Optimizing a G4 or G5 for Pro-Tools HD

[Ciaran]

Hi,
I've been running Pro-Tools HD on OS9 on my G4 867 for quite some time now, and I'm due an upgrade. However, I'm getting conflicting views from techs at the stores on what is best for me.

"The OS and drive set-up scenario. "

It was suggested by a enlightened tech at a post-production facility that I should have 3 internal drives - on the first have an 80Gig partition where I install the OS (I'm planning on going to OSX), on the second have an 80-250Gig partition where I install my applications and have a third internal drive for streaming audio samples for my Spectrasonics plug-ins for example.

The concept is two fold - it is supposed to be faster, and secondly if something goes wrong I can always re-install my OS and be ready to roll again no time.

Please understand, none of the above or what I am continuing to write is anything more than someones advice, and I haven't tried it yet, so I encourage you to give your knowledge and opinions on the matter so we can have an ultimate solution set!

So....The discussion I had on the drive set-up scenario becomes strange if it is for a G5, seeing as the machine is only set up to hold 2 internal drives! Which leads me on too the guys at the computer store... One tech gave me a carbon copy opinion of the one I have just shared from the guy at the post facility. The other tech at the same place was a polar opposite. He said 'Panther' HATES partitions and I should avoid them... he also said there was no speed benefit to having your applications running on one drive and the OS on another.

Any other advice out there?

yours in Music

C.

[steins]

I don't understand what you will gain by having your applications on a separate drive. I don't know a lot about OS-X's file system or how the core OS handles disk I/O, but a separate drive for OS-X + Apps and a separate drive for Audio should do just fine. If you're using some kind of streaming sample-player, I'd suggests having the samples on a different drive too. Same thing if you're running video in your sessions.

Given todays price on disc drives, I'd buy a extra drive and use something like Carbon Copy Cloner to make a image of your startup disk. Absolute fastest and safest way to recover from OS faults or drive faults.

These assumptions are based on my experience rather than expert technical insight in OS-X core code, so take it for what it's worth...

Stein Tore