No not a laptop man, just reread the specs and although the specs say 8 usb 2 it actually has 7 usb2 and 1 usb3, the usb 3 is marked on the casing so it must be correct. So what your saying is the 'data' partition on the internal hard drive is not worth storing my projects on?

I thought your question was, "Will I get better performance running on a partition on the internal drive" and the answer based on your test was No. The best performance one can get on a PC is running multiple internal HDs or SSDs. Usually one only resorts to an external drive when there is no way to add internal storage, for backup or convenience when performance is not an issue.

Sorry if I'm being unclear man, Yes you were right that my question was about better performance using the internal partition, and Als the reason I have used the external drive is just cos I keep all my music related stuff there. I will call into my local IT store and ask about possible upgrades of intnernal HD, From stuff I have read I am led to believe SSDs are better. Anyway thatnks for your help Scook, very much appreciated.
Andrew

sausy1981
Hi guys, this is not specific to manchester but has been happening since day one for me. I open sonar go to open a project and it takes around 30 secs or longer for my project to open, in that time sonar goes to 'not responding' then it starts responding and another few secs later my project opens. I never asked before as I just got on with it and it wasn't a big deal. But I'd hate to think something is not as it should be. I'm running Windows 10 64 and sonar 64 on Intel i5, 8 gig ram and 3,10Hz. I store all my projects on an external hard drive while all the other sonar stuff is on the C drive.
Is there anything I should check or is this common enough and it shouldn't worry me.
Thanks,
Andrew

This has been the case for me ever since I first installed Sonar (X1). It varies from a couple seconds to around 30 seconds or more (but never more than a minute unless the project is fuxxored).
 
Things that affect the length of the opening process are...
 
1) If I have my antivirus enabled (if it's on it takes way longer because it's doing some real time shenanigans on the files being loaded AFAICT). If I disable real time scanning it significantly reduces load times/whitescreens/not responding crud. The REAL solution is to whitelist all Sonar files in the AV but I don't do that and sometimes I just leave it on anyway until it starts screwing me up (like on a very large project).
 
2) As the project gets larger. The more clips and effects and whatnot that need to be loaded the longer/clunkier it all becomes upon startup.
 
3) As I edit and create more and more splits/composites/etc the more data that needs to be loaded (the splits cause a lot of screwiness since the new compign features because Sonar needs to have every clip at the ready for Fast Comping). This is why often times once I have finished comping a track I wil create a clone with "Events" option disable (so no clips get cloned) then drag my final comp into that and archive the original track with all the edits. This drops resource consumption dow dramatically (including opening time). This is also why I would LOVE an "Archive Take Lane" feature so I don't have to create a new track every time.
 
4) As versions come and go the open time varies. This is a good indicator (to me) of how efficient that version is. It has fluctuated quite a bit since X3. Currently I am getting pretty rapid open times on Lexington... but everything else is acting up. Not "slower" but just touchy and on the edge of crackles and dropouts. It's disappointing and based on reports Manchester seems to be doing the same crap. Still gonna try it I guess but may have to try Kingston or JP instead.
 
Soooooo... 30 second load time? That's pushing it but it isn't abnormal IME. I use HDD's not SSD's. I would expect much faster load times with SSD's.
 
Cheers.

sausy1981
 I will call into my local IT store and ask about possible upgrades of intnernal HD, From stuff I have read I am led to believe SSDs are better. Anyway thatnks for your help Scook, very much appreciated.
Andrew

SSDs are faster but they are more expensive. In your case, the external should be a backup device.

I will add when it comes to discussions about computers and their components the best place is here http://forum.cakewalk.com/Computers-f84.aspx The builders hang out there and they know much more about this stuff. 

Just as an aside Andrew, what do your projects consist of generally - Audio, Midi or both?

This is true. There has been no discussion about the project content and how that impacts opening a project. There can be more to it than opening the project file and associated wave files.

I wonder what startup times other users are experiencing.  Of course this depends on the size of the project and the system but it might be helpful to gather some real world numbers  e.g. is 12 sec for 16 tracks typical?  I know CW posted numbers recently but I would be interested to hear actual numbers from other users.

Hi guys, Thanks a million for the help. I've been out in the studio and did a test. I generally have midi and audio but have all my midi bounced to audio come mix time, I opened up a project I was mixing, 31 tracks, 44 plugins, a little bit of automation and it took 25 seconds to load. I opened up the same project with no plugins or mixing done and it took 23 seconds. I then opened a project I had just started working on, consisted of Addictive drums 2, a bass guitar track, and 2 guitar tracks, and it took 6 seconds. So it may be just that its the amount of tracks and plug ins in the project.
I am gonna continue using the 'data' partition on my HD for my projects and back them up on  my external hard drive. Apologies if I should have posted this elsewhere in the forum, I've been guilty of that a couple of times, I generally only go through the general discussion forum.
Thanks for the help guys, I guess this behaviour is not unusual.
Andrew