 Jul 2003, 08:15

[xenonaut]

Yes, you will be able to work off your PBook's internal HD. You may not be able to get as many tracks as you would on a faster drive, but you *can* get started this way.

However, I would recommend an external 7200 RPM Firewire HD, anyway. Performance will be better as you grow with your setup, *and* audio projects use up a lot of drive space very quickly. You can look for a Firewire HD on eBay if you're on a low budget, or perhaps buy a Firewire housing and an ATA HD.

Note also that OS X needs some free drive space for virtual memory, so that it's not good to max out your boot drive (I try to leave 2 GB free).