where to place audio on revamped system
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From: Phoenix on 9 Apr 2008 23:13 I back up everything to external HDD as is (the external doubles as the audio drive for my laptop at the moment and DVD. My usual installation up to now has been: drive 1: C: OS/programs D: non-audio data drive 2: E: audio drive 3: F: backup (Acronis images, which are also on DVD) Previously, all 3 were PATA. Now one will be SATA, and I figure that will be the primary because its faster, newer, and has the bigger cache. But OS/progs will not be the whole drive, just the C: partition, as per usual, which will be the only thing to get overwritten in a restore--my audio (and data) backups are straight file copy, not images. So I'm trying to figure out how best to use the other 400+ GB. To store some audio there seems obvious. But, libraries, project files, or both? Maybe current work on the faster drive, non-current on the other? As for drive failure, who knows? I've had drives fail within a couple months and there's a 15GB in my mom's machine thats I don't know how old. If the new drive should fail, though, I'll have my Acronis "system restore" image from the system that was and I could just map it on to the drive it was on and be up and running again. I could just take that image and restore it to the new partition, for that matter, and I may yet. So many things have been changed since that image was made a new install won't take much more time (why I haven't made more recent C drive backups is a long story, and this post is already long enough...). From: "Sue Morton" <867-5309(a)domain.invalid> Subject: Re: HDD opinions needed Date: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 8:16 PM If you're not going to make any back ups, then put data/audio/whatever on a separate physical disk from the OS. If it's on the OS disk and the disk goes south, you've lost everything. On the other hand, your PATA is an existing drive so being older, may be more prone to failure than the new SATA... hard to say. I have several PATAs over 7 years old still running, and some SATAs less than one year old that had to be RMA'd. Bottom line, consider investing in at least one external enclosure and back-up disk, and make sure you back up everything you don't want to lose. Add 'redundant' multiple backups to different formats and/or media for important stuff that you MUST be able to recover, chances are one of these backups will restore. Then it really doesn't matter how you arrange the working data, unless you're running into bottlenecks on your mobo's throughput. -- Sue Morton Phoenix wrote: > Well, my trusty ol' P4 went south and it's upgrade time. > While I'm waiting for the new parts to arrive, I m wondering the > following: My new primary HDD is going to be SATA; Seagate 500GB 32mb > cache. So, what to do with all that room? > I'm thinking audio. I know conventional wisdom is having audio on a > separate drive, and my 300GB PATA drive would also remain audio. But > the question remains, which drive should the most important stuff be > on, the faster SATA, even though it's the same physical drive as > programs/OS, or the separate PATA? > I am also trying to take into account the fact that I have had > problems loading certain projects when the audio path isn't E:/, like > when I'm on my laptop and Windows has given the audio drive a > different letter, but the project was done on my desktop. > I apologize if this post sounds a little discombobulated, but that's > me right now. The latest 'puter saga has been a long one compressed > into two daze. > BTW, I want to give a shout-out to Glennbo for putting me onto mWave. > (ThanxG'bo!)
From: Phoenix on 9 Apr 2008 23:16 oops, this was supposed to be appended to my other thread... "Phoenix" <gtr_phoenix(a)killerrabbit.verizon.net> wrote in message news:tBfLj.2544$Xy2.755(a)trndny04... >I back up everything to external HDD as is (the external doubles as the >audio drive for my laptop at the moment and DVD. > My usual installation up to now has been: > drive 1: C: OS/programs > D: non-audio data > drive 2: E: audio > drive 3: F: backup (Acronis images, which are also on DVD) > Previously, all 3 were PATA. Now one will be SATA, and I figure that will > be the primary because its faster, newer, and has the bigger cache. But > OS/progs will not be the whole drive, just the C: partition, as per usual, > which will be the only thing to get overwritten in a restore--my audio > (and data) backups are straight file copy, not images. So I'm trying to > figure out how best to use the other 400+ GB. To store some audio there > seems obvious. But, libraries, project files, or both? Maybe current > work on the faster drive, non-current on the other? > As for drive failure, who knows? I've had drives fail within a couple > months and there's a 15GB in my mom's machine thats I don't know how old. > If the new drive should fail, though, I'll have my Acronis "system > restore" image from the system that was and I could just map it on to the > drive it was on and be up and running again. I could just take that image > and restore it to the new partition, for that matter, and I may yet. So > many things have been changed since that image was made a new install > won't take much more time (why I haven't made more recent C drive backups > is a long story, and this post is already long enough...). > > > From: "Sue Morton" <867-5309(a)domain.invalid> > Subject: Re: HDD opinions needed > Date: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 8:16 PM > > If you're not going to make any back ups, then put data/audio/whatever on > a > separate physical disk from the OS. If it's on the OS disk and the disk > goes south, you've lost everything. > > On the other hand, your PATA is an existing drive so being older, may be > more prone to failure than the new SATA... hard to say. I have several > PATAs over 7 years old still running, and some SATAs less than one year > old > that had to be RMA'd. > > Bottom line, consider investing in at least one external enclosure and > back-up disk, and make sure you back up everything you don't want to lose. > Add 'redundant' multiple backups to different formats and/or media for > important stuff that you MUST be able to recover, chances are one of these > backups will restore. Then it really doesn't matter how you arrange the > working data, unless you're running into bottlenecks on your mobo's > throughput. > -- > Sue Morton > > Phoenix wrote: >> Well, my trusty ol' P4 went south and it's upgrade time. >> While I'm waiting for the new parts to arrive, I m wondering the >> following: My new primary HDD is going to be SATA; Seagate 500GB 32mb >> cache. So, what to do with all that room? >> I'm thinking audio. I know conventional wisdom is having audio on a >> separate drive, and my 300GB PATA drive would also remain audio. But >> the question remains, which drive should the most important stuff be >> on, the faster SATA, even though it's the same physical drive as >> programs/OS, or the separate PATA? >> I am also trying to take into account the fact that I have had >> problems loading certain projects when the audio path isn't E:/, like >> when I'm on my laptop and Windows has given the audio drive a >> different letter, but the project was done on my desktop. >> I apologize if this post sounds a little discombobulated, but that's >> me right now. The latest 'puter saga has been a long one compressed >> into two daze. >> BTW, I want to give a shout-out to Glennbo for putting me onto mWave. >> (ThanxG'bo!) > > >
From: Sue Morton on 10 Apr 2008 07:23 Phoenix wrote: >So I'm trying to figure out how best to use > the other 400+ GB. To store some audio there seems obvious. But, > libraries, project files, or both? Maybe current work on the faster > drive, non-current on the other? You will get better performance, as a general rule, if your data is on a separate physical drive from the OS, IF the throughput from the mobo and the disks themselves are equal.. In this situation I suspect you will get better performance overall by using the single sata drive for i/o intensive work. > As for drive failure, who knows? I've had drives fail within a couple > months and there's a 15GB in my mom's machine thats I don't know how > old. If the new drive should fail, though, I'll have my Acronis > "system restore" image from the system that was and I could just map > it on to the drive it was on and be up and running again. OK the Acronis takes care of the OS. What about all the data on the "D:" partition you'll lose too? THAT was my point, not the OS. If your backups of important data are not completely current, then you lost that too. Slight risk? Big risk? Drive failure is a wildcard. But having *complete* and *current* backups is NOT :-) -- Sue Morton
From: Phoenix on 10 Apr 2008 20:42 So do you think the SATA or the PATA should hold the OS/programs? (the mobo is the Asus M3A, if that info helps.) Is the activity most i/o intensive on the audio or OS/progs drive? I thought it was the latter, but I have folks telling me to use the PATA(Ultra ATA, 8mb cache) for OS and the SATA(32mb cache) for audio. "Sue Morton" <867-5309(a)domain.invalid> wrote in message news:wNmLj.2481$%41.1290(a)nlpi064.nbdc.sbc.com... > > > Phoenix wrote: >>So I'm trying to figure out how best to use >> the other 400+ GB. To store some audio there seems obvious. But, >> libraries, project files, or both? Maybe current work on the faster >> drive, non-current on the other? > > You will get better performance, as a general rule, if your data is on a > separate physical drive from the OS, IF the throughput from the mobo and > the disks themselves are equal.. In this situation I suspect you will get > better performance overall by using the single sata drive for i/o > intensive work. > > >> As for drive failure, who knows? I've had drives fail within a couple >> months and there's a 15GB in my mom's machine thats I don't know how >> old. If the new drive should fail, though, I'll have my Acronis >> "system restore" image from the system that was and I could just map >> it on to the drive it was on and be up and running again. > > OK the Acronis takes care of the OS. What about all the data on the "D:" > partition you'll lose too? THAT was my point, not the OS. > > If your backups of important data are not completely current, then you > lost that too. Slight risk? Big risk? Drive failure is a wildcard. But > having *complete* and *current* backups is NOT :-) > -- > Sue Morton > >
From: Steve L. on 10 Apr 2008 20:51
"Phoenix" <gtr_phoenix(a)killerrabbit.verizon.net> thought it was ok to ask > So do you think the SATA or the PATA should hold the OS/programs? I'de put the OS on the PATA. Your OS response might not be as snappy but your audio drive is the one you want max thruput on. |