copying files for optimization purposes

[AverageJoe]

Hey everyone-

I've read all the threads about optimization, I use Disk Warrior on my 2 internal drives every Monday, but I DO NOTHING to my audio drives for fear of problems. My audio drive is an 80GB FW drive.

I just bought an 80GB internal ATA drive (at CompUSA for $80 after *40 rebate- go here to get the ad- you need it for the first discount- http://www.compusa.com/adproducts/html_ad/default.asp).

So, my new 80 gig drive is now a mirror backup of my audio drive. Whenever I change a session, I will just drag the session over.

According to some theories, this dragging method should de-frag the files. But it doesn't seem to. When I dragged 2 folders of sessions over (maybe 10 gig) and then ran the "graph" feature of DW, it said the disk was quite a bit (43%) of the items are out of order.

Any explanations? I still don't know what to do to my audio drive for maintenance! at least now I have backup.

[Gabriel Roth]

this is a hard one to answer. you already own the best and most-trusted software utility to fix exactly the problem you're talking about (DiskWarrior), and you choose not to use it for fear of 'problems.' and then you ask what to do.

don't you think that now you have a complete backup drive, you could run DiskWarrior on one of the two drives with your audio files and see if you run into any of the 'problems' you're worried about?

[AverageJoe]

Originally posted by Gabriel Roth:
this is a hard one to answer. you already own the best and most-trusted software utility to fix exactly the problem you're talking about (DiskWarrior), and you choose not to use it for fear of 'problems.' and then you ask what to do.

don't you think that now you have a complete backup drive, you could run DiskWarrior on one of the two drives with your audio files and see if you run into any of the 'problems' you're worried about?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">Well, it actually is a difficult question for those of us (perhaps yourself included) who use Pro Tools for our livelyhood - do a search for it and you will see that there have been many many threads about this very subject with largely inconclusive answers.

And while it may seem like your idea is a good one there are a couple other factors-

1. If I lose audio, I loose thousands of dollars. I have to fly artists back in to recut vocals, book tracking sessions, and spend the time to recreate 40 GB of sessions. That's not something I want to experience, so I can't afford to experiment.

2. The problems that might occur with optimization software are the type that seem likely to happen only once in a while- not every time, meaning that even if I test it out, there still might be issues.

I know that with computers, NOTHING is fail-safe, that's why we backup [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img] In my reading of the DUC searches I've mentioned, it seems I'm certainly not the only one wary of using an optimizer on my audio drive- in fact I just might be in the majority.

I probably will do exactly what you've said- run DW (plus optimizer actually) on my backup drive, but the question I should have emphasized in my original post is "does dragging a bunch of files from one drive to another perform the function of an optimization?" It seems I have read many times on the DUC that is does, but my experience might suggest otherwise.

Thanks for your input. Does anyone else have a thought? Especially if your thought is based in personal experience...