laptop harddrive partitioning

dpmtl · Post by **dpmtl** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:06 pm

Does it improve audio performance? And is it more stable for multitracking and live use? I'd like to commit half of the internal drive(60gb 7200rpm)for things like sampling, live recording such as guitars and vocals, storing samples etc. Also it would be good to use it like a dj's record box so i could better organise my sets etc.

I currently keep all my material on an external drive but it's not always practical to use it, it kinda gets in the way. Anyway i use it more for backing up(and it's getting pretty full!)

I plan to go out and do some field recording with the laptop and a usb mic so it would be ideal to record straight onto the internal drive.

i've only been using 5-6gb of a 60gb harddrive just to save cpu juice for vst's

that can't be right. How do you set yours up to get the best performance out of it?Any tips?

M55G 1.6ghz m,1gb ram, 7200rpm harddrive, integrated graphics.

Cheers

dpmtl

Mika · Post by **Mika** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:37 pm

It won't help for performances since it's still the same physical disk. That being said, it'll help keep things related to your music work in one place.

It will also provide a safeguard in case of a crash on your system partition. You can reinstall windows on C: without reformatting your data partition. I do it on all my computers now and it saved my butt more than once, I probably have reinstalled windows like 5 times in the last 3 years and my data partitions are still there unaffected.

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:47 pm

Advice... keep you page file on your system drive (c)... you don't want you page file on you second drive, because then your drive head will be shuttling back and forth, wearing out you head, and making your performance weak in the process.

Partitioning you laptop harddrive should be done thinking consciously about what you use, and how you use it. Use your second partition for storage, you first partition for speed. That should be the rule of thumb.

dpmtl · Post by **dpmtl** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:10 pm

Thanks. Yeah, preparing the machine for reformatting has been a real pain in the *##*!

I thought it did make a difference to overall disk performance if you have your program files on one partition and audio on the other. I know the disk is not faster but doesnt it improve read/write times significantly?

stinky · Post by **stinky** » Sat Jun 10, 2006 11:14 pm

You want to keep your most used (read/write) files closer to the beginning of your head. That's just logic. That's how you'll get better performance. If your head has to bounce back and forth constantly, you'll lose performance. You also have to keep in mind what's being used in RAM more frequently, as opposed to what's being written to your page file.

dpmtl · Post by **dpmtl** » Sun Jun 11, 2006 1:44 pm

stinky wrote:If your head has to bounce back and forth constantly, you'll lose performance.

Only when i listen to techno!

Check this on SOS: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may05/a ... sician.htm

Definitely need to get partition magic.

Peace

dpmtl