Help partitioning my new HD...

  • Thread starter Thread starter AlexHerd
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AlexHerd

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Hey all! So I got a new lappy a few months ago, and I'm getting ready to do some multitracking. I have to admit that on my old PC I never broke the HD up, but now that I will be venturing into more live multitracks, I'd like to make sure that it runs as efficient as possible. I need some help on partitioning the HD. I guess I would at least have a programs/general partition and then an audio partition for multitracking? Maybe I should have three? One for Windows/programs, one for saving files, and an audio partition? Or some other config? Could anyone please give me some feedback and most importantly how you would break it up (size wise). Also, if you had the choice between XP Pro & XP Media Center which would you use? Please excuse my ignorance on this subject! THANKS FOR ANY HELP!

100 gig HD
1gig of DDR ram
2GHz AMD Turion64
 
Two partitions is fine, maybe 20g for programs, the rest for storage. Tom's Hardware has an excellent partitioning tutorial, if you need it. I'm not sure the partitioning will help much, if your OS goes down, the drive is still crippled.
 
ermghoti said:
Two partitions is fine, maybe 20g for programs, the rest for storage. Tom's Hardware has an excellent partitioning tutorial, if you need it. I'm not sure the partitioning will help much, if your OS goes down, the drive is still crippled.
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Thanks for the help. Hopefully I won't have to worry about the OS going down, but PC is what I got right now...
 
For example, I have 3 hard drives: one for Windows, one for Audio files(raw files) and one for samples and refills. I just find it much more efficient to work with seperate hard drives.
 
studiomaster said:
For example, I have 3 hard drives: one for Windows, one for Audio files(raw files) and one for samples and refills. I just find it much more efficient to work with seperate hard drives.
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How would you break that up over 100 gigs? Thanks.
 
AlexHerd said:
How would you break that up over 100 gigs? Thanks.
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What do you mean by break that up? They're all independent hard drives. Their sizes vary.
 
studiomaster said:
What do you mean by break that up? They're all independent hard drives. Their sizes vary.
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Ahhh, my question is about partitioning. Im not getting seperate HDs any time soon! :(
 
There is no real performance advantage to having a partitioned hard drive other than fragmentation issues. The whole point of having separate hard drives is access to one hard drive is not impeded by the os accessing another. If everything is on one physical drive with partitions, the access time will be almost the same a one drive with one partition so dont bother. Ideally, serial drives should work the best in this respect
 
Alright, thanks for all your help! Guess I'll just leave it how it is!
 
hindustudiosgod said:
You should never partion hard drives. I am a professional and an Computer and Electrical and Acoustic Engineer graduate from MIT and Harvard. So I know. PERIOD.
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I second that!
 
i kinda dis-agree...while there is no performance advantage....if you saved your projects on the 2nd partition and the OS goes down....its easy to re-install the OS on the 1st partition without losing all the work and audio you have thats stored on the other partition.

If that makes any sense..i just woke up! :p
 
That may or may not help. I have a partitioned (dual boot) drive on my Interwebz computer, and the second OS can access both partitions, the first doesn't know there are two partitions.
 
im not talking dual boot though...just OS on 1 side....storage/important stuff on other side.
 
That may or may not help. I have a partitioned (dual boot) drive on my Interwebz computer, and the second OS can access both partitions, the first doesn't know there are two partitions.
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let me guess, win2k/xp and win9x right? win9x machine cannot read NTFS (win2k/xp standard format). If you want both os's to see both partitions, format both in FAT32
 
I thought I did, I might be wrong. Doesn't matter, 98SE is only there so I can play Fallout and Redneck Rampage.

Edit: I OT-ed myself right off my point: if a OS could see across all the partitions, couldn't malware do so as well, or even migrate?
 
You really would benefit from having a dedicated drive for your audio projects.

Working with what you have though, I would partition the drive. You won't see any performance increase out of it but it makes defragging less of a pain in the ass and you will have some bit of protection if your OS becomes corrupt. I'm not sure why a couple of guys say to never partition a drive. I have'nt had any issues with partitioned drives and I've been using hard drives this way for a long time. I'm all ears for any good reasons against it though. One warning though. You can screw up your drive if you don't know exactly what you're doing. If in doubt, don't do it.

I would divide your drive into 3 parts. One for the OS/programs, one for projects, and one for general storage. If you have to format for any reason, your projects and stored files will still be intact. Also, when running antivirus and spyware scanners, having the OS/programs on it's own partition will save you some time. Do you really want a scanner running thru all your projects, mp3's, video's, etc.? I don't see any good reason for it.
 
hindustudiosgod said:
All of you faggots are noobs. Get a fucking life and smell and sip on my wet anus with diarhhea coming out into bubbles.
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Is what they teach at Harvard and MIT? Nice.
 
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