Jan 20, 2006 05:58 am Partition Magic is one...
partitioning a hard drive
Posted on Jan 20, 2006 02:11 am
fortymile
Member Since: Jan 18, 2003
so i got the 180 gb maxtor.
i want to parition it in preparation for programs i might buy. sample dishin'- programs. i'm going to be moving into this in the future, and my first thing is going to be drums. i already know what i'm getting. i want to create a partition for its samples (i have to look up how much space that'll require) and i also want to create a second partition in preparation for something i may buy next year.
the reason i want to do this now is because i have additional data i want to place on this drive, in storage, so i believe i've gotta get this out of the way.
but i know nothing about it. how would i go about doing this? is there a program i need to get or is there a utility in windows?
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Jan 20, 2006 09:34 am Go download Knoppix, it's a live cd linux distro. In other words it's a operating system based off a cd you download and burn, all for free, which you put in your cd-rom then boots up at the next start up. From there you can run the program cfdisk which is a great easy to use partitioning application. There is plenty of information on both Knoppix and cfdisk.
Jan 20, 2006 03:20 pm hmm ryan that solution seems a bit out beyond what i feel comfortable with. linux?
partition magic i expect would be unfree. is there any cheap, dumb, windows-friendly utility out there for free?
Jan 20, 2006 05:20 pm Ya, Partition Magic is much easier to use then the windows app. I tried the windows partitioning and it was slow and clumsy.
But honestly I dont bother making partitions for the samples and such. It is all done by folder hierarchy. Then I just keep the drives defraged and its all good.
Jan 20, 2006 05:55 pm woah hang on noize can you explain that? i've read that you want to put samples on a seperate partition to make sure the data stays in one place because if it gets all mixed up the delivery time slows, and some of the programs that look interesting really tax the hard drive, so you cant let that happen.
what does this mean: "It is all done by folder hierarchy."
if youre saying that just keeping the drives defragged keeps all the data together, thats cool; id like to believe that, because then i could start using my drive right now.
but take this hypothetical situation: suppose i start using my drive right now for storing data. some of it i move around, erase, etc, over time. then i get a nice sample based program and throw that on there, but i never mess with the actual sample data at all. if i never manipulate that big chunk of data, how could that data get fragmented in the first place? wouldnt it reside on the same place on the disk that i put it? forever?
Jan 20, 2006 08:34 pm Ya, I guess in your case that could make for a possible problem. I dont store anything but the samples on the drives, so for me nothing ever moves. When a sample is used it is either by the sampler/synth/player application which may stream it or load it into ram. Or it is drawn into the audio storage portion of the project itself. So in my case, nothing moves out at all. When loading in new libraries they are of coarse again loaded into a completely new folder. That is when I will defrag, after a major change to the drives contents.
In your case I can see were having seperate partitions for data, samples and the like would make perfect sense as you will be moving things about. Deleting or adding files more often.
Jan 20, 2006 09:25 pm Quote:
then i get a nice sample based program and throw that on there, but i never mess with the actual sample data at all. if i never manipulate that big chunk of data, how could that data get fragmented in the first place? wouldnt it reside on the same place on the disk that i put it? forever?
That part you're correct on, if you put it there, and never delete it (through delete or move) then it'll live in the same spot forever.
I'm thinking that there's some free-ware partition programs out there. I wouldn't try to adjust an existing partition, but in your case, you're creating the partitions, and then never changing them. It should be no problem.
ALso, any recent windows (nt workstation, w2k, xp) will have automatic file defragmentation. It's not totally perfect, but it works much better than just leaving the files laying around on the drive in bits and pieces. I still defrag w2k and xp once in a while, but it's nothing like the old 95 and 98 days. So that'll help out your dilemma if you go with one big partition.
Jan 20, 2006 09:39 pm Now that I'm looking at it, and thinking about it, there's a freeware app - compuapps swissknife 3 - on downloads.com. It will do what you want, but there's some reviews that are not stellar, as it may be pesky to use. Some people got it to work great right away, as I'd think you would, since you're not adjusting existing partitions, just creating brand new ones.
Also, you'd need another PC to host the hard drive, to be able to create partitions on the 180g drive. I don't know if that is a stopper or not, but I figured I'd let you know.
ain't PCs fun ? =)
Jan 20, 2006 09:57 pm wow thanks for that tip!
but this drive is an external USB drive. so i wouldnt need another computer to host anything, would i?
my OS is on another drive.
Jan 20, 2006 10:08 pm Great, that would work even better.
There was a few reviews (only read about 10) that said they partitioned an external drive no problem, so I'd say it's worth the DL. I think it's about 4.5 meg.
Jan 21, 2006 06:01 am Just a note regarding the reasons for partitioning the drive: using different partitions will not speed up access to any files as they are still on the same disk, i.e. same hardware being used to read/write. As was mentioned above, you might as well just put them in a different folder, but it will be purely for orgranisational reasons. You need a separate disk to store the samples on for it to have any effect speed wise...
Jan 21, 2006 02:52 pm the idea is just to prevent fragmentation, i guess. im still unsure if i need to do the partition thing. unfragmented, solid files should be able to be accessed at maximum speed--my only goal here. if theyre on their own partition they cant get fragmented.
but then, as pjk says: "That part you're correct on, if you put it there, and never delete it (through delete or move) then it'll live in the same spot forever." so this makes me think partitioning is useles, since i would just dump the data and leave it alone forever, anyway.
why do these program recommend a partition?
Jan 21, 2006 05:22 pm Some of these programs such as Drumcore, Dimension Pro, Kontakt and many others install an .ini file or other referance file that will referance to the sample or patch content wherever you have installed it. And some programs are much pickier then others, so I assume that is why they are requesting their own partition. They might word it as recomended so you sould take that either way. That partitioning gauranties a certian amount of performance enhancement or something to that nature.
I know Native Instruments stuff requires the disc to be set a certain way to accomadate better direct from disc streaming. So that is probably what is behind the Partition demand of the app your looking at.
Jan 22, 2006 06:04 pm Then I would say it is a flip of a coin there. I know DrumCore recomends that as well and I dont have any problems. But again, just make absolutely certain that you wont be messing with the folder contents once the data is in there.
Jan 23, 2006 08:54 am The whole idea behind a separate partition for samples is for when you "edit" those samples, or combine pre-sets and change things around a bit.
Your hard drive is gonna get fragmented. As other programs or data are installed/written to the hard drive, they'll physically occupy space after the samples. When you change something in the samples, they'll get written behind the other stuff installed/written to the disk. A "Defrag" will combine file fragments, but your samples, tho the file fragments are combined, won't be in the same physical area of the drive as the other "original" samples. There's the performance "hit", having to access sample "A" in sector 90, while the "edit" is in sector 1520... A separate partition for the samples will ensure that they're closer "neighbors" to each other. Now, for me, I don't have the hard drive realestate to begin with, and I'm not that "big" into sampling, so I don't bother with partitioning - too much trouble for me. For someone doing samples, especially "live", they'll need that little "edge" that partitioning can give to the system performance.
Jan 23, 2006 04:58 pm well then i think it sounds like i should be fine to just jump in and start using the drive. im not going to do any sample editing. i believe im going to just dump a block of sample data on there and then never mess with it.
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