Users with two Hard Drives - what do you put where?

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:09 am

I am curious what to move where between my internal (laptop) HD and my external one. Traditionally I've used the external for audio recording and loops/sample libraries...

But I am new to Live, and still not fully understanding of how it saves/recalls things. Also, how do you mobile users adjust your set-up if you're on the go without your second HD?

TIA

D K · Post by **D K** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:13 am

redundancy is key.
put everything on both.
not enough room?
get a third. losing data sucks.

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:31 am

Good advice no doubt, however I am more refering to the functional useage of Live, not data backup.

For example, I record my audio to my external 7200rpm drive, not my internal 4500rpm laptop drive. Does this mean I should save my Sets on the external, since the audio's there?

In Sonar you do everything in Per-Project Folders that contain the project and a folder for all the audio associated with that project. Therefore, I'd keep those on the external (with periodic backups to the internal).

DeadlyKungFu · Post by **DeadlyKungFu** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:36 am

It's about streaming audio. OS/apps on the internal, samples and songs on the external and faster drive. When you need to reinstall your OS (I suggest once a month, at least

), there's just one drive's worth of stuff to reinstall.

Then image your drives, back them up often.

BTW can someone recommend backup software? I haven't backed up my laptop yet.

jamesp · Post by **jamesp** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 4:54 am

Program lives on the C: drive. Clip library, Samples and Cache go on the second drive (G.) Sets I save self-contained on the C: drive. Everything (Set Folders and Library) gets backed up to a big-ass external drive (H) every other day or so depending on how much I'm working. I use the MS SyncToy to backup.

I'd save your sets on your main drive simply so you have them to tweak when you're not around your external. But back them up as well.

D K · Post by **D K** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 5:11 am

sorry, i wasn't very clear....
put everything on both.
of course, you will use the faster drive to stream the audio if you can't load it into ram.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:26 am

one drive OS ONLY!! the other audio ONLY, if you need backup, which you should do! then get a bloody third drive... or back up onto DVDs, that's what i do for longtime storage.

putting both on both drives, doesn't make much sense performance wise... for security OK, but as i said get a backup drive, they are CHEAP, really CHEAP.
we are talking about the security of your music / work, so i guess you can spend a few dollars for that?

and get always the largest drives you can afford, large drives, especially for audio do perform better, even if you do not need all the space.

leave at least 10% of the drives free... minimum!!

eyeknow · Post by **eyeknow** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 8:48 am

DeadlyKungFu wrote:It's about streaming audio. OS/apps on the internal, samples and songs on the external and faster drive. When you need to reinstall your OS (I suggest once a month, at least ), there's just one drive's worth of stuff to reinstall.

Then image your drives, back them up often.

BTW can someone recommend backup software? I haven't backed up my laptop yet.

a. yes, streaming (any playback/record audio) needs to be on the fast drive

b. DKF, I don't remember your spec's, but I had a wicked time with ghost.......just blew CHUNKS! And, if you need to send it back (which at least they do) symantec (located near you) makes you mail it to AUSTRALIA!!!!! Allot of people like it, but I had no luck.

c. If you are working on something really important, there is nothing like the occasional "burn to cd".........I can't tell you how many times this has saved my ass....... I have literally hundreds of these frisbies laying around but since I never discard them, I eventually ALWAYS find what I need.

The only thing is, that if you can get a nice stable backup program, that does it automatically, that is even better

Redundancy? yes, yes, and yes again..............

subterFUSE · Post by **subterFUSE** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 12:08 pm

I use 2 external 250 gig hard drives for music storage.

They are manually mirrored. They are indentical to each other. Anything I put on one, goes on the other.

That way, if a drive dies... I got backup.

Then, when it is gig time.... I drag music from an externa, to the laptop internal... and go.

SubQ · Post by **SubQ** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:41 pm

BTW can someone recommend backup software? I haven't backed up my laptop yet.

Acronis True Image Backup. make images of your system with everything on, put on DVDs and you'll never have to reinstall anything again - just put the DVDs and restore it.

Acronis has also a security area before the XP, so your data won't get stucked on a system failure.
best

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 1:58 pm

My setup:

Drive 1 has two partitions, C: and D:

C: is called System, and it contains all my installed applications, XP files, page file, etc. I wipe this drive with a Ghost image every 6 months or so, and it's about 20gb. The additional 40 gigs is set for

D: called Data. This contains all my installer files (Like the latest Live Setup.exe and my Live unlock.cfg key file, Live Library and all samples, and anything else used for reference, like PDF manuals, etc. I try to leave about 3-5gb of space simply because I've heard a drive performs better if you leave at least 10% free space. Also, my Ghost image is set up with XP SP1 optimized for audio, but no applications installed (since there are inevitably updates to the applications). Once I wipe the C: drive with my Ghost image, I reinstall with all the latest updates of softsynths, effects, and Live.

Drive 2 is just one partition - R: and it's called Record.
This is where I record all my audio, keep my projects, etc. When my drive gets full, I burn off to DVD. I have this drive arranged in folders as follows:

- Current Projects
- Older Projects
- DJ Wav Files (I don't use Live's cache at all - I rip my CDs to wav, and any mp3s I want to DJ, I decompress to 16-bits and I leave them in this directory)
- Burn Off (this is where I put files I'm ready to burn to DVD
- Porn (just kidding) (not really)

I used to split this into two partitions because the first part of the drive performs better than the latter, but it just got too complicated, so now it's just one 60gb partition...I don't notice a performance degradation, so one audio partition drive seems to work fine.

Hope this helps.

jamester · Post by **jamester** » Wed Jul 19, 2006 2:41 pm

jamesp:

Program lives on the C: drive. Clip library, Samples and Cache go on the second drive (G.)

Ah, this is what I was getting at - where to put the different pieces of Live. I guess then I'll figure out how to point Live to them (Preferences I assume).

Nebulae - thanks for the details. Fairly similar to how I'm running now, except I don't have my C drive partitioned. While I'm a little stuck in my ways for this compy, I'm hoping to get a new one around the holidays, and am always looking at how to streamline/optimize my system and workflow. This helped!

Thanks for all the replies!

nebulae · Post by **nebulae** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 4:06 am

The big advantage of just having programs on a single smaller partition is that you can blow that away every so often as Windows corrupts itself. Of course, I'm compulsive about that and started the practice from the Win95 days, and it's not as necessary now. But with enough installs and uninstalls and updates, Windows slows down over time, and a fresh install from a Ghost is a nice start. My method just keeps your Library and install files intact when you do a Ghost.

Also, you're correct - in Live points to your My Documents folder for its Library folder by default. I set my My Documents directly to D: and my Library is always there, so when I install Live it knows where to go. You can of course change it in the Prefs.

jamesp · Post by **jamesp** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:16 am

Looking at your rig, maybe you should try running everything on your C: drive for starters. I haven't needed to split out the Library and Cache since I built-up this new desktop. See how Live runs under the default settings. Then, if it bogs, try moving the Library offshore first.

And btw, congrats on the unlock. Good timing!

longjohns · Post by **longjohns** » Thu Jul 20, 2006 5:46 am

i found it to be semi-sketchy moving the ableton library. finally got it, but it was not fun