Help a noob set up please

[supayoot]

Hi

I've just got Ableton Suite 8 to use on my Macbook.

Before setting up, I am looking for advice on using an external hard drive.

As I use the macbook mainly for Serato (and have my music on the internal hard drive), I am looking to keep as much of Ableton on an external hard drive as possible to save space.

Does anyone have any recommendations for set-up using an external hard drive? I think that the instruments in the suite take up 40G and so would rather they were on an external drive along with my projects, but will this be OK?

Any advice on a good size portable USB2 hard drive?

I'd really appreciate any help/advice on these points as I know it's important to set it up right before I get started and right now I'm just looking at the box!

Thanks

[DoA]

I would always advise using an internal drive to store the wav's & asds.

Set the install folder of live to your external HDD and when you go into live set the following to a folder on your internal drive.


Options > Preferences > File / Folder > Temporary Folder


With regards to external HDDs, it's all down to what you want to pay / how much space you need. I'd recommend a min. of 7200rpm & USB2 (USB is more widely supported than firewire & is roughly the same speed).


DoA

[supayoot]

Thanks for the reply

So what would I actually have on the external drive?

How much space would your install take up? I think the suite would run to about 40G?

[DoA]

You'd have the suite install folder on there, so 40GB by your estimate.

Plus any FX / VSTs etc.

The tracks would (I advise) be stored on the local drive (internal)

[supayoot]

Thanks again

I'll suck it up and put everything on the internal and upgrade my internal hard drive when an official apple 500g gets released.

Gonna break the seal and get it on!

[Tone Deft]

I'd highly advise you to put all your data on an external drive and the OS and applications on an internal drive. that way then your OS craps out you don't have to move your data. also, it makes data backups easy. when you fill a data drive, get a new one and put the old one away as a backup.

[supayoot]

So work on the internal and then put the finished projects onto an external?

With OSX if you use the Time Machine, it'll back all this data up on the internal anyway I guess.

Nice one

[Tone Deft]

dunno, I'm on PC. it's just been an easy setup to live with (knock on wood.)