audio 'D' drive, please how setup/partition?

[J_M_C_123yahoo.com]

Hello,

 

(I'm inexperienced and annoying--ala "why is the sky blue? what makes the grass grow?..."--so bear with me.)

 

I want to add a 2nd(and last) SCSI HD(9.1GB)--this one "just for audio"--to my PC (Win98).

 

To those who have done this, what is the most common way to set/up partition your "D" drive? i.e. 'primary',(but non boot) or 'extended'? If 'extended' how many 'logical drives' -- did you go fat32; are there draw backs to fat32 for audio? Wouldn't it be best to have the audio 'D' drive be one big through partition? *I'm looking for the most typical way computer audio(PC) people do it. A step by step 'walk through' would be obseqiuously appreciated.

 

Thankyou thankyou, tended knee, thank you (that was the obsequious part).

 

JMC

[staupephotmail.com]

Leave it as one large drive. Don't do multiple partitions on the audio disk, the outer sectors will be used first and will allow faster performance (until you start to fill up the drive and have to access the inner sectors). You will have to use FAT32 to do this(if your drive is bigger than 2gig) and will gain some performance as a result. The drive will be a primary partition.

Format the drive using the dos command: format d: /z:64 as this will create larger clusters on the drive and will improve performance.

 

Go to prorec.com and check out the article about Disk optimization in the article archives.

 

Good Luck

Eric

[farrantaaol.com]

Good Question !!

 

Eric,

 

Thanks for the pointers - I run my audio drive (27 gig 7200rpm) split into 4 partitions. I have not yet come across any problems because I archive stuff VERY quickly to CD therefore keeping stuff off the disk wherever possible.

 

What benefits would there be in repartioning the disk as one large drive - I was concerned that if it screwed I would lose everything, which would not be the case with smaller partitions.

[Anderton]

>>What benefits would there be in repartioning the disk as one large drive - I was concerned that if it screwed I would lose everything, which would not be the case with smaller partitions.<<

 

If the hard drive crashes, you'll lose everything, regardless of how its partitioned.

 

If you keep your programs on one drive and data on another, it will be very hard to screw up the drive with the data. Most problems happen because of programs fighting, not data.

[Ethan Winer]

Craig,

 

> Most problems happen because of programs fighting, not data.<

 

Exactly. I have a pair of 40 GB drives and they are both partitioned all over the place. I work on a lot of projects, and I keep each on a separate partition. But the most important reason to use partitions with audio drives is you can defrag a LOT faster. I can defrag a 3 GB partition in a few minutes, compared to HOURS for a single 30 or 40 GB partition.

 

--Ethan

[Uh Clem]

Originally posted by Anderton:

>>What benefits would there be in repartioning the disk as one large drive - I was concerned that if it screwed I would lose everything, which would not be the case with smaller partitions.<<

 

If the hard drive crashes, you'll lose everything, regardless of how its partitioned.

 

If you keep your programs on one drive and data on another, it will be very hard to screw up the drive with the data. Most problems happen because of programs fighting, not data.

 

Most problems happen due to hardware failure or file system corruption.

 

Programs are static once installed - where the code resides doesn't affect reliability although there can be performance benefits in isolating them.

 

If programs fight, believe me, it is over the data and memory they are currently managing, not their own code.

 

File system corruption not related to hardware is caused by data being written incorrectly to the disk - especially to the link information that tells the file system where all the pieces of non-contiguous files are located - the file allocation table and the file chains.

 

There are a number of files that the operating system keeps open while it runs including the page file. Keeping the page file on away from your data can also improve performance and reliability. An improper shutdown (power failure, etc.) can leave any open file in an inconsistent state and cause corruption, but it often does not. You usually just end up with the old version of the files.

 

Then there are the applications which keep their data files open. Many allow you to put their temporary work files in another location. If that location is a separate physical drive, performance and reliability might be increased.

 

Any time a program goes to save a file - writes new data - your audio - to the disk, there is the potential for data corruption if the write process does not go well. This could be caused by a bug, a virus, a power glitch, or by hardware.

 

Use virus scanning programs. Keep your DATA in well thought out locations. More physical drives are better: OS/Programs/Pagefile on one, temp files on another, data files on the next - add a small fast disk for just the page file - even better.