2 hard drives or 1?

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matt41
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2012/01/03 17:22:45 (permalink)

2 hard drives or 1?

does it make any difference performance-wise if i use 1 internal sata hard drive, or put my libraries on 1 sata, apart from the main sata hard drive?
 
my main 250gb drive has enough room to have it in 1 if best.
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    batsbrew
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    Re:2 hard drives or 1? 2012/01/03 18:01:03 (permalink)
    I have 2 internal hard drives.

    one, has all my programs, and nothing else.

    the 2nd, has all my saved files, samples, librarys, etc.

    it's much easier to backup the 2nd drive with all of your data that gets updated regularly.

    once in a blue moon, i'll update the 1st drive, after updates and whatnot.

    plus, if you lose either drive, you haven't lost everything all at once.


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    leapinlizard
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    Re:2 hard drives or 1? 2012/01/04 11:47:42 (permalink)
    The prevailing wisdom on the forum seems to be 3 hard drives:  one dedicated to op system and programs, a second for audio, and a third for samples and libraries.  If you don't do much audio, or you don't have a large sample/library collection, then you can probably get by with two.  You can probably do everything on one drive, but at some point you will likely hit a bottleneck and need to expand.

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    Guitarhacker
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    Re:2 hard drives or 1? 2012/01/04 13:37:49 (permalink)
    I also have multiple drives in my system

    C has the OS and all the programs

    d= DVD burner/player

    E is a storage drive where my samples and bundles are kept as well as copies of downloaded programs.

    F is an external 1 TB drive to back up the E drive folders as well as keeping the backup images for Acronis. 

    Since all of the synths IO use load the samples to memory, having them on a different drive is not a big problem at all. 

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    AT
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    Re:2 hard drives or 1? 2012/01/04 13:40:20 (permalink)
    At least two drives.  One for the OS and programs, so the drive can search and find what it needs quickly.

    The second drive to stream the audio tracks.

    As lizard says, many people put their samples on a third drive, but that is really only necessary if the samples stream from the hard drive.  If they just load they can go w/ the SONAR files as load-once audio.

    Either drive (probably the bigger one) can be used as a back up drive, or use a external drive.  Just remember, unless digital info is backed up in two places, it doesn't exist (or is likely not too at some point!).

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    Bonzos Ghost
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    Re:2 hard drives or 1? 2012/01/06 18:35:33 (permalink)
    Minimum is two drives: One for OS / programs, one for project wav files.
    Better is three drives: One for OS / programs, one for project wav files. one for streaming sample libraries.

    Besides using 2 or 3 drives, you should defintely have another drive as well. This one can be an external USB drive - large capacity, and used for system backup. You could also add another internal drive for this purpose. Use this drive for backup only. Using a program such as Acronis, make a disk image of each drive in your daw (regularly) and keep them on your backup HD.

    I would recommend an external drive for backup, because you can store it somewhere else. If some loser steals your daw and all your hardwork, having your backup drive inside your daw won't help you.

    post edited by Bonzos Ghost - 2012/01/06 18:37:27
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