HD Partition Suggestions

Jim G · Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Area

I'm building a new computer and trying to plan for HDs. What do you think of the following strategy:

1. 36.5G WD Raptor -- divided as follows:
............10G for OS
............Remainder for Programs and (a huge amount of) word processing data

2. 120 G WD Caviar w/8mb -- for audio/video

Do any of you divide your HD's between OS, Programs, general data, and then audio/video?

Thanks.

Jim G

RabidDog · Old B. Joined: 25 Oct 2002 Location: UK

yes i do 1 part OS 1 part prgrams 1 part media 1 part backup
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energy80s · Member Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Location: Northern Ireland

My main 40gig drive is partitioned as follows ...
2 x 3 gig partitions for Win 98 and Win 2000 (dual boot)
5 gig for raw audio files
1 gig for software setup / install files
the rest for MP3 files!

I have a 60 gig drive divided into 2 and used as a slave drive, this is where I ghost my main drive onto - just in case the main drive dies completely (has happened to me before) and also to put my finished video projects onto before burning.

I have another 80 gig drive that I have a 5 gig partition for Win XP on and the rest is used for raw DV capturing / editing.

Jim G · Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Area

Nice approach guys.

What is the maximum number of partititons? I will probably be running W2K and/or XP. Energy80's are you concerned that if the computer is hit with somekind of power surge that you'll lose your back-up (I had my house struck bylightning a few years ago and it fried my computer).

Jim

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

Probably just a personal opinion, but I have one partition for each HD. Partitions are something left over from the old days when drives and controllers were very slow to access data. Unless you are using more than one OS per drive, I don't see the need to overpartition. Access speed is not much of a problem with 133 speed drives. Partitions just complicate your file structure. Better to add another drive than another partition. Just my opinion.

Jim G · Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Area

One reason I like to partition is so I can defrag faster and back-up files easier. But I'm thinking about ghosting my HD from now on, which is one reason I asked the opening question.

But this brings me back to the above question, in a way. How may partititions can you make, or how many (physical) HD's can you have? The max is 8 HDs, isn't it?
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Jim G

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

There is probably a limit to how many partitions, though with a large HD, it could be a lot. As far as how many HD's, most motherboards have the capacity for four IDE devices. But if you have the PCI slots on your motherboard, you can add several more IDE controllers. I have the 4 motherboard IDE slots, plus a RAID controller (4 more) and a promise IDE PCI conroller (4 more). I keep the HD devices on a different channel than the CD, DVD drives. I should add, you need to have a power supply sufficient to run all this. I have a good quality 300 watt and it works great.

Jim G · Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Area

Thanks, redwudz (love the name).

What do you think of my opening idea of the Raptor followed by some additional HD or two for back-up and/or storage of video/audio. I guess what I mean is, do you think the raptor is overkill? Just go with a couple of WD Caviars (40 and 80 or 120) and move on?
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Jim G

Jim G · Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Area

Redwudz --

I just noticed you use the ADVC-100. What do you think? I'm trying to find my way through the "woods" of beginning audio so I can plan a new computer build.

I'm going with a P4 2.4c, Asus P4P800 Deluxe; 512 DDR400 OCZ; (likely) WD Caviars; SB 5.1, and I'm trying to configure the rest of the box right now. I can wend my way through the basics, but I'm still working on the Video/CD/DVD/Graphics combo/package. Can you offer any foundational advice here?

I'll review your specs again to see what you've concluded thus far.

Thanks again.
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Jim G

redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

I went with the Raid 0 with the idea of capturing with my video card, but after much frustration and a lot of time wasted, I got a ADVC-100. This was after wasting money on a Dazzle box. I love the ADVC-100. I am in the process of transfering some 10 year old LP VHS tapes to DVD. Still learning, but the ADVC box will copy even these tapes with tracking problems, etc,, with zero dropped frames. Quality excellent.

The Raid I have is probably overkill, as I really don't need the speed for DV transfers. I do like the idea of a large, fast, seperate drive for video. A lot of people here like a small HD for the OS as it is faster to reformat when the time comes, then a larger HD for video. I don't keep anything important on the video drive, usually erase files as soon as I'm done and do a quick reformat every few weeks. I also have an older 60G harddrive for backups. I usually backup any important files to CD. Rule 1: Never keep anything in a computer that you can't afford to lose. As for the Raptor, I don't know much about it. I use Maxtor's because they're cheap. I have had 4 or 5 drives die in the last few years, both Maxtors and other brands. Look at the warranty. You will want a 7200RPM drive, faster is not necessarily better unless you plan to cap from a video card, than things get a lot more critical.

On to building a computer. Start with a good case, good airflow, lots of room. If you want additional drives, you can add a PCI card for as many drives as your power supply can handle. A 400 watt PS is probably enough, but make sure it's a good brand, because it is one device that can destroy your whole system if it fails.

Hope this helps a little. I've been at this for about 10 years and I'm still learning. (BTW, redwudz is my email name. Comes from Humboldt County where I live, "The home of the redwoods")

Jim G · Member Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Location: Pittsburgh Area

Thanks again for the advice. Noted all of it.

By the way, I traveled through your area some years. Beautiful! I grew up in the Finger Lakes region of NY; got its own kind of beauty there as well.

Have good week in the polis.
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Jim G

energy80s · Member Joined: 18 Sep 2001 Location: Northern Ireland

Suntan · Member Joined: 14 Oct 2003

My Setup is as follows.

160 gig drive split as:

15 gig for XP and Programs
15 gig for myself (anything from spreadsheets/word docs to the hundreds of downloaded vdub, dvddcrypter, etc. program updates)
2 gig for my wife (told to never save or delete anything unless she is in this directory)
Rest for Media (Digital Pics, music, and DivX Movies)

80 gig drive split as:

20 gig for Backup
Rest for Ripped Audio/Video (to be encoded)

Further I set up the virtual memory swap file for 1 gig in the Backup V drive and 1 gig in my wife's V drive. I manually backup everything in my drive, my wife's drive and the pics and music folders (just copy and paste to the backup drive or zip) no way could I backup all of the movies, besides if I lost those I could remake them so no huge deal. I am not a big fan of any backup software that I have tried.

Under XP you are allowed plenty of virtual drives, however if you stay at 4 or less per physical drive there is some advantage to it, can't remember what though.

808smokey · Yoda Joined: 11 Aug 2003 Location: Fiji

You don't have to partition but I think you should always partition your OS from your Data files. That way if your OS crashes beyond repair and requires a complete format and reload, you won't loose ANY of your files except the ones on your primary partition. Like the other people have said too it defrags faster. A 10Gb primary partition is plenty O room. You could even go down to 3-4G. But you might have to dump your temp files every now and again.

rallynavvie · Posted: Oct 21, 2003 11:14

With how cheap hard drives are these days I don't see a reason to partition. Just get seperate drives for things. I have partitions at work but only because the images corporate gives us require them. My set-up:
1x 120GB WD = boot drive, OS and most programs
2x 80GB Maxtor = used to be my RAID drives, now they're video scratch disks
2x 200GB WD = one is my capture and video project drive, the other has backups off the other drives (less the scratch disks)
2x 18GB Seagate X15 = one houses some programs that access files a lot, the other is used for scratch space and some video work

And I've got 10x 10k rpm Seagate SCSIs waiting for an enclosure which will probably become my new RAID system. You can get these drives for cheap on eBay, trouble is finding a case that used 80-pin connectors

The village idiot · Posted: Oct 21, 2003 14:33

This place has a bunch of enclosures:
http://shop.ily.com/default.htm
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Hardcoreruss · Continual Brinse Joined: 06 Jan 2003 Location: London

My hard drive was partitioned when I bought it (from a store) is there a way to remove an existing partition ?.

Will this affect the data stored on the two partitions ?
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redwudz · Mod Neophyte Joined: 07 Sep 2002 Location: AZ, USA

Hardcoreruss: Partiton Magic says it can do it without losing data. Never tried it. I would back up important data first.