How to partition two 7K500s for video editing?

Got two of them yesterday and just finished installing them along with an additional 4GB (8 total) of RAM. Now comes the arduous task of transferring all my data (now much actually. I purposely keep it to a minimum just for this upgrade.

My only problem is I'm still not sure the best way to set them up for video editing? And do the partitions come before or after the programs?

 

Just partition them as two big drives. Mount the second drive as a folder under your Users\Videos folder.

 

I would partition one of the drives into a smaller section (100GB or however much you need at minimum for projects you are working on) and a larger section (remaining space). The reason being, the first partition you create will be on the very outside of the disk and therefore be the fastest. It maximizes transfer rate and minimizes access time since the read/write heads stay within that partition as long (as that is the only partition you are reading from).

 

Are these stand alone drives or drives in RAID?

 

You probably want to just leave the two drives with one huge partition for each. Put OS and programs on first drive and data on the second drive.

 

This is part of my dilemma, I'm not sure of the standard for video editing?

This is how I have it before. However, I got a poster from another site (video editing website) who suggested I configure the drives in a redundant order as a safeguard against loss of media in the event one of the drives fail. That certainly makes since, since losing edited work would be devastating--especially if you have a deadline.

Trouble is, I'm not sure how to do that from two blank drives?

 

RAID1 would bring faster speeds and you can partition the array into two 500gb partition, but if one drive fails everything will be gone. So I suppose you would be better off with keeping the two drives separate.

EDIT: I meant RAID0 got mixed up with what my file server uses.

 

Nope, its Raid0 that is faster.

 

RAID 0, where two or more drives are essentially combined into a single large one via a RAID controller (the data is striped across the drives), is common for video editing. Video editing is one application that benefits from RAID 0. Beyond that and a few other specific applications, RAID 0's performance gains are a myth. I do not recommend RAID 0; the risk of data loss (disk failure) is doubled since you are depending on two drives. If one fails your data is toast.
Side note: RAID 0 is not even RAID since it defies the name - Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks. Nothing is redundant about RAID 0! It should be "AID 0".

And regarding RAID 1 - I'm a big supporter of the technology but you only get the capacity of one drive . . . and in a laptop, it is simply not worth losing a drive over. Do daily or weekly backups and you'll be fine; see this guide I created here:
http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=5462&review=Windows+PC+Optimization+Guide+Part+Two

Anyways, you can partition the drives when you install Windows or you can plug the disks into an existing computer and partition them from within the Disk Manager. Press the Windows Key + R to bring up the Run menu, type compmgmt.msc which will bring you to the Computer Management console. Click on Disk Management under Storage in the left pane which allows you to see all your drives. Right-click on your new drive, format it using NTFS (I would do a full format and not a quick for a new drive), then you can create partitions. Let us know if you need directions from there.

 

RAID0 will be faster... but u also have a high chance of loosing data... if u really want to RAID , use RAID 5 or don't use RAID on the safe side.

 

Thanks all, great advice here. Videoguys (and others) recommend keeping OS/program on a separate drive for optimal video editing performance and safety.

 

I'll always suggest to separate system drive from data drive..
in case your system crash or something and you need to reinstall it (in worst case) .. your data would still be save in another drive.. less work to do.
And agreed with Chaz, you should do a regular backup (make another partition drive for backup or to another media)

 

raid them if speed is a concern.

if not, leave them as two huge partitions. i have setup my two 500gb drives that way - two partitions of 465gb each...

that's if speed is not a concern. as for backups, get an external 1tb drive for like $100 (esata preferably altho usb will do the trick) and back up your hard drives onto there like once or twice a month - depending on how often ur data changes. this has been my setup for the past year or so and it's been great thus far.

 

wouldn't a smaller system partition makes it faster?
and I'm not sure about everyone else, but I don't need a 500GB OS/program drive

 

A smaller system partition isn't going to make a significant difference. Just jam as much memory as you can.

 

Shortstroking the main drive gives you some benefits. No all too much but they are there. In reality though if you then also use the extended partition for any data you are assuring the larger seek times while the OS accesses the main partition and you access the data on the secondary partition.

Your best bet is as stated earilier to leave everythng but the video on the main drive and the secondary drive as the video folder. In this way you can dedicate the secondary drives pipe to Video files. If you plan to edit large files 8GB may be an option for you too.

Since you are planning possible high usage on the video drive, keep the page file on the OS drive and make it a set size of 2.5 times the ram. You have plenty of space and this prevents dynamic allocation from occuring. You may never get to have to use the page file but it one less thing to worry about.

You can get alot of tips to make up cutom partitions but for these to be optimized they usually entail certain usage. Some programs and even methods can benefit from specific setups but then these specific setups can also slow down other software or methodologies of proccessing data. The general setup is the best all around solution. Mind your specific software recomendations though as these sometimes will want areas for temp or scratch files etc...........

 

To illustrate shortstroking here's how i shortstroked my Toshiba drives. The first 50% of both drives is used as C: and D: with Win7 on C: and games/apps on D:. The last 50% of both drives as E: and F: for pics, movies, backups and installfiles.

The first 50% of the drives has the following hdtune results:

Transfer speed: 75MB/s down to 60MB/s
Avg transfer speed: 68MB/s
Access time: 15ms

The last 50% of the drives has the following hdtune results:

Transfer speed: 60MB/s down to 35MB/s
Avg transfer speed: 48MB/s
Access time: 25ms

I attached a hdune screenshot:

 

That's a significant decline in speed. I didn't separate the OS and programs though. I have Adobe and one game. For a workstation any other programs are verboten.

p.s. I got my HDX on 8/30/09!

 

Wouldn't the 0 stand for "null"?

 

Krane,

I think you may have already set your system up (sorry for being so late to notice this thread - too busy lately), but you may still want to read this post (post #11):

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=442289&page=2


Even if you don't use a custom partition setup; I still recommend you enable the pagefile on both physical drives. Windows will automatically use the fastest one depending on your specific usage at the time it needs to use it. This may not be noticeable in benchmarks, but like minimum frame rates in games, it makes the computer noticeably 'smoother' to work with and, I'm guessing, will benefit a video-centric workflow where minimum transfer rates are very important for smooth playback and recording capabilities.

Good luck.

 

Indeed I have. And although reconfiguring the second drive is a simple affair--since I haven't done any editing and it's still completely blank--setting up the C drive as you specified would take major surgery.

As it stands the O/S (and CS4) occupies the 2nd partition at 165GB. Is there a way for it to occupy less than that? As far as I'm concerned, half that would be more than sufficient, don't you think?

 

Krane,

I have a ton of programs installed on my 100GB partition (C: '3rd' partition on single 7K500) and still have about 40GB left free on it. This is with a 'T' partition (2nd on HD) and the first one of course the Windows 100MB boot partition.

If all you have is the O/S and CS4, try to shrink the partition down to about 40 to 60GB or so (and make sure you point CS4 to the 2nd HD for it's temp/swap files). Once this is done and you also run an online and offline defrag (with PD, of course), you should notice a much snappier system.

I agree this is 'major surgery' to set up the drives like this, but I may be tempted to do this again so soon after I have it set up as I like. Why? Because some of my major programs got updated and also, I too want to shrink the partitions a little - I overestimated them somewhat, but mostly just need more DATA space too.

BTW, did you try enabling the pagefiles on both HD's?

 

Well I know about the Windows 100MB boot partition. But I'm not sure how the "T" partition is suppose to be set up?

LOL, 165GB IS the shrink partition. Now do you see what I mean? I don't know how to reduce it anymore other than starting over from scratch.

All that wasted space does concern me.

To tell you the truth, I've never been sure about the actual meaningfulness of enabling/disabling dispute (there's so much controversy on the subject), or how much it would effect the overall performance of my computing experience (not to mention that it's a lot more than my level of understanding can tolerate at the moment). But when in doubt (and this is one of those occasions) I chose to enable for both drives.

 

Krane,

For how I set up my drive and what the 'T' partition is:

See:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=442289


To shrink your C: partition further: download a trial of PerfectDisk 10 and do an online Consolidate Free Space run, an offline defrag run and then another online Consolidate Free Space run. This will move the pagefile.sys, hibernate.sys and other system files from the 'end' of the partition so that Windows will allow you to 'shrink' the drive even more. You may need to do this a few times to shrink it to 40 or 50GB though.

Good luck.

 

Well no success on that solution. The first pass netted me a whopping 76MB of additional space!

It looks like if I'm going to set up this thing for maximum space utilization, I'm going to need something a little more aggressive than this particular tool to accomplish that task.

Would copying the OS to a backup disc and reformatting the drives accomplish the task? On second thought, I'm not entirely sure how that can be accomplished without first installing OS. Any suggestions?

 

Krane,

You did the three PerfectDisk runs (online, offline and a final online again)?

If that process did not give you more than 76MB's then either you did not run all three passes (or they did not complete properly), or, your O/S and CS4 Suite install was not 'clean'.

Can you give more details?