Really big HDDs--pros and cons

I've been watching the prices of HDDs, thinking as I said in other posts of adding audio drive space, and it just seems that they are showing bigger and bigger HDDs--I saw a 400GB Seagate for $200, with a 16MB cache. Are these big drives the same as the smaller ones (I never thought I'd consider 120 GB "smaller") or is something different to enable them to fit more data? Are they better for audio, the same, or worse? Shoulld they be partitioned? And if one gets a drive that big, how do you back it up?

I'll keep that in mind. Useful info, definitely. My mobo's new enough, I think; I only got it last year (it's an MSI 865PE Neo2-P Platinum).
I see Western Digitals on NewEgg.com with 3 platters (that Seagate I mentioned has 4; took a while to track that down. WDC's specs pages are easier to read). I'm still shopping around; but I need the info to know what to think of the deals that come up, so thanks, Frank.
I kind of had a sudden drop in audio drive space when I installed some big softsynth libraries, so it got me thinking, but I think I've got time to deal-shop. How full can an audio drive get before you start getting low disk space warnings, anyway?

I know what you mean; my Cakewalk Projects folder is not that big. It's the DXi/VST libraries that eat up all the room, as well as other sample libraries and loops. I'm sort of synthed out right now, anyway, so maybe my audio drive won't fill up so fast after all.

Bumpadump...

Remember all discs die, it's just a matter of time. The bigger the disc, the bigger the problem. Backup, backup, backup.

ORIGINAL: RLD

Almost ready to format...

Yes, make a fat32 partition !! You can use it for Ghost backups of the C: partition and you can also set your swap file over there. It will make swap access faster and keep it from getting fragmented. Very handy.

Be sure to burn your Ghost to a DVD because when the backup partition on the same drive it will do you no good if the drive fails. Also, set your swap file to that fat32 partition and set the C: partition for no swap file before you start your Ghost backup. This will make the Ghost much smaller. You don't need to backup your swap file because it will get re-created if it's missing when you restore your Ghost.

Get Ghost and backup the C: partition with it before every install of software, service pack, driver, etc.

ORIGINAL: RLD

I guess I'm confused on where you'd put these partitions.
Let's try this...
This is my drive setup.
I've got a 100GB SATA for C which will be OS/Programs.
160 GB SATA for D which will be audio data
200 GB for E which is samples loops etc.
I back up everything to an external firewire drive.

I want to keep D & E just audio and sample data.
How would you partition C?

Thanks,

RLD

You would make two partitions on the 100gig drive. A primary partition of about 70 gig or so. Format it NTFS (XP will make you do that anyway because of the size). Then make an extended partition using the rest of the space on the drive, make sure it's less than 32 gig if you start with 100 then it should be. Then make one logical drive inside that extended partition and format it FAT32, you will need to pull down the selection because it will default to NTFS I think. After you get that logical drive created right click on it and change the drive letter to one above all your other drives. "S" would be good since it will have the swap file. That would make it easy to remember what it is. Also set the volume label to "Swap File" and that will show up in Windows explorer. Then create primary partitions on the other two drives using the entire drive and format those NTFS.

Then right click on My Computer and select Properties. Click on the Advanced Tab and click the Performance - Settings button. Click the Advanced tab and in the Virtual Memory section click the Change button. Click on the S drive and select System managed size and click the "Set" button. Then go back to the C drive and select No paging file and click the "Set" button. At this point you will need to reboot and log back in. Go back in and double check that the change took effect and that there is no page file on C: You should see more space avialable on C: if not you will need to find and delete the old page file. Let me know if you do and I'll talk you through it.

You can use Disk Management to assign the drive letters to your other partitions to what ever you want. If an optical drive already has that letter then you will need to change it first to get it out of the way.

Keep in mind you don't have to put the FAT32 partition on the first drive with C: If you wanted to have your swap and Ghost backups on a different drive like the sample drive you could do that also, however, it's not a good idea to put it on the audio drive you don't what swap activity while you are playing projects off that drive. In your case the OS drive might be the best choice.

Any advantage to partitioning the C drive and allocating say 30 gigs for Windows as Fat32 and the remaining 70GB as NTFS?

No.
Keep everything NTFS.

Considering the size of the OS drive (100GB)
it is awfully tempting to partition it because your OS will never need that much.
Seems kind of a waste not to, I know...

Personally,
I think having three HD drive letters is a good amount.

Anything over that,
can start becoming partition management overhead.

I can see any practical application for creating more partitions...

UNLESS (haha there is aways something)
You do not have much RAM and plan on swapping to HD allot.
In which case, you may want to create a small swap partition at the begging of your XP drive.
Keep the swap on the XP drive so it won't interupt the sample streaming or audio recording drives.

Hope that helps,
Tomek.

-edit
opps for some reason I didn't scroll down after the question and see people already replied. HA!
(sorry was out of it) Oh well, here is my reply anyway! hehe

ORIGINAL: Phoenix

I've been watching the prices of HDDs, thinking as I said in other posts of adding audio drive space, and it just seems that they are showing bigger and bigger HDDs--I saw a 400GB Seagate for $200, with a 16MB cache. Are these big drives the same as the smaller ones (I never thought I'd consider 120 GB "smaller") or is something different to enable them to fit more data? Are they better for audio, the same, or worse? Shoulld they be partitioned? And if one gets a drive that big, how do you back it up?

I use an internal 250Gb SATA HD for my system drive, and another internal 250Gb SATA HD for my audio drive. No complaints here.