2nd hard drive for DAWs

V

vishnu

New member
i intend to have modest recording sessions only (myself on electric guitar) and everything else i lay down will be courtesy of VSTs or whatnots.....i WONT be setting up 8 Mics around a live kit.so.......

i keep reading about how having a seperate HD for plug ins, files and work saved an' shit is the way to go if you want more workflow speed and less troubles

is that only necessary for bigger fish/users than me,or will i still have to invest in a separate HD?

Windows 7 64 bit
8 RAM
2 TB HD
SAFFIRE pro 24

stuff i have already... REAPER,BAND IN A BOX (real band),GUITAR PRO 6.....
stuff i intend to get.... SONAR X1 producer

thanks guys
John
 
A second hard drive is critical if for only one reason: to back up your data. You can always go through the hassle of re-installing your OS - although I recommend making a complete backup of your PC periodically in order to save you the grief. But data can't be replaced, and drives are cheap. So for that reason if nothing else, a second hard drive is important.
 
say i bought something like producer X1.....and updated it every now and then (NOT upgraded, updated) how long can i expect to have an usable product?,how many years can i safely be expected to be using this package B4 the support stops completely or it dies or something?

i am trying to gauge if the initial outlay is value for money or not
 
Audio processing streams a LOT of data. Drives need to give you quick, uninterrupted access. Separate dedicated drives help a lot to let you stream more tracks with less problems. The goal is SMOOTH UNINTERRUPTED THROUGHPUT of data so you wont get clicks, pops or worse, dropouts. Your sample libraries and audio projects should be on separate drives so they can stream without interruption.

Here's how you want your system set up:
Boot C drive - OS, plugins and apps
Secondary drive - Sample libraries
Third drive - Audio tracks and misc. data

EVERY time the OS or an app needs to do housework, the arm has to stop what its doing, lift up and go alllllll the way across the disc to the other place, set down to do its job and then go alllllllll the way back again. This mechanical movement is GLACIAL in computer terms and will lead to pops, clicks and dropouts in your audio.

Drives are dirt cheap right now and separating tasks onto multiple drives will keep the data flowing smoothly.
 
Having a second hard drive for data used to matter when I started out working with DAWs fifteen or sixteen years ago. However, even with SATA drives from as far back as four or five years ago, I've had no trouble running 40+ tracks concurrently on the OS drive at fairly low latency (256 sample buffer size) with truckloads of CPU-heavy plug-ins. The drives today are even faster, as are the CPUs today. It's basically a non-issue, or at least should be unless you cut corners and didn't buy enough RAM. (Helpful tip: if your machine ever pages anything out to disk, you should buy more RAM.)

Also, with the exception of eSATA or Thunderbolt, an external drive will always be noticeably slower than an internal drive, so you're almost invariably better off with the OS drive than with an external drive.

However, I definitely agree with the folks who suggest having an external drive for backup. Having lost multiple drives in a single year, I'm just going to say that modern hard drives are universally crap, and if a drive lasts past three years, you're lucky. Backups are no longer just a good idea. They're an absolute necessity.


TimOBrien said:
Drives are dirt cheap right now and separating tasks onto multiple drives will keep the data flowing smoothly.
Click to expand...

Drives are also unreliable, and your odds of a drive dying are linearly proportional to the number of drives you have spinning at any given time....
 
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