Hello,

I had to reformat my DAW laptop.   I would like to ask for all around best practice given my circumstance:

I have a laptop with a single hard drive (7200RPM + 32GB SSD Hybrid).   I definitely don't have enough room on it to host my audio samples, so those are being housed on an external USB drive....

But as far as installing Sonar X2...   I plan on installing it on my main C: drive as normal, but should I partition out my internal disk to maybe C:\ and D:\?   I was thinking for this reason:

INTERNAL DISK (2 partitions)
-------------------
C:\ - Windows, Sonar Program Files, etc...
D:\ - Sonar Projects

EXTERNAL DISK
-------------------
E:\ - Audio Samples, Softsynth Libraries

Would this be a recommended setup for a laptop?   Do I even need to put the projects on a separate partition?  Some say YES, other say that actually partitioning the hard drive could create more thrashing and a decrease in performance!

I was hoping someone can shed some light :)

Thank You!

Adam

It's really a matter of personal preference. My single drive laptop is set up with C: for the OS, D: for programs, including Sonar, and E: for Data, including My Documents,Images,etc, Mozilla profiles, Sonar projects, etc.

I like the extra level partitions provide and it makes things easier for maintenance.

Hi Paul, Thanks for the response.  Is this optimal for speed though?   I heard sometimes that partitioning the drive can make it slower because it has to keep moving from partition to partition?


-Adam

Paul P


It's really a matter of personal preference. My single drive laptop is set up with C: for the OS, D: for programs, including Sonar, and E: for Data, including My Documents,Images,etc, Mozilla profiles, Sonar projects, etc.

I like the extra level partitions provide and it makes things easier for maintenance.

C:\(SSD) Drive for OS
D:\Sonar and Progs
E:\Libraries\samples\
F:\Projects
G:\Data Gumpf\documents
H:\Media (music and Videos)

All separate drives

Then I have a NAS box to back up everything.

adam : "Is this optimal for speed though?"

Maybe, maybe not, probably not, but it's one reason I like to have my data drive on a separate hard drive when I can. There are other considerations like taking into account what windows does with stuff in a partition, like centering everything in the middle. With 16gb of memory, won't most things end up in memory anyway ?

I only have one internal Hybrid disk.   Then I have 2 USB 3.0 Ports.  Whats the best config for my setup?   Should i partition the internal drive?

markyzno


C:\(SSD) Drive for OS
D:\Sonar and Progs
E:\Libraries\samples\
F:\Projects
G:\Data Gumpf\documents
H:\Media (music and Videos)

All separate drives

Then I have a NAS box to back up everything.

Going with multiple drives is the best way to go...partitions are not usually advised. I'm sure someine here with a more technical base can explain why this is, but I have read on here from Sonar 4 and on that  partitions are a headache...just my 1 red cent...

Partitions can be a nightmare if a drive starts to fail.....

I prefer to work with plenty of redundancy and *ALWAYS* backup onto something reliable like a NAS box on a RAID.

If a drive starts to fail, you have real problems. Partitions or not.

I agree that backing up to external media is essential.
I hear that USB3 is supposed to be pretty fast, I have yet to make use of it. Does it allow external drives to be as fast as internal ones, say in the case of a laptop ?

@Adam Lewis.

Your best bet might be to find out if you can get another internal hard drive fitted inside your laptop.

That way you can dedicate one to your Operating System,. Programs & Plugins and use the other for Sonar Projects only.

Many people have had great success streaming sample libraries from a fast USB External drive (I have done this myself in the past)