to partition or not to....(well, you know)

[pk_hat]

I just got my LaCie D2 - 120gig FW drive.
First of all, very pleased I chose this one over the others, not realising that hard drives could actually look so cool. This is as sleek as it gets, silver finish/brushed aluminum, much more compact than I expected and considerably quiet, albeit a tad heavy.

Ok, now for the functional stuff. It comes with software and the utility to format and partition.
However, you can't partition without formatting, and to my surprise, they don't recommend formatting it unless necessary (it's apparently "ready to go"). When I was on a PC, my audio drive was partitioned, so I got used to that system.

This is a 120 gig drive that I plan to record my PT sessions to directly (yes, it's Oxford ready), and store all my samples and audio on. I had planned on perhaps creating 2 X 60gig or 3 X 40. Now i don't know anymore.

I sure could use some advice. Will I get better performance from the drive if it's partitioned or can I just leave it as a big 120 chunk and go about my way?

thanks for any help...

[soundboy69]

Hi pk...I'd definitely partition it into 3 chunks. Not only will you get slightly better performance, but you'll keep things (sample library, sessions, etc.) more organized.
Oh, and use "Disk Utility" (I think it's called) that is under "Apps" in the "Utilities" folder (Apple's own system drive formatter) to set it up (HFS+)... [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[Kevin Canty]

I think last time through this topic digi was recommending that you not partition your audio drive, or at least that it wasn't necessary.

If you want to partition for other reasons, though, don't use the software / utilities that came with the driver. Format the drive with the OS X drive utility -- probably your best shot, as that creates partitions easily. The 3rd party software stuff is alleged to cause all kinds of problems. Good luck.

[fprod south]

I just now had a problem that was fixed by defragmenting. My audio drive has 2 gig partitions. Because of this, I was able to defrag in just a couple minutes and fix the problem. I'd still be waiting and wondering if I hadn't partitioned the drive.

Running utilities on partitions can be more convenient. That's reason enough for me.

[pk_hat]

thanks for your replies,

I'm not using OSX yet, still in 9.2.2, is there a utility I can use for partitioning? Also, how do you do a 'defrag' on a Mac? Sorry for the newbie-esque question, I recently switched platforms.

[fprod south]

Unless things have changed since I bought my Mac, you need to buy 3rd party software to defrag.
I use Norton Utilities. It works fine for me. Disk Warrior is another one people use.

[soundboy69]

Actually, on OS 9, the best way to defrag w/ the sysytem software, is to copy your files to another drive, CD, etc., and reinitialize the drive. Then copy your files back to the drive and it's about as defrag'ed as you can get...BTW, if you use Norton (utilities) on a Mac, don't install it, run it from the CD, as some people have been having all sorts of problems w/ Norton on their Macs (I know some haven't, but my philosophy is better safe than you know what...). FWIW, Disk Warrior rules the roost when it comes to disk utilities on the Mac. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[DJ Tonic]

I have a Lacie 80gig D2 Drive. I formatted it and partitioned it with the lacie setup utilites and I've had no problems at all. I run it on a 867 Dual with a Digi 002. Word up!

[DJ Tonic]

I have a Lacie 80gig D2 Drive. I formatted it and partitioned it with the lacie setup utilites and I've had no problems at all. I run it on a 867 Dual with a Digi 002. Word up!

[billbo]

Originally posted by soundboy69:
Actually, on OS 9, the best way to defrag w/ the sysytem software, is to copy your files to another drive, CD, etc., and reinitialize the drive. Then copy your files back to the drive and it's about as defrag'ed as you can get...BTW, if you use Norton (utilities) on a Mac, don't install it, run it from the CD, as some people have been having all sorts of problems w/ Norton on their Macs (I know some haven't, but my philosophy is better safe than you know what...). FWIW, Disk Warrior rules the roost when it comes to disk utilities on the Mac. [img]images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Arial">I have to agree here. Although I don't personaly own DW, but the Guru's swear by it.

However, there's "no one" tool that is the be all end all. I've heard from a guy who has buckoo U160 & U320 RAIDs (pretty much in all flavors) that does this procedure for a "montly maintainence"->

Disk Warrior,
Norton's Disk Doctor,
Apple's Disk First Aid,
Norton's Speed Disk (the only "defrag" in this schedule),
Disk Warrior (yes, again)
and finaly Disk First aid again.

Running Disk Warrior before Norton's Disk Doctor cures all of the "lil" things that drives Norton insane, whereas, running Apple's Disk First Aid, is mostly a reaffirmation of your driver(s).

Then of course, after all that, Zap the P-RAM, startup with Extensions Off and rebuild the Desktop.

I think it might be just a tad anal, but this guy has never had any catastraphic drive failures. Even so, he also backups data everyother day. Like I said, anal, but what's your data worth to you?

Just thought I'd chime in with my $.02 since I haven't been here in a while.