Dual Hard Drive Config for Win 7/Cubase 6 System

WaveLab
#1

Hi All,

Just completed the build of my new Core i7 2600 Sandy Bridge system and will be installing Win 7 64 bit. As my laptop is my main computer, the new system will be used lightly for general computing tasks, but mainly for running Cubase 6 to record live instruments (including 8-12 live drum tracks at a time), supplemented with MIDI, VST Instruments, Plug Ins, and to a small degree, some loops and samples.

I have two hard drives (WD Caviar Black 500GB and 1TB SATA 6.0gb/s) and plan to use the 500 GB drive for OS and programs, and the 1 TB drive for storage and samples. I also have a 500GB WD Caviar Blue 7200rpm PATA drive in an external USB enclosure for back ups/transfers.

I’d like some advice/opinions on how to configure the two hard drives to maximize speed, efficiency, and organization for recording projects. Should I partition one or both drives? If so, how would you divide the partitions? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

#2

Bump. Anyone?

#3

3 drives. One small 40GB for OS/programs, one for projects and one for samples. Primary Partition/s on OS, Extended w/Logical Drives as needed on the others.

#4

Can any of these drives be external – such as the samples drive – connected by USB, or be in the PC’s external drive bay?

#5

I wouldn’t use external drives for samples or project files unless it’s e-SATA. USB is not suitable for that. USB 3.0 probably will, but not 2.0. Maybe you can use USB if you don’t need to stream samples and only load them into memory, but wait then for long loading times.

I use 3 HDs: 1st with 2 partitions, 1 for system, 1 for piano samples, 2nd for project files and 3rd for samples, and this system works well. I use 1st disk with one separate partition for piano samples because I disable virtual memory and superfetch, so while I’m working in Cubase, there’s no streaming from system disk while streaming piano samples; but if you don’t have enough memory, better put piano samples in the same drive as the rest of the samples.