How to arrange my harddisks? at DVinfo.net

Floris van Eck · December 28th, 2006, 08:59 AM

I am going to add two new harddisks to my computer. Currently, I have 3 Seagate Barracuda 320GB (7200RPM) disks. Two in a RAID-0 array for my projects, and the third one as my main OS disk. I am going to add 2 Western Digital Raptor harddisks (10.000RPM) with a size of 150GB.

How can I arrange them to maximize the speed of my system, as well as maximize the efficiency for video editing?

This is my idea but there might be better options:

MAIN OS disk: 2x Western Digital 150GB Raptor in Raid-0
Two partitions: one of 8GB for the OS and the rest for the other programs.

Project disk: 2x Seagate Barracuda 320GB in Raid-0
For my project files

Storage disk: 1x Seagate Barracuda 320GB

What I am not sure of is if it is smart to store my projects on the Barracuda array. The Western Digital 10.000RPM disks are faster. And maybe even when the OS is stored on them, my video files will render faster to them then when I render and store them on the 7200RPM Seagates.

I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 motherboard with a 3GB Raid controller.

I hope you can give me some advice on this situation.

James Harring · December 28th, 2006, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Floris van Eck

I am going to add two new harddisks to my computer. Currently, I have 3 Seagate Barracuda 320GB (7200RPM) disks. Two in a RAID-0 array for my projects, and the third one as my main OS disk. I am going to add 2 Western Digital Raptor harddisks (10.000RPM) with a size of 150GB.

How can I arrange them to maximize the speed of my system, as well as maximize the efficiency for video editing?

This is my idea but there might be better options:

MAIN OS disk: 2x Western Digital 150GB Raptor in Raid-0
Two partitions: one of 8GB for the OS and the rest for the other programs.

Project disk: 2x Seagate Barracuda 320GB in Raid-0
For my project files

Storage disk: 1x Seagate Barracuda 320GB

I hope you can give me some advice on this situation.

The 10k drives are probably pretty sweet...

I might suggest the following: boot off the single 10k drive, don't partition it, I've found you tend to outgrow partitions.

Take the three identical SATA and put them in raid-5. This is your "workbench".

The other 10k, is temp workspace or whatever. It can also be used as a page file, temp render location etc.

My rationale is this:
The boot/NLE volume is essentially throwaway. You lose this volume, you get the inconvenience of reinstalling it, but you can recover. However, if you lose data, you may not be able to replicate it.

You should not be keeping anything on the boot long term you care about. I ghost mine to dvd periodically and if it crashes, image it back pretty quick to a replacement drive. Mirroring would slow performace, but likely not that much, so you COULD use the 2 10k's in mirrored or RAID-0, but IMO it's a waste. I am guessing your system is fast enough to begin with.
I actually have Premiere Pro on one partition and Vegas on another. Collaterally, if your budget is tight, boot to a general purpose PC on one partition and NLE on the otehr partition. Just some ideas.

The three sata's in raid 5 - this is where all your work is. Lose this, you're screwed. W RAID-5 you can rebuild your array (and save your 5 hour project you didn't get around to backing up yet).

Floris van Eck · December 28th, 2006, 03:41 PM

Thanks for your advice James. I will look into it. I hope more people will share their thoughts so I can weigh the pro's and con's.

Don Blish · December 28th, 2006, 06:12 PM

I had much RAID5 experience in a commercial environment which favors reads over writes. My newest system for editing HDV (PremierePro2+CineformAccessHD4) had a 4 disc RAID5 as the bootable root and store for documents, photos and music. I found I could not reach 100% cpu utilization on my dual core system. I added a RAID0 pair for video editing and previewing only and the problem went away. Now new projects are done on RAID0 and finished .m2t projects are kept on RAID5 till the Blu-Ray authoring situation settles. All drives were 7200rpm SATAII drives.

Jon Whiteford · December 28th, 2006, 09:46 PM

unless you want to do mirroring and striping with 4 drives.

don't partition across a raid zero array, imho.

one 320 for system, two raptors raid zero for working files, other 320 for backup of working files, and MAKE YOUR EFFING BACKUPS!

before long you can get a 8 gb flash card an install your os on it. well you can do that now but 8gb is still pricey.

your milage will vary, and though it is counter intuitive, raid zero will HALF your mtbf, because if EITHER drive fails, you lose ALL your work in raid zero.

Pete Bauer · December 28th, 2006, 10:32 PM

Interesting diversity of opinion here! What I've done for my Adobe Production Studio editing box:

500GB Seagate: C:\ = 100GB For OS and Programs, D:\ = 400GB for data (project files, temp storage and such)
2 X 150GB Raptors: E:\ = RAID 0 for capture, video scratch files, editing
300GB Seagate: F:\ = Audio files, audio scratch files

I stuck an LSI Logic SATA RAID card in an older box and have 5 x 750GB Seagates in RAID 5 in two logical drives of 2TB and 860GB for longer term storage of captured files. I agree with Don that RAID 5 is probably not the best choice for an editing drive because the write performance of RAID 5 is fairly slow. READ performance is great, but writes are slow, which could easily bog down editing on an HD timeline.

And I'm no more disciplined than the next guy about doing my backups, but prudence says heed James' warning and "backup, backup, backup!"

Floris van Eck · December 29th, 2006, 06:14 AM

On another forum I was recommended to use one Raptor as OS disk, one Raptors for Project files and the other three harddisks in a RAID-0 array for storage. I also have an 320GB firewire 800 disk which I could use for back-up purposes. And like Don, I'll wait for the Blue-Ray/HDV to become affordable.

Pete Bauer · December 29th, 2006, 08:13 AM

I'm not sure why folks in the other forum chose that route. I followed the Adobe recommendation in the PPro 2 documentation (p 37): "Specify your fastest hard disks for capturing footage and storing scratch files. You can use a slower disk for audio preview files and the project file."

That makes sense to me for HD editing on a fast computer since reading and writing scratch files will place great demands on the disks, whereas project files are quite small so would have very tiny read/write requirements. Putting the Raptors in RAID 0 for scratch files helps reduce the chance of a read/write bottleneck. Note also that Cineform recommends RAID 0 for video disks.

Floris van Eck · December 29th, 2006, 10:28 AM

Thanks for all your advice. For now, I am going to install the OS on one Barracuda and I will use the other two in RAID 0 for storage. I will install the two Raptors as a project/scratch/render disk for my video projects. Finally, I will use a 320GB firewire 800 disk for external storage.

I hope this will work as I expect it to be. And I also hope that HD-DVD/Blu-Ray burners will become affordable in the near future.

I really want to be able to archive my files.

December 28th, 2006, 08:59 AM	#1
Floris van Eck Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 993	How to arrange my harddisks? I am going to add two new harddisks to my computer. Currently, I have 3 Seagate Barracuda 320GB (7200RPM) disks. Two in a RAID-0 array for my projects, and the third one as my main OS disk. I am going to add 2 Western Digital Raptor harddisks (10.000RPM) with a size of 150GB. How can I arrange them to maximize the speed of my system, as well as maximize the efficiency for video editing? This is my idea but there might be better options: MAIN OS disk: 2x Western Digital 150GB Raptor in Raid-0 Two partitions: one of 8GB for the OS and the rest for the other programs. Project disk: 2x Seagate Barracuda 320GB in Raid-0 For my project files Storage disk: 1x Seagate Barracuda 320GB What I am not sure of is if it is smart to store my projects on the Barracuda array. The Western Digital 10.000RPM disks are faster. And maybe even when the OS is stored on them, my video files will render faster to them then when I render and store them on the 7200RPM Seagates. I have a Gigabyte GA-965P-DS4 motherboard with a 3GB Raid controller. I hope you can give me some advice on this situation.

December 28th, 2006, 06:12 PM	#4
Don Blish Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Portland OR Posts: 227	RAID5 has poor write performance.... I had much RAID5 experience in a commercial environment which favors reads over writes. My newest system for editing HDV (PremierePro2+CineformAccessHD4) had a 4 disc RAID5 as the bootable root and store for documents, photos and music. I found I could not reach 100% cpu utilization on my dual core system. I added a RAID0 pair for video editing and previewing only and the problem went away. Now new projects are done on RAID0 and finished .m2t projects are kept on RAID5 till the Blu-Ray authoring situation settles. All drives were 7200rpm SATAII drives.

December 28th, 2006, 09:46 PM	#5
Jon Whiteford New Boot Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: somerset, kentucky 42501 Posts: 23	raid zero is about the fastest,........... unless you want to do mirroring and striping with 4 drives. don't partition across a raid zero array, imho. one 320 for system, two raptors raid zero for working files, other 320 for backup of working files, and MAKE YOUR EFFING BACKUPS! before long you can get a 8 gb flash card an install your os on it. well you can do that now but 8gb is still pricey. your milage will vary, and though it is counter intuitive, raid zero will HALF your mtbf, because if EITHER drive fails, you lose ALL your work in raid zero.

December 28th, 2006, 10:32 PM	#6
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	Interesting diversity of opinion here! What I've done for my Adobe Production Studio editing box: 500GB Seagate: C:\ = 100GB For OS and Programs, D:\ = 400GB for data (project files, temp storage and such) 2 X 150GB Raptors: E:\ = RAID 0 for capture, video scratch files, editing 300GB Seagate: F:\ = Audio files, audio scratch files I stuck an LSI Logic SATA RAID card in an older box and have 5 x 750GB Seagates in RAID 5 in two logical drives of 2TB and 860GB for longer term storage of captured files. I agree with Don that RAID 5 is probably not the best choice for an editing drive because the write performance of RAID 5 is fairly slow. READ performance is great, but writes are slow, which could easily bog down editing on an HD timeline. And I'm no more disciplined than the next guy about doing my backups, but prudence says heed James' warning and "backup, backup, backup!" __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

December 29th, 2006, 08:13 AM	#8
Pete Bauer Wrangler Join Date: May 2003 Location: Eagle River, AK Posts: 4,100	I'm not sure why folks in the other forum chose that route. I followed the Adobe recommendation in the PPro 2 documentation (p 37): "Specify your fastest hard disks for capturing footage and storing scratch files. You can use a slower disk for audio preview files and the project file." That makes sense to me for HD editing on a fast computer since reading and writing scratch files will place great demands on the disks, whereas project files are quite small so would have very tiny read/write requirements. Putting the Raptors in RAID 0 for scratch files helps reduce the chance of a read/write bottleneck. Note also that Cineform recommends RAID 0 for video disks. __________________ Pete Bauer The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. Albert Einstein Trying to solve a DV mystery? You may find the answer behind the SEARCH function ... or be able to join a discussion already in progress!

December 28th, 2006, 03:41 PM	#3
Floris van Eck Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 993	Thanks for your advice James. I will look into it. I hope more people will share their thoughts so I can weigh the pro's and con's.

December 29th, 2006, 06:14 AM	#7
Floris van Eck Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 993	On another forum I was recommended to use one Raptor as OS disk, one Raptors for Project files and the other three harddisks in a RAID-0 array for storage. I also have an 320GB firewire 800 disk which I could use for back-up purposes. And like Don, I'll wait for the Blue-Ray/HDV to become affordable.

December 29th, 2006, 10:28 AM	#9
Floris van Eck Major Player Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: The Netherlands Posts: 993	Thanks for all your advice. For now, I am going to install the OS on one Barracuda and I will use the other two in RAID 0 for storage. I will install the two Raptors as a project/scratch/render disk for my video projects. Finally, I will use a 320GB firewire 800 disk for external storage. I hope this will work as I expect it to be. And I also hope that HD-DVD/Blu-Ray burners will become affordable in the near future. I really want to be able to archive my files.