Hard Drive Set Up Question

  • Thread starter Thread starter Blakmore
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Blakmore

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Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice on setting up my 2 hard drives. Current system is listed in my signature.

Would it be better to put the OS and Cubase on the WD drive since it has the 8MB cache and is generally faster than the Maxtor? Then the Maxtor 40GB drive would be audio only. I don't do a ton of recording so I am not too worried about only having 40GB for audio.

On the other hand, maybe I should partition the WD into two 40's and run the OS / Cubase on WD parition 1. This leaves 40GB on WD partition 2 and 40GB on the Maxtor for audio. Any problems with this setup?

Anyway, what do you guys recommend for the optimal setting?

Thanks in advance.
 
Blakmore said:
Hi Everyone,

I'm looking for a little advice on setting up my 2 hard drives. Current system is listed in my signature.

Would it be better to put the OS and Cubase on the WD drive since it has the 8MB cache and is generally faster than the Maxtor? Then the Maxtor 40GB drive would be audio only. I don't do a ton of recording so I am not too worried about only having 40GB for audio.

On the other hand, maybe I should partition the WD into two 40's and run the OS / Cubase on WD parition 1. This leaves 40GB on WD partition 2 and 40GB on the Maxtor for audio. Any problems with this setup?

Anyway, what do you guys recommend for the optimal setting?

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

nice sig...
 
Good point...hahaha

Aardvark DP 24/96
Cubase SX

XP2400@2.4GHz
Abit NF-7 rev 2 mobo
1GB PC3200 Ram
Western Digital 80GB HD 8MB Cache ATA100
Maxtor 40GB 2MB Cache ATA133
 
I would agree with your first proposal. Use the 80gig for programs and the 40 for audio.
I've done the dual boot thing and it got to be a pain in the ass.
You wont have any problems with the above config.
Just be sure its all tied in right to the mobo.
HD1 Master/w/slave.... CD1 Slave
HD2 Secondary master.... IDE chl. 2
 
I agree with Stealth. Best to have a seperate DRIVE for audio rather than just a different partition.
 
With my clients, I put the C: (system) into a small partition, usually 8gb or less. The remainder of the drive is D: (data).

All user data files, outlook, My Documents, etc, etc are on the D: drive in the various user's shares. The intent of doing all this is keeping the data and system separate for GHOSTing purposes.

I GHOST the system partition and save it on a 2nd hard disk, or on the D: data partition. This is done when the system is freshly installed and configured, but without corruption from viruses or spyware. All Windows maintenance, etc, is installed.

When the system inevitably becomes corrupted, it is easy to do a GHOST restore of the system partition. Data remains unchanged and current, because it is on the D: partition. This method provides a clean, fully constructed system in about 20 minutes.

I'd put the audio files on a 2nd hard disk, and not partition it. Navigating the partition tables takes time, and is slower than direct disk access. The 8mb buffer drives typically have a 3 year warranty, plus offer a bit better performance. I use the 2nd hard disk for data backup purposes from the 1st hard disk.
 
One caveat with small System partitions: temp space for applications.

If your app creates a very large amount of temp files, consider moving the system TMP and TEMP environment settings to a fixed directory on a larger drive. I shot this bug today, with a publishing client who was always crashing just prior to finalizing their newspaper. They work in Adobe, and it appears the System partition was out of space for the temp files created by Adobe.

I added a 2nd hard disk to their publishing machine, then used Partition Magic to reclaim and consolidate the system and old data partitions. Data moved to the 2nd hard disk, and System now has 20gb all to itself.
 
If your app creates a very large amount of temp files, consider moving the system TMP and TEMP environment settings to a fixed directory on a larger drive.
Good idea. I have one partition setup (a good size one) that only has TMP and TEMP folders for the OS. I have another partition for the pagefile (I'm running Windows 2000 Pro).

As far as 8 meg cache on HD's - I don't think there is a major performance improvement. I'm running two 120 gig WD HD's, both with the "JB" after the model (8 MB cache). I like the performance, but I really don't notice a major difference in performance.

Warren
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Good idea. I have one partition setup (a good size one) that only has TMP and TEMP folders for the OS. I have another partition for the pagefile (I'm running Windows 2000 Pro).
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just create a temp folder on a partition that will hold about 1 to 2 gig, no need to use a partition just for a temp, just make sure you don't fill the partition up and forget the temp needs 2 gig...

i have a number of temps installed over the 6 partitions on one of three 80gig on a system, works well for me...

moving the swap file to a different drive improves preformance, and making it static, 1000mb ea (size) adds a little speed also...

wherever you record audio it's kept in a temp till you tell the appl what you want done with it, folling with 24 tracks can add up quickly...

just a thought...
 
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