Best possible hard drive configuration

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by Dism

Bear in mind that those are MLC prices. MLC SSDs are lower quality, lower speed and lower write count. I.E.... they burn out quickly if you do a lot of writing.

SLC drives are 2 to 3 times more expensive but are far more reliable, and faster.

Practically speaking - SSD won't be ready for DAW's anytime soon - even technically speaking you do as much writing as reading working in a DAW. So the whole technology isn't really 'audio workstation' friendly even as a 'design'. Kind of like the limitation of the original EIDE/ATA drive technology in comparison to SCSI where SCSI could read and write at the same time and EIDE needed to do one or the other. We audio guys could only really consider SCSI as a serious hi track count read/write medium for DAWs. The same is true now of SATA (drives with platters) versus SSDs. SSDs aren't the 'right' technology for DAWs -- yet.... .. Where they are very practical is for sample libraries that will very rarely need any 'write passes' but only ever need to be 'loaded' into RAM. That's the perfect application for SSD's -- currently.

[lancemcv]

I record on my internal sata drives but not my system drive. One drive for system, one drive for audio, and one drive is for sample libraries and if you move your samples you will just have to point your kontact or whatever software to find the moved library and it should remember where they are from then on out. External hard drives are slower and a little more of a pain.
Too many peripherals connected to the FireWire bus can cause problems as well.
Then I have a two terabyte USB 2 drive for backups.
If Im not using the internal drives I just un mount them with disk utility. I usually record at 88.2 24 bit. My system has been pretty solid.
I just updated to 9 and the new Mbox pro. The sound / clock is a nice step up from my 002.

[NewdestinyX]

Originally Posted by lancemcv

I record on my internal sata drives but not my system drive. One drive for system, one drive for audio, and one drive is for sample libraries and if you move your samples you will just have to point your kontact or whatever software to find the moved library and it should remember where they are from then on out. External hard drives are slower and a little more of a pain.
Too many peripherals connected to the FireWire bus can cause problems as well.
Then I have a two terabyte USB 2 drive for backups.
If Im not using the internal drives I just un mount them with disk utility. I usually record at 88.2 24 bit. My system has been pretty solid.
I just updated to 9 and the new Mbox pro. The sound / clock is a nice step up from my 002.

My work/drive scenario is almost identical to yours - except I use eSATA drives for back up externally. They're even faster than USB2.0 and I use Retrospect as my backup utility, saving to data files (as opposed to tape drive, etc) since I like the file architecture of Retrospect for quickly recalling only one song, let's say. I was fortunate enough to have one of those MacPro's (3,1 early 2008) that has two extra sata ports on the motherboard that aren't used up by drive bays and all you do is insert a little extender cable to those ports and extend them to one of your PCI slot openings and then I have 2 additional sata ports on the back of my computer -- separate routes to the motherboard. The newer MacPro's from '09 and '10 have two additional ports on the motherboard too but only one of which you can extend to a PCI slot since the other one is dedicated to your optical drive (CD RW/DVD). But most people don't know they have at least one additional sata port open for use on the mother board that only requires you to purchase a Newer Technologies eSata extender cable ($18) to get access to it externally.

I will add that it's a bit of a myth to think you need your sample libraries on another drive. They're read only and load into RAM so they'd never interfere with your system drive's operation or access in any way -- unless of course you fill it up to much.. and violate the 25% free space rule for system drives.

[nst7]

Most sample library manufacturers strongly recommend putting them on a separate drive, and say so in their support documentation. Certain libraries rely more on disk streaming, making this even more important. BFD2 and Synthogy Ivory are 2 such libraries.

[BigEvil]

I've had nothing but trouble using the internal sata drives for recording(Avid even lists track limitations of them and last I check they're lower than approved Firewire 800 track counts).

I use 2 internal drives(one for system/apps and one for streaming of all of my sample libraries). For recording its only Glyph 050Q via FW800. Lastly, I keep a Drobo that I do a chronosync backup to every evening as well as using separate cloned 050Qs for each specific project. Hard drives die, you have to be prepared and set yourself up to suffer no downtime in case of those situations.

At present, this setup is as good as I've seen in terms of usability, track count, speed, and lack of errors BUT that being said it's still far from a perfect art. I really hope the SSD industry brings pricing down and DAW mfgs do whatever is necessary to provide better compatibility with the new drives. Given that its 2011 and also where current hardware technology is I don't know why we're still working under the limitations of 5 years ago in terms of actual hard drive compatibility & function.

[Park Seward]

Originally Posted by HD2

Why would you be using four drives for your system drive? That's not even possible.

I thought you were speaking of all drives.

But still, 10% or greater is all you need. That is the limit Apple sets.