Recording, do i need to partition my hard drive? Options

[mssj]

I have just bought a powerbook g4, I plan to use it also as a recorder for live gigs. do I need to partiion the 80 gig harddrive, or can I use all the frive space mixed with the other data ?

/Stefan

[eric_berlin]

for audio, I would recommend you to make a partition
40 gb for system and program and 40 gb for the audio files you will record and edit
in that way, you'll have less fragmented files
on the other hand, hd with partitions are sometimes more sensitive
in any case, had an external wf_hd to backup all your work
eric

[mrd2425]

yes it keep your computer running smooth :laugh: :) :D

[reallygrand]

Another reason why it is a good idea to partition is journaling in osx the default setting in the disk utility sets the startup disk to be journaled this is a very handy feature for normal every day use for but i would recommend turning it off on or at least turning it off on the audio partition

[swilder]

Generally speaking, partitioning is NOT preferred. Optimum recording requires the read/write head of the hard drive to be actively touching the disc as much as possible. Partitioning forces the head to come off of the disc for half of every revolution. so by partitioning, you've effectively turned your 7200 rpm hard drive into a 3600 rpm drive because it's only writing half of the time.

The preferred method is to buy a 2nd drive to record to. Firewire drives are abundantly available. If you can't afford the 2nd drive. Then record to your main drive WITHOUT partitioning.

Scott

[grg144]

Disk partitions are not like pie wedges or like cutting a pie in half - they consist of groups of concentric cylinders. The way partitioning effects performance is to force the heads to travel back and forth radially, which takes time. If you stay within one partition, partitioning does not affect performance. The reason that a separate hard drive is advantageous is that the recording process can use its own set of heads while all the other software is using the partition where the software is loaded, which may or may not take up the entire original drive.

Optimum recording requires the read/write head of the hard drive to be actively touching the disc as much as possible. Partitioning forces the head to come off of the disc for half of every revolution. so by partitioning, you've effectively turned your 7200 rpm hard drive into a 3600 rpm drive because it's only writing half of the time.

[lepetitmartien]

So to sum things a little for our friend:
a separate partiton for system/apps and for the audio files allows to:
- keep things tidy, when need ben format the audio partition
- keep journalling on the system partition which is a must to prevent problems
- keep thing efficient, system, apps, files are not all over the place, partitions helps to find things fast.

Now It's better even to have 2 drives, but in a powerbook…

[swilder]

Thanks for the correction GRG144. It's good to know that I still have more than a few things to learn!

Happy music making!

Scott

[CanadaRAM]

Partitioning can actually improve performance: here's how.

The *first* partition you create is on the fastest portion of the hard drive (the outside tracks, which have a higher angular velocity at a given RPM. Remember the roundabout in the playground? Easy if you sit in the middle, but radically faster action on the outside edge). The second and subsequent partitions are slower to access.

So if you partition your drive, you can contain your audio data into the faster partition, guaranteeing better performance compared to being scattered across all tracks of the drive. Also: with a smaller partition, random access is marginally faster within the partition because the head has to seek across fewer tracks.

But even more important than partitioning is to have as much RAM as you can afford. If you can run your apps and OS totally in RAM, you reduce the number of pageouts to the drive. This makes the machine faster and keeps your drive heads within your audio data files.

Thanks
Trevor
www.CanadaRAM.com