SSD (Solid State Drives) Alleviating The Need For Two Hard Drives For PT?

[epu]

With speeds reaching 200MB/Sec Read AND Write, I was just wondering what the possibilities were. On the other hand, Western Digital has just released a 20,000 RPM drive. While there aren't exactly consumer affordable items yet, they will VERY soon! What is your take on this?

I'm looking at this from the laptop end. My IBM/Lenovo X61 can run 32 tracks with auxes and plug ins using MBox Micro using its 7200 rpm Hitachi drive w/o breaking a sweat. I DO carry around a small external just in case. I wonder what these new drives will allow!

[Spyda KB]

Well for one...regardless of the speed of a drive...I will never put my audio sessions and OS on just one drive. That is just asking for trouble, for instance, drive dies you loose both OS and data. So to answer your question: No, SSD will not alleviate the need for 2 drives.

- KB

[GordonFreeman]

http://www.moozek.com/2008/01/15/app...omputer-audio/

I really don't know. I'm surprised how we're not seeing more studios rush over to get solid state drives. Are they too expensive, or is it something else?

[epu]

Well, I should've emphasized for LAPTOPS. I'm not sure I'd use one on my main system, or even two for that matter. But like everything else, why would someone use ANY drive w/o a backup. I'm stating my question based on the assumption that one would've cloned or backed up their drive anyway, making the point about losing data and the OS pretty moot.

Whenever I make ANY changes to a session in ANY capacity, I make backups, period.

[Earl D]

IMO needing more than 1 harddrive for a dedicated PT desktop is a myth. Getting a 2nd drive is an upgrade that can be put off indefinitely if you keep your drives primarily empty via archiving and 32 track imits (No MPTK).

Dell D4700 1G 200G XP sp2
002 PTLE 6.9
Earl

[albee1952]

While that may be true, since DIGI recommends using a separate drive(and regular drives are quite cheap), why chance the hassle? Certainly if you are working on your own stuff, a failure hurts no one but you so that's all fine. Now if you have a paying customer over your shoulder, I would not want to explain when a session goes sour due to an overworked system drive, that I was too cheap to buy a $50 drive for audio sessions. My policy as a working commercial endeaver is to have all my gear in order and meeting specs with backups. To that end, I have cloned spare system drives on a shelf ready to install in minutes, and I have multiple audio drives(both internal and firewire). I also have my system on a UPS(not becuase I have to) and it may be the best $130 I ever spent after power went out in the middle of a client's BTD(which would have crashed the drive). I also feel more righteous in complaining about a problem since I run everything "by the book". I will do personal stuff with low track counts on my laptop but any paying customer gets the whole nine yards. BTW, check out the prices on those solid state drives and I bet you take the same money and buy several approved firewire drives instead.

[guitar131]

Albee- what do you use for your system drive cloning? Also, what UPS did you buy, and how long does it give you until you power down(given the main power still being out)...thanks. Matt

[Earl D]

Fortunely, I have not had a system drive failure to explain but
It is unclear to me how and why a two drive configuration is better than a 1 drive configuration for PTLE recording and mixing. Shouldn't this requirement be based on drive performance and its impact. My 1 drive configurations have worked for the past 3 years. Someone please explain why a multiple drive system produces
1. Better recording/mixing
2. Better MTTF
3. Better Recovery from failure
Or why multiple is better?
Dell 4700 1G 200G XP sp2
002 PTLE 6.9

Earl

[epu]

This is pure luck. I could never get away with this on a Desktop system, but on my Lenovo Laptops, I've ALWAYS been able to playback LARGE sessions on my Laptop's System Drives without a Hiccup or Error Message. Pure luck. This was on my Lenovo (IBM) X31, X32, X61, X61 Tablet and NOW the X200 Tablet.

[GordonFreeman]

Originally Posted by epu

This is pure luck.

With Pro Tools, it is pure luck indeed.

Unfortunately, compared to all others, it's still a very unstable and picky DAW when it comes to hardware, mainly because the code (PC or Mac) has not been re-written from scratch since the Mac OS 8 times.
Interface wise, it's a great DAW and introduces great concepts for workflow (despite the lack of ADC). But the inner workings of Pro Tools are a complete mess. All stability is dependent on pure luck