Division of Duties for your hard drives

[Eleanor Fudd]

I have a laptop and a larger external drive. How do you divide up the duties for such a configuration:
-Main DAW program (Presonus Studio One)
-samples and sound files
-recorded data (sound) files

Thanks for any advice.

 

[phriq]

I have a laptop and a larger external drive. How do you divide up the duties for such a configuration:
-Main DAW program (Presonus Studio One)
-samples and sound files
-recorded data (sound) files

Thanks for any advice.

Preferably, it would be best to have all your data through an internal drive. However, in this case I would put your DAW and current session sound files on your internal drive and then all your samples, sound files, and older sessions on your external. Once you finish one project, move it to the external drive and then start your new project with all the files on the internal.

The reason for this is that an external drive, either USB or Firewire, is going to have SLOW data transfer rates to the system because of the USB or Firewire connection. When recording, you will want speedy access to your drive without lag, so that is why you will want your DAW and files being used on the internal drive.

 

[Eleanor Fudd]

Preferably, it would be best to have all your data through an internal drive. However, in this case I would put your DAW and current session sound files on your internal drive and then all your samples, sound files, and older sessions on your external. Once you finish one project, move it to the external drive and then start your new project with all the files on the internal.

The reason for this is that an external drive, either USB or Firewire, is going to have SLOW data transfer rates to the system because of the USB or Firewire connection. When recording, you will want speedy access to your drive without lag, so that is why you will want your DAW and files being used on the internal drive.

Thanks for that. Phriq. It is the samples and VSTs which I was most unsure about. The sequencer itself and the data, I figure; but the 9 zillion GB of loops and whatnots, I was uncertain about those.

 

[TimOBrien]

Best configuration for any daw:

Boot drive: OS, apps and plugins
Secondary drive: Sample libraries
Third drive: Audio projects & misc data

If you can only have 2 drives, put the samples on the boot drive
(most samplers will load up the samples into ram first anyway)

The primary goal is to have smooth uninterrupted streaming of
audio tracks so you dont get clicks, pops or dropouts on recording,
playback or rendering.

 

[Eleanor Fudd]

Best configuration for any daw:

Boot drive: OS, apps and plugins
Secondary drive: Sample libraries
Third drive: Audio projects & misc data

If you can only have 2 drives, put the samples on the boot drive
(most samplers will load up the samples into ram first anyway)

The primary goal is to have smooth uninterrupted streaming of
audio tracks so you dont get clicks, pops or dropouts on recording,
playback or rendering.

Thank you; but why have the samples on a separate drive?

 

[phriq]

Best configuration for any daw:

Boot drive: OS, apps and plugins
Secondary drive: Sample libraries
Third drive: Audio projects & misc data

If you can only have 2 drives, put the samples on the boot drive
(most samplers will load up the samples into ram first anyway)

The primary goal is to have smooth uninterrupted streaming of
audio tracks so you dont get clicks, pops or dropouts on recording,
playback or rendering.

This is the ideal configuration if you have 3 internal drives. But the OP only has a laptop with one internal and then another external drive.

Thank you; but why have the samples on a separate drive?

Like TimOBrien said, "The primary goal is to have smooth uninterrupted streaming of audio tracks so you dont get clicks, pops or dropouts on recording, playback or rendering." On your main drive (this is for all internal drives keep in mind) you will want your OS and apps and plugs installed. Just the software. You will want to keep this clean to enable the best performance out of the drive. You would then have your samples on a different drive as they take up alot of space. Then either on the second drive or on a thrid drive, have your actual projects.

However, since you only have one interal drive and then also have an external drive (which is going to be VERY slow in terms of access due to its USB or Firewire connection, you need to worry about access speed. So I would just stick to what I stated for you. However, if you go on to get a new system with multiple internal drives, then I would for sure go with the division setup TimOBrien said.

 

[Armistice]

I'd say it depends upon the size of the laptop drive...

I konw sample libraries are big, but so are internal drives these days, even on laptops.

I use a second drive only for back up.

 

[somegeezer]

I'd say it depends upon the size of the laptop drive...

I konw sample libraries are big, but so are internal drives these days, even on laptops.

I use a second drive only for back up.

It's not really about size, but about tasks. If things are on separate drives, it takes a lot less time to load each. If you have 3 drives spinning, rather than one, you're, in a way, having 3 times the speed of loading things, assuming each is on its own drive. But of course, your RAM needs to be able to load all that up too.

 

[phriq]

It's not really about size, but about tasks. If things are on separate drives, it takes a lot less time to load each. If you have 3 drives spinning, rather than one, you're, in a way, having 3 times the speed of loading things, assuming each is on its own drive. But of course, your RAM needs to be able to load all that up too.

There is a little more to it than that

Your processor has to be able to processes the data coming in. Yes it also depends on your RAM, Drive Cache, Drive speeds. But having 3 drives will NOT make your system 3 times faster in terms of loading.

 

[somegeezer]

There is a little more to it than that

Your processor has to be able to processes the data coming in. Yes it also depends on your RAM, Drive Cache, Drive speeds. But having 3 drives will NOT make your system 3 times faster in terms of loading.

Processors can actually handle a lot more than the equivalent RAM. But yes, other things often get in the way of the maths of it all. But effectively, what I said is still correct.

 

[phriq]

Processors can actually handle a lot more than the equivalent RAM. But yes, other things often get in the way of the maths of it all. But effectively, what I said is still correct.

Processor can "Process" more than RAM, yes. Because RAM is "Random Access Memory". It does not process anything. It simply is used as fast access to information as pulling data from a hard drive is extremely slow in comparison. Information is pulled from the hard drives and then put into RAM to be accessed by a processor. Also, it depends on the load order of an application as well. If your tracks are on drive A and your samples on drive B, a program will load in a preprogrammed order. So if it is pulling tracks, it will only be loading from drive A. Unless you have your drives in some form of RAID array or your data spread across all 3 drives. So again, though you can pull information faster from multiple drives. It is not equivalent to 3 times faster.