really want to drag up threads from 2008?

jamjar
What do people recommend as the best hard drive configuration in a PC with dual hard-drives?

Currently I have 2 hard drives with 2 partitions each - the 1st drive is C and D, the 2nd hard drive is E and F.

I have Windows on C, Sonar on E and the virtual memory file on F - I was always told to put the virtual memory file on a physically separate partition from Windows. However, I wondered if having the virtual mem file on the same hard drive as Sonar could be problematic from a crackles / pops point of view.

First, will this depend on what you want: maximum performance or flexibility? Or a balance between the two?

1. If you have enough RAM, disable virtual memory. I have been working for years without virtual memory file. Currently I have 16 Gb of RAM, but even when I was 8 Gb, I did not use virtual memory. This will greatly accelerate your performance. The only caution you should have in this case is to not allow your project to occupy all memory, otherwise your OS could crash.
2. If you want even more performance (and if you're willing to reinstall everything again), set your two HDDs to RAID-0 (or another RAID if you prefer). This will virtually double your access speed (sacrificing disk space because your system will be virtually duplicated on both disks).
3. More performance yet? Buy an SSD (or two and leave both in RAID).
4. Do not you want to change anything? Then leave the Sonar installed on one disk and other files (VST, Audio, etc.) on the other disk.

 
 

scook
really want to drag up threads from 2008?

Ouch! I'll pay more attention not to waste time answering unnecessary things ... 

I run a DSD on the OS and program drive and a mechanical drive for my audio where the write limit of DSDs is a non issue and capacities are not as costly.

For what it's worth,

I run
1 x 2 TB Seagate SSHD hybrid for my OS, no partition.
1 x 2 TB Seagate SSHD hybrid for my audio, no partition.
 
I can get 150 tracks at 48k 24bit with about 3 plugins per track plus Prochannel, x2 oversampling and 64x internal, 20+ busses running Ozone, Multibands, side-chains etc, plus a video playing back on the onboard graphics card. All of that on a 6-year old i7 2600 intel with 16GB DDR3 RAM.

I doubt partitions would get me any better performance than that! :O)