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Subject: 2 hard drives and RAID

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Original Message 1/14 29-May-01 @ 03:20 PM - 2 hard drives and raid controller

shpongledboy

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Do I get better audio playback performance if I get 2 x hard drives and raid controller? Or can I use two hard drives without controller?

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Message 2/14 29-May-01 @ 06:58 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

99devils

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An ATA-100 7200rpm drive can stream enough data to keep about 70 tracks of audio flowing. For most people, RAID won't make a difference.

Theoretically, yes you would get better performance out of RAID, but practically speaking, why bother?

-Craig

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Message 3/14 29-May-01 @ 09:12 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

shpongledboy

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Huh.. 70 tracks.

Ok I don't need raid but what about two hard drives? Should I buy two 20Gt or one 40Gt? I was thinking IBM Deskstar 60GPX 7200rpm... is that good choice?

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Message 4/14 29-May-01 @ 09:20 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

99devils

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Yeah, that's been known to be pretty good..

With IDE drives, only one drive can access the IDE bus at a time. Most systems have 2 busses. There is some merit to having an audio drive and an application/os drive, on different channels. In reality, though, you probably won't ever even be pushing it.

Go to www.prorec.com and download their drive performance analyzer. It'll tell you how good/bad your drive performs.

-Craig

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Message 5/14 29-May-01 @ 10:52 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

shpongledboy

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Ok.. I think I save my money and buy one 40G... I can update later if I need.

Do you have any suggestions how should I partition 40G hard drive?

Thanks.

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Message 6/14 30-May-01 @ 02:22 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

99devils

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Hmm, well, are you leaving the old drive in the machine?

-Craig

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Message 7/14 30-May-01 @ 04:46 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

shpongledboy

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No.

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Message 8/14 30-May-01 @ 05:57 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

99devils

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Well, then.. It's not really necessary to partition at all (unless 40GB is over the max size for a fat32 partition). I usually do, but that's just old habits dying hard. My Systems Administration instructor told me to always poot your root file system on its own partition so no other application or process can run it out of space. It's a good policy still, I think, especially since audio can eat your drive for lunch.

Anyway, my box is set up with a 2GB partition for the OS, a 6GB partition for applications and data other than audio, and a 10GB partition for audio only. When you format your audio partition, use a larger cluster size. I thought it was format /z:32, but I'm on Win2k right now and it's format is telling me it's /a, not /z. K knows, if he happens to see this.

There's a bunch of grat tips at http://www.prorec.com on setting up and optimizing a PC for DAW work.

-Craig

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Message 9/14 30-May-01 @ 06:14 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

shpongledboy

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Hmm.. why you got 2Gb for OS? Wouldn't it fit to much smaller partition?

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Message 10/14 30-May-01 @ 08:33 PM - RE: 2 hard drives and RAID

99devils

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Yup, but if you run your OS partition out of space you're in big doo-doo.. That's the whole reason you partition the OS off in the first place. The idea is to designate enough space that no matter how many temporary files Windows leaves around or how big your virtual memory swap file gets you have a cushion. Yes, 2GB may be excessive, but on a 20GB drive (or 40 in your case) who cares?

-Craig

PS - let me know how you like the drive.. I'm looking at adding another drive soon just for audio, and I'm thinking IBM Deskstar or Maxtor DiamondMax. I know Maxtor has had a bad rap for quality control, but in my experience they've been pretty reliable.

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