Better to have source files on multiple h/d's?

[brassplyer]

Seat of the pants it seems it would be ideal to have the various source files for a project spread across multiple hard drives to minimize how hard each drive has to work and speed up transfer and processing. Or is there a reason that isn't the ideal setup?

What about the temp file for the editing app - would there be an advantage to having it somewhere other than the C: drive?

[jagabo]

If your files are uncompressed or losslessly compressed, and you're accessing them simultaneously (eg. overlay, pip, etc.) it can help. with highly compressed sources (MPEG 2, AVC, etc.) it will make little difference.

Why don't you just try it and see for yourself?

[smrpix]

Yes. Since the invention of Avid Media Composer in the 90s pros have been using raid arrays. Modern hard drives are faster (and cheaper!!!) so you can often get away with using less. But if you're dealing with heavily layered effects and complex sequences, spreading the load is still wise.

[newpball]

If your files are uncompressed or losslessly compressed, and you're accessing them simultaneously (eg. overlay, pip, etc.) it can help. with highly compressed sources (MPEG 2, AVC, etc.) it will make little difference.

Exactly!