Dan South Posted September 23, 2003 Share Posted September 23, 2003 I just bought a 160G Firewire drive (922) for audio recording use. Should I partition it into smaller sections? Will that improve performance? What is the optimum size of a partition for an audio drive, given that all audio track files for a song will be kept in the same partition? (My system: OS-X, Logic 6, FW800, MOTU 828) P.S. Is partitioning desirable for a drive that will hold streaming samples? The Black Knight always triumphs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RABid Posted September 23, 2003 Share Posted September 23, 2003 A correctly structured RAID system can speed up things because multiple drives can read sections of a file concurrently. Each drive can read a section of a file that has been split across drives. A partitioned drive differs in that it has only a single mechanism that reads information. Because of this partitioning will not really help. It is for organization or OS limitations only. The best thing is to put only the streaming samples on a drive so the OS is not trying to access anything else on the same drive at the same time you are streaming samples. With firewire I am not sure about other limitations. With IDE drives you do not want any other drives on the same channel. The IDE channel will default to BUS speed of the slowest drive, and you can also get a bottleneck. With USB you do not want any other USB devices interrupting flow. Firewire, Im not sure. Robert This post edited for speling. My Sweetwater Gear Exchange Page Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
daBowsa Posted September 23, 2003 Share Posted September 23, 2003 "A useful tip when configuring your audio disc, is to split this into two partitions. Set up a smaller "audio scratch" partition - say 6GB of a 30GB hard disc. This partition will be used for the songs that you are currently working on. The benefit of a smaller partition is obviously quicker defragmentation. If you use the entire 30GB as one partition, then this will take ages to defragment. When you are finished with a song, transfer the audio files to the non-scratch partition, where disc I/O performance isn't so critical." I think the theory is that while you're recording, you want large contiguous blocks of free space. So you'd copy your stuff to its permanent location, and wipe out this partition every so often to ensure this happens. Operating systems usually put stuff in seemingly random spots on your hard drive, so if you're recording a track and it runs into a block that's filled up it'll have to find a new spot to record to. This takes some time, and then jumping back and forth over this break point takes time while playing back. Especially if this happens a few times or on a few tracks, when recording an additional track while monitoring these other tracks, the hard drive's going to be all over the place. (This is why having as much RAM as possible is beneficial, because there's no physical seek time like on a disk.) So I don't know the exact numbers you should use for your situation, but this might be something to think about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan South Posted September 23, 2003 Author Share Posted September 23, 2003 Thanks for the responses. They lead me to ask another question. How do you defrag on OSX? Is there a built-in utility for this? Do I need to buy an OSX version of Norton (if one exists)? The Black Knight always triumphs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bleen Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Dan, DON'T BUY NORTON FOR OSX!!! There are many accounts of it doing Very Bad Things to the system. Beause of OSX's file structure and disk writing schemes there is no real need to defrag anymore. Rather, you should get a copy of DiskWarrior and run it regularly in addition to repairing permissions on your boot drive. recording/mix guy don gunn.com myspace.com/dongunnmusic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KHAN Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Originally posted by Dan South: Thanks for the responses. They lead me to ask another question. How do you defrag on OSX? Is there a built-in utility for this? Do I need to buy an OSX version of Norton (if one exists)?With a disk this large, I would make several partitions, and just drag your projects on to an empty partition. This will defrag without the use of any software. This is the safest way IMO. The idea of keeping your current projects on a smaller partition is also a good one. Just don't make it too small, or your performance could deteriorate as the drive becomes "too full". So Many Drummers. So Little Time... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dan South Posted September 24, 2003 Author Share Posted September 24, 2003 Originally posted by KHAN: Originally posted by Dan South: Thanks for the responses. They lead me to ask another question. How do you defrag on OSX? Is there a built-in utility for this? Do I need to buy an OSX version of Norton (if one exists)?With a disk this large, I would make several partitions, and just drag your projects on to an empty partition. This will defrag without the use of any software. This is the safest way IMO. The idea of keeping your current projects on a smaller partition is also a good one. Just don't make it too small, or your performance could deteriorate as the drive becomes "too full".Khan, Thanks, these are brilliant suggestions! Now, please go an buy some Pepto Bismol for that smiley before he spews again. The Black Knight always triumphs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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