A quick all clear before I take this step.

[benherron.rrr]

Hey,

Ive just had some problems with my PC, and Ive had to re install everything.

I have just bought a external hard drive (WD essential 1tb USB2), And before I start anything stupid, I would like to know it is is worth keeping all my VI samples stored on it, would it be alot slower than keeping them on my internal drive?

Or, Should I keep the samples on my internal drive and use the external one as a destination for recorded audio from Pro Tools?

Or, both or, neither?

Just need a quick answer to give me the heads up

 

[bdenton]

I'm afraid you haven't provided enough information for anyone to give you any advice.

What brand of computer?

What are the computer's specs?

How many internal drives?

What DAW software?

 

[benherron.rrr]

I'm afraid you haven't provided enough information for anyone to give you any advice.

What brand of computer?

What are the computer's specs?

How many internal drives?

What DAW software?

Dell XPS 8100,

Intel I7 (dont know exact number i think 920)
8g Ram (2gx4)
1, 1.5tb 7200 rpm HD.

as far as specs go thats all i know.

Running Pro Tools 8.0.4cs2 (Main DAW) and Cubase 5 (used for MIDI editing mainly)

Mbox Pro (v3) interface

and addictive drums, and a few native instruments packages.

I just finding that things are a little sluggish, and I dont think they should be. the CPU meters get overloaded far to quickly

 

[bdenton]

If you are running Pro Tools, you need to record your audio on a drive separate from your system drive. If you only have two drives, your samples would be placed on your system drive. If you have three drives available, you could use the third drive for your samples.

In reviewing the specs for your computer on Dell's website, you have one additional internal 3.5" drive bay, plus you have an available eSATA port. I would suggest you take advantage of one or more of these options and I will be happy to provide some guidance on that if you wish.

But in dealing with your current situation, one thing to note is that Avid has approved the use of USB 2.0 drives with Pro Tools 9 and Windows 7. I think you will find acceptable performance with a USB 2.0 drive with Pro Tools 8, but it's not officially supported by Avid, so nothing is guaranteed.

Given what I understand is your current configuration, i.e. one internal "system" drive and one USB 2.0 external drive, you should use your USB 2.0 external drive for your DAW's audio, and put your sample libraries on your "system" drive.

Regarding the sluggishness issue, keep in mind that even though you have 8 GB of memory, Pro Tools is still a 32-bit application, and can only use 4 GB of it. VI's are notorious memory hogs, and it doesn't take too many of them to slow things down.

One thing that might be helpful...Some parts of NI can use a memory server. That is all I know about it, as I haven't gotten into the NI stuff that Santa was kind enough to leave for me. You might check your NI documentation and see if a memory server is available to you.

Hope this will be of some help to you...

 

[benherron.rrr]

If you are running Pro Tools, you need to record your audio on a drive separate from your system drive. If you only have two drives, your samples would be placed on your system drive. If you have three drives available, you could use the third drive for your samples.

In reviewing the specs for your computer on Dell's website, you have one additional internal 3.5" drive bay, plus you have an available eSATA port. I would suggest you take advantage of one or more of these options and I will be happy to provide some guidance on that if you wish.

But in dealing with your current situation, one thing to note is that Avid has approved the use of USB 2.0 drives with Pro Tools 9 and Windows 7. I think you will find acceptable performance with a USB 2.0 drive with Pro Tools 8, but it's not officially supported by Avid, so nothing is guaranteed.

Given what I understand is your current configuration, i.e. one internal "system" drive and one USB 2.0 external drive, you should use your USB 2.0 external drive for your DAW's audio, and put your sample libraries on your "system" drive.

Regarding the sluggishness issue, keep in mind that even though you have 8 GB of memory, Pro Tools is still a 32-bit application, and can only use 4 GB of it. VI's are notorious memory hogs, and it doesn't take too many of them to slow things down.

One thing that might be helpful...Some parts of NI can use a memory server. That is all I know about it, as I haven't gotten into the NI stuff that Santa was kind enough to leave for me. You might check your NI documentation and see if a memory server is available to you.

Hope this will be of some help to you...

Thats really helpful, thanks.

I thourght that the different drive thing with Pro Tools was just a recomendation, not really a 'must'.

Im not really doing any demanding projects, but I will see how recording to a USB drive goes. Ive noticed some small clicks, I'm using a Mbox Pro (3g) recording at 88.2, every now and then I notice a small click, I didn't notice them untill I exported a track into Cubase where they were very noticable, after listening closly in Pro Tools I noticed they exist there aswell. Definatly sound hardware based, could that be based around my recording drive or perhaps Buffer size, I usually run as low as I can go.

Could you suggest some sata drives for me? Im kinda on a buget at the moment and Im trying to upgrade to PT9 so I can have a portable system as well.

I was reading about the merory server thing, and im fairly sure its mac only.