Help a newb. Partitioning Questions

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Help a newb. Partitioning Questions

Postby gamblor » Tue Jun 15, 2010 2:59 pm

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”?
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Postby macrae11 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 3:37 pm

That site was put in 2005, but it reads like it was put up in 1995. Worrying about where on the physical spindle of your disk your data is, is just asinine, or perhaps OCD. Hard drives are fast enough these days, that it is just not an issue, as long as you keep your hard drives from getting too full.

Also he's got his audio projects, plugins and applications on the same drive, but says to put a rendering partition on another hard drive, because you can't read and write at the same time. :shock: As if outputting a two channel audio file is more hard drive intensive than reading and writing all your audio and running your app. It sounds like someone took a little theoretical knowledge, and tried to turn it into something "real world" without really understanding what they're doing.

I'm assuming with the samples partition he's referring to what is commonly understood to be a place to store sample driven softsynths, like pianos, drum kits etc.

Also the way he sets up all his partitions, seems to me to be just confusing. Why would you have your renders and outputs in their own partition? Then when you archive projects, everything will be very difficult to find and move to one central location. Matt and I had a good discussion last night about exactly why having a central location for audio files from multiple projects can be a bad idea.

The way you're doing it is just fine. If you use a lot of softsynths particularly if they're large libraries, it may be worthwhile to add another drive, specifically for them, but it's really not a huge deal for most people.
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Postby gamblor » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:00 pm

OK. I thought I was doing it right but just needed to make sure. I’m going to be updating my computer storage soon and getting a nice e-sata external drive but I wanted to gather some info to make an intelligent purcahse.
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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:15 pm

I'll try to explain how mine is setup...

I have four HDD, plus my backup drive, that is removable and usually lives in a different postal code. HDD 1 and 2 are Striped RAID for performance (system drive), and HDD 3 and 4 are mirrored RAID for protection (production drive). So for all intents and purposes I have 2 HDD plus the backup. I'm pretty sure Sébastien set up a pagefile partition in the system drive as well.

It actually runs very well considering it's age. It's a solid machine, built specifically for this purpose. I use the system drive for everything that isn't pertaining to production. So basically OS, programs, plugins, samples, whatever. The only thing that goes in my production drive is client folders. I organize them by current projects and archived projects. Under that is the client folder. Below that is the name of the project that we are working on (ie. album name, name of TV series, ect.), and finally below that is the name of the actual Cubase project folder (ie. song name, TV episode and season number, ect.)

As Andrew and I were discussing last night, file structure in audio is EVERYTHING. Having proper file structure for your projects is the most important thing in computer based recording. I don't really want to get into why we were discussing it though. Let's just say I know better, and should stop being lazy.
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Postby macrae11 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:50 pm

A word to the wise about RAID. There is some advantages to different RAID setups, but with RAID 0 (striped) you're also doubling your chance of hard drive failure. (or quadroupling if using 4 drives.) Basically it combines two hard drives, into one unit, so if one drive goes down you lose everything. There are other issues with RAID 1(mirrored) as well, so generally speaking for audio, the slight advantages are not really worth the added issues.

Of course if your name is Sebastion Benoit, than the previous paragraph is not relevant.
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Postby Mathieu Benoit » Tue Jun 15, 2010 4:58 pm

macrae11 wrote:Of course if your name is Sebatron Benoit, than the previous paragraph is not relevant.


There are no issues that I have with either set up. It works like it should. In September we are designing my new workstation. Andrew, if you want we can involve you in the build. I'm sure even Sebatron would like your input. It's gonna be plums deep!
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Postby Malcolm Boyce » Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:11 pm

I would imagine there are tips and tricks to each DAW specifically as well. One that I know of in Sonar is to keep the image cache directory on the OS drive. This is the folder where Sonar stores the temp files of the squiggly line images that it writes for the audio tracks. This directory is a constant cause for flails if it isn't tended to correctly, in spite of it's seemingly innocent function.

In a two hard drive system, it sounds like you are doing what is recommended by most users. Other details depend on exactly what you are running, but I agree with Andrew about the mega multi partitioning being unnecessary with today's hardware... or even yesterday's hardware for that matter. ;-)
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Postby macrae11 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:29 pm

Malcolm Boyce wrote:I would imagine there are tips and tricks to each DAW specifically as well. One that I know of in Sonar is to keep the image cache directory on the OS drive. This is the folder where Sonar stores the temp files of the squiggly line images that it writes for the audio tracks. This directory is a constant cause for flails if it isn't tended to correctly, in spite of it's seemingly innocent function.

In a two hard drive system, it sounds like you are doing what is recommended by most users. Other details depend on exactly what you are running, but I agree with Andrew about the mega multi partitioning being unnecessary with today's hardware... or even yesterday's hardware for that matter. ;-)


Absolutely. The digi database folders, can cause untold unnecessary headaches for the uneducated.
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Postby macrae11 » Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:35 pm

Drumwaiter wrote:
There are no issues that I have with either set up. It works like it should. In September we are designing my new workstation. Andrew, if you want we can involve you in the build. I'm sure even Sebatron would like your input. It's gonna be plums deep!


I'd for sure be interested. It may possibly even negate the need for a Mac in the studio. I know I'm not sounding like myself here, but as much as I love my macs, I hate wasting money even more. If we were to go down that route, I would want to be very involved in the process. Perhaps you want to be able to keep your rig to yourself though, which is fine, and then I'd be happier anyways.

I've never built a rig for anything but PT, but in my experience, the biggest thing is making sure you do serious research on your components. Any old motherboard doesn't always work, and the latest, greatest, leading, bleeding edge isn't always the best route. I know Sebastion can build a kick ass rig, but he doesn't have the music production background to know some of the trap doors that can arise specifically with the programs you're running. I know he could fix them after the fact, but it's much nicer not to have to at all. You should ask around what some Cubendo power users are using on their day to day rigs.
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