New hard drive question

[lamp]

I have installed a third drive for backup below the DVD player, on the optical bus of my G4 Gigabit/Ethernet.Ive heard the optical bus is slower than the system bus.

The new drive is an 80gig 7200 rpm drive. Would ProTools perform any better if I used the new drive as the system drive, on the system bus, instead of the original 5400 rpm drive? I use a 7200 drive for audio, so this would only be for the Aplacations.

I also used Carbon Copy Cloner to back up the system drive so I could initialize It. I booted okay from the new backup drive and can play sessions okay, but I had to reenter my authorizations for Reason and NI Studio Collection,to use them when booted from the backup drive. Is this normal?

Also can I initialize partitions separetly on the sys. drive? I have OSX on one partition and OS9 on another. Or do I have to do the whole drive and then repartition?
Thanks.

[Phil71]

well, there is not really an "optical bus" it's just a second IDE (um, "ATA") bus.
That said, it ought to be just as fast as the primary HD.
There are many schools of thought as to wether or not using internal drives for audio recording is advisable, but here's my 2¢.

I made my OEM drive 3 partitions 10/10/20.
Partition 1: OS 9.2.2/ all apps, day to day office use. Pro Tools App, but not DAE
Partition 2: OS9.2.2/ audio apps (includingDAE) ONLY, super stripped down ext. set
Worth mentioning: Pro tools is slightly more stable when the app itself is on a separate drive, or partition of a drive, than the active system disk.

Partition 3: OSX (no classic mode installed)

Second ATA bus has a Sony DVD burner, and 2 Seagate barracuda drives (approach SCSI transfer rates& seek times!) that are used only for media (pro tools/final cut, etc.)

You can initialize partitions separately, but you can not low level format.


I can not really speak about the reliablity or stability of this configuration in "X", cause frankly everyone's got bunk experiences in "X".
However, in 9.2.2, pro tools runs flawlessly, and I use it near the end of it's rope a lot. (32 tracks/tons of plugs/heavy automation etc.)

I also have a dual ATTO card and Glyph trip with Seagate Cheetahs, which seem to only be marginally faster than the internal, and i find myself using them more as a temporary vessel between my home rig, and the studio proper. I use firewire too, but old habits die hard.

Anyhow, i don't know how helpful that is.. but i think you're on the right track using that other ATA bus.

[qgrm]

Yeah id love to know the answer to that too. ive heard from techs (albeit one was a PC tech) conflicting info.

story#1: running an audio drive off the 1394 (FW) bus will give less write/read performance than as a slave disk off the primary IDE controller.

story#2: running an audio drive as a slave disk off the primary IDE controller will give less write/read performance than off the 1394 (FW) bus.

anyone know the definitive answer to this? does it vary from machine to machine? more importantly, has anyone recording 18 channels simultaneously ever hit the wall?

thanks! B.

[where02190]

You'll see improved performance overall with a 7200rpm system drive vs a 5400.

the optical buss is the slower of the two IDe busses, and subsequently you will see a slightly decreased performance, however if you put the 5400rpm drive there and use it simply for backup it becomes a non-issue.

the password/authorization thing is nothing to worry about.

You partition when you initialize the drive.

[lamp]

Thanks all for the input.

I run most of the time now in OSX.

however if you put the 5400rpm drive there and use it simply for backup it becomes a non-issue.

Sounds like a good idea Where.

Just a side note. I cloned a partition on my system drive which has OS9 and the beta 32 PT, using Carbon Copy Cloner.

There seems to be a few problems now when I open these OS9 sessions. Some have the wrong disk allocation and some mute automation sounds flaky.

I suspect CCC can't properly copy OS9 drives. I guess I'll just copy the OS9 stuff the old manual way, so I can reinitialize the drive. CCC semms to work well though for OSX drives.

[where02190]

PT6 can open older sessions, so if youa re making the switch, simply open them in PT6, and backup in the usual save session copy in. Once confirmed, you can delete the old sessions.

[lamp]

PT6 can open older sessions, so if youa re making the switch, simply open them in PT6, and backup in the usual save session copy in. Once confirmed, you can delete the old sessions.

Yea,the OS9 sessions seem to open and play fine in OSX except for lost plugs that are not OSX.. I still work on stuff in both 9 and x sometimes because I have some plugs in 9 I like, "ChannelStrip & Realverb

When I save a session in PT5 to send elsewhere, I like to open it first and see if it works okay. I think the problem Im seeing in 9, is because I used CCC to copy an OS9 system disc.

I am leaning toward using only OSX. I got a Rumour to replace Realverb, a URS N12 and the free Bombfactory 1176 to replace ChannelStrip. So Im going to try to stay OSX and only use 9 when needed.

For anyone interested, Panther 10.3 and PT6.2.3 seems to be faster and more stable with my 001 and old G4 than Jaquar & PT6.x