How should I partition my data/apps across 2 internal hard drives 4 best performance?
Hello all!
I am using a Dual 2.7 G5 Power Mac and I just bought the Hitachi 500GB internal hard drive to supplement the stock 250GB drive that came in the tower. I mostly want to orient my computer for the needs of a home recording studio. I am Logic Pro user and I want to streamline data retrieval as efficiently as possible.
Now, I also have a good deal of other junk on my computer (video and iMovie projects). I would love an organization solution on how to partition everything that I have filled my 250GB drive up with across both hard drives. I'm aiming for a solution that will be good for the long-term as I continue to add more and more stuff (audio/music related and non) onto my hard drives.
Here are a few of the primary concerns which have held me back from just diving in:
I have several DVD's worth of audio samples (for use with software sampler) that I have yet to load onto this computer. Should I load/move all of my samples onto the secondary 500GB drive or would the streaming retrieval of all of that content from the secondary drive add extra latency and slowdown when the host application running these tasks and retrievals is ran off of the primary drive (the 250GB drive on which the OS is installed)?
Or should I just move Logic to the secondary 500 GB drive as well as all of the audio samples and run all things having to do with audio production off of that secondary 500GB drive? Would running such a CPU intensive app from the secondary drive make a performance difference compared to running it off of the primary drive? Does it matter whether or not a program is run off of the hard drive where the OS is installed?
Or should I find a way to have all apps running from the primary 250 GB drive WITH all samples (streaming and non-streaming) also on that drive and just have my project files and audio recording sessions (which eat up large portions of space) located on the secondary 500 GB drive? Or would I run into a noticeable latency with having the recorded audio sessions ran off of the secondary hard drive when I am running the application that retrieves them (Logic) off of the primary drive?
Where do I put my pro apps? Where do I put my audio samples (mainly for EXS24, SampleTank, and BFD)? Recording sessions? Everything else?
Please, experienced users, what should I do to garner the best performance out of my Mac?
Thanking everyone in advance,
Matt!
P.S. I am running OS 10.4.6 and using 4.5 GB of memory.
I am using a Dual 2.7 G5 Power Mac and I just bought the Hitachi 500GB internal hard drive to supplement the stock 250GB drive that came in the tower. I mostly want to orient my computer for the needs of a home recording studio. I am Logic Pro user and I want to streamline data retrieval as efficiently as possible.
Now, I also have a good deal of other junk on my computer (video and iMovie projects). I would love an organization solution on how to partition everything that I have filled my 250GB drive up with across both hard drives. I'm aiming for a solution that will be good for the long-term as I continue to add more and more stuff (audio/music related and non) onto my hard drives.
Here are a few of the primary concerns which have held me back from just diving in:
I have several DVD's worth of audio samples (for use with software sampler) that I have yet to load onto this computer. Should I load/move all of my samples onto the secondary 500GB drive or would the streaming retrieval of all of that content from the secondary drive add extra latency and slowdown when the host application running these tasks and retrievals is ran off of the primary drive (the 250GB drive on which the OS is installed)?
Or should I just move Logic to the secondary 500 GB drive as well as all of the audio samples and run all things having to do with audio production off of that secondary 500GB drive? Would running such a CPU intensive app from the secondary drive make a performance difference compared to running it off of the primary drive? Does it matter whether or not a program is run off of the hard drive where the OS is installed?
Or should I find a way to have all apps running from the primary 250 GB drive WITH all samples (streaming and non-streaming) also on that drive and just have my project files and audio recording sessions (which eat up large portions of space) located on the secondary 500 GB drive? Or would I run into a noticeable latency with having the recorded audio sessions ran off of the secondary hard drive when I am running the application that retrieves them (Logic) off of the primary drive?
Where do I put my pro apps? Where do I put my audio samples (mainly for EXS24, SampleTank, and BFD)? Recording sessions? Everything else?
Please, experienced users, what should I do to garner the best performance out of my Mac?
Thanking everyone in advance,
Matt!
P.S. I am running OS 10.4.6 and using 4.5 GB of memory.
Comments
Originally posted by theapplegenius
You can't RAID unless you have two identical drives.
Not true at all. You can do various RAID levels with mixed drives.
That said, it's highly recommended to use identical drives, preferably from different production runs.
Originally posted by AppleComputer
Is that a preference or would you do that because of some sort of speed benefit? thanks! I am interested in understanding which is the best/fastest way to retrieve large files from within a host application. Is one hard drive slot accessed faster than another by default?
We can't know which drive is faster unless you look at the specs. Odds are that the new one is faster, being both newer and aftermarket, compared to the older OEM drive. If all else is equal, a bigger drive is marginally faster than a smaller one because the data is packed more densely on it - the head can read more data while traveling the same distance. But the rpm, cache and interface will have a much larger effect.
Assuming that the bigger drive is faster, I'd second using that as your "main" drive, and using the smaller one for backups, scratch space, and as a data repository (for example, for your mp3 collection).