I have a question about multiple hard drives for DAW’s. I was always under the impression that you’re playing it safe if you have your OS and apps on one hard drive, and your audio data on another drive. To make this happen in Nuendo, I’ve always made sure to install the program on my system drive, and created my “project folders” on the other drive.
Now I’m reading this article, and I’m wondering if I’m doing it right or could be doing it better. http://www.xpfree.org/partitioning_for_daws.htm
It lays out the partition structure like this:
Drive 1:
Partition 1: System OS partition - windows, apps, nothing else
Partition 2: Plugins
Partition 3: Audio projects
Partition 4: sundry items (mp3s, media, documents etc)
Drive 2:
Partition 1: 3-4GB virtual memory pagefile/temporary files partition.
Partition 2: Rendering/output area.
Partition 3: Samples (ideally on a third drive)
Partition 4: Program installers/drivers
I don’t think I fully understand what is meant by “rendering/output area”. From what I thought, this is the area where the audio files were being written (my “project folder”) . Now this is telling me I need to keep this area separate from the audio files themselves?
I’m thinking I just need a better understanding of the workflow in a DAW. Perhaps somebody with more knowledge can shed some light.
And to end with a stupid question…. What differentiates the “audio projects” from “samples”?