Is it still recommended to save audio to a separate drive than the OS drive for performance? Also if I'm saving project files with audio together should they be on a separate drive too?

It is generally suggested to have one drive for your OS (windows) and programs (Sonar), a second drive for your audio files (point the song's audio folder there), and if you happen to use streaming sample type playback softsynths, a third drive for their libraries. Best, Ed

You should be using per-project folders on a second drive. The second drive for performance, per-project folders for ease of project administration. Per-project folders keep the CW project file and the audio associated with the project in the same project directory. One directory for each project.

These guys are good!

Depends what your projects are. If they contain audio then definitely on a separate drive. However if you're just putting together MIDI clips then there's no harm really in saving to your system drive. 

sharke


Depends what your projects are. If they contain audio then definitely on a separate drive. However if you're just putting together MIDI clips then there's no harm really in saving to your system drive. 

Yes there is if you ever have to reinstall the OS or upgrade it. Its always best to have all your data, what ever it is, on another disk or more.  This includes documents too. It does matter. 

Yes but that's a practical consideration more than anything. Besides, you can always split your system drive into two partitions and have the second partition for data. That way you can safely reformat the system partition and reinstall the OS without having to worry about losing any of your data. Most people's system drives are way too big just to be used for the OS and installed programs. My system partition, for example, is 469GB according to Windows. And even though I have a ton of programs installed on there, I'm only using 100GB of it. If I reserved the entire drive simply exclusively for the OS and installed programs, I'd be wasting hundreds of GB of storage. Hence the popularity of partitions, which are a piece of cake to set up. 

If one chose to restrict their SONAR use to MIDI only projects that will never freeze or bounce tracks, there may be no benefit from relocating the projects to a second drive. If the OP was only working in MIDI with no intention of freezing or bouncing, it should have been noted in the post.

sharke


Yes but that's a practical consideration more than anything. Besides, you can always split your system drive into two partitions and have the second partition for data. That way you can safely reformat the system partition and reinstall the OS without having to worry about losing any of your data. Most people's system drives are way too big just to be used for the OS and installed programs. My system partition, for example, is 469GB according to Windows. And even though I have a ton of programs installed on there, I'm only using 100GB of it. If I reserved the entire drive simply exclusively for the OS, I'd be wasting hundreds of GB of storage. Hence the popularity of partitions, which are a piece of cake to set up. 

That is one way to do it. I don't have a problem wasting GBs if it means its convenient and safer and faster. Also I thought that partitions were out of favor with HDs being so cheap. Keep in mind, if you use one physical HD even if its partitioned its not going to be as good as using another HD as far as throughput is concerned. The heads on your one HD will need to work just that much harder to get the data and deal with the system. 

If all you have is one HD your method is a good one however I do recommend using as many HDs as you can.   

Thanks for all the info, I hadn't thought about a third drive for sample libraries too. Great idea.