Inspiring

Question

Generic Guideline for Disk Setup

Forum|Forum|15 years ago
June 18, 2010
53 replies
376700 views

There have been many questions about how to set up your disks.

Where do I put my media cache files, where the page file, and what about my preview files?

All these allocations can be set in PR, so I made this overview to help you find some settings that may be beneficial. It is not a law to do it like this, it is a generic approach that would suit many users, but depending on source material, workflow and backup possibilities, it is not unthinkable you need to deviate from this approach in your individual case.

The reasoning behind this overview is that you want to distibute disk access across as many disks as possible and get the best performance.

Look for yourself:

I hope this helps to remove doubts you may have had about your setup or to find a setup that improves performance.

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EstebanMartin

New Participant

I dont know what is best, can you help me and what to use everydisc for ?

A)

C: 320gb

D: 2 X 1TB RAID0

B)

C: 320GB

D: 1TB

E: 1TB

A

Adamousman

New Participant

Let me explain a little better:

My OS is on a 2 x 1TB Raid 0. I do not have the work time to change this.

I then have two external hard drives: one is a 1 TB USB, the other is a 640 GB that has e-sata (i just learned).

What would be the best for me to do?

I'm thinking: 2 TB RAID 0: OS, Programs, Pagefile, Media Cache

640 GB Esata Drive: Media, Projects

1 TB External USB 2.0: Exports

Would this be the best setup with my configuration?

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

Sounds good.

I

inaksi prod

New Participant

Hi,

I want to double check my setup. I am editing almost only P2 video 720P and 1080. Projects are feature film documentaries.

First, my hardware (I will update my motherboard, processor and ram, but for now this is it)

P5 Asus

8 meg ram

Q6600

Nvidia GeFroce GTX 285

Two monitors

Hard drives:

260 G HD for OS and programs

Two Blue Caviar 500G in Raid (Total 1T) I put the my P2 footage and Media cache there

One Black caviar 1T where I put my Scratch disk

1T Green Caviar where I keep my music that I use for scores, Stock Items used for after effect and some storage.I also use Sonicfire pro5 and the scores are on the Green Caviar.

Should I change something? My page sys is in the C drive. I also use After Effect a lot as seaprate projects or, most often, linked to my Premiere projects for Titles and color correction with Finesse3. Where whoul I kee my After Effect projects? Black caviar? Raid?

Thanks

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

260 G disks do not exist AFAIK. Have you partitioned your disk? If so, that is a bad idea.

Blue, green, or whatever other color are usually bad choices. For video editing nothing has changes since the days of the T-Ford. You could buy it in any color you wanted, as long as it was BLACK. Same with WD drives. All colors are OK as long as that is limited to BLACK. Blue and green are ok for backup.

With the disks you currently have, you have made sound allocations, and the raid0 nicely compensates the fact you use Blues. but for the next system change them for Blacks of F3's.

T

Treasure_Box_Media

New Participant

HI, I have been reading through the information on this thread and others for the past couple of weeks trying to work out the best configuration for my hard drive set up. I mainly use Adobe Production Premium CS5 and in particular Premiere and After Effects. I mostly work with HD footage.

My PC is 64bit, quad core with 12gigs of ram.

I have just ordered some new drives to set up with my current ones to create the following hard drive configuaration:

1 X OCZ 120GB Vertex SSD for OS/Programs/Pagefile

4 X Samsung F3 1TB 7200rpm in RAID 5 for Media/Projects/Cache etc

1 X 1.5TB WD for stock footage/resource material

I also have an external 1TB drive that i was thinking could be utilised somewhere for maybe back up purposes.

Do you think the above set up will be OK, i don't know a great deal about hard drive configuratiuons so any help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

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Esper Media

New Participant

OK - so after further reading/research of your other posts on RAID and such, I decided to go with 2 640GB WD Caviar drives. I'll set these up as in your 3 disk recommendation and see how things go... I see now the 1TB OS/Program disk I already have is overkill. 'C'est la vie'...

Thanks again, Harm, for all of the excellent articles!

E

Esper Media

New Participant

Thanks for the great info - just watched Todd Kopriva's 'Ask A CS Pro' where he mentioned this thread... I read through the posts here and didn't see any mention of this, so sorry if this has already been asked...

I have a new budget i7-870/16GB Ram/GTX460 on a P7P55D-E Pro mb that supports USB 3.0 and SATA 6Gb/s. I have only installed a single WD Caviar Black 1TB 6Gb/s drive for OS/Program Files thus far and am wondering how I should proceed with setting up additional drives? I can add one additional 6Gb/s drive and multiple 3Gb/s SATA drives (as well as eSata/USB 3 external drives). I noticed that USB 3.0 external drives are still not a good choice for work drives - only back-up, what about eSATA externals?

My main question is should I add a second 6Gb/s drive D: for Media/Projects and a 3Gb/s drive E: for Media/Previews/Exports?

Is there any advanatge to using a 6Gb/s drive for either D: or E: - if so, which one?

I will be adding an external NAS for back-ups, so am not worried about data integrity - should I use a RAID 0 set-up for either/both, or is that overkill? I am typically working with AVCHD footage from a Canon HFS100 or similar.

Thanks for any advice you can provide!

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

eSATA and SATA deliver the same performance. For single disks it makes no difference whether you use SATA2 or SATA3. The advantage of SATA3 capable disks is the larger cache, which is used on SATA2 too. Conventional disks are restricted to their mechanical limits, not the interface they use. So you can use the newer 6 Bb/s drives on standard SATA interfaces without any negative effects.

E

Esper Media

New Participant

Thanks for the fast reply. So, would you recommend I use the 6Gb/s connections configured as a RAID in any

fashion? What, if any, advantage is there in my motherboard supporting the faster interface (if set-up in a RAID configuration with dual 6Gb/s drives)?

Or, am I better off simply creating a 3+ disk set-up with additional drives - regardless of the interface (i.e. 6Gb/s vs. 3Gb/s shouldn't matter)?

Would adding 2 more independent drives seem to suit my needs?

Finally, if adding more independent drives, would you recommend SATA 7200 RPM in 500GB-750GB or would the larger capacity 1TB-2TB be fine?

THANKS!

E

elasater

New Participant

Excellent topic & guidelines! Thank you for posting.

Does anyone have input on a HD set up using two separate computers for editing (the same projects)?

I work on two computers (work & home office) with a single 1TB external HD (7200 SATA) that currently contains all my footage, project files and the media cache files. Both computers are set up with two internal drives each (of varying sizes). Most of my projects are DV, AVCHD or HDV. (Canon HG10/Sony HVR-5U cameras) Both computers are also set up to use the external drive with the same drive letter. I hate mentioning this - I know you'll all cringe - eSATA has been spotty on both computers (it might be the drive case - a new one is on the way), so I've been working primarily with USB2 on the external drive. When the new case gets here, I'm hoping that the eSATA will prove to work reliably.

Since the project would need to re-do the media cache files when plugged into each computer, what would be a better way to approach that dilema?

Setting everything up on one drive seemed to be the easiest way to avoid loosing the most current cache files, but after reading through all of this - it makes me think twice.

R

Rob_de_Boer

New Participant

A few weeks ago I got my new system. I took a good look at my budget and based my HDD setup on the recommendation in the first post of this thread.

I have done the PPBM5 benchmark twice. Once with my system at stock speeds, and once with an overclock on CPU and memory. The overclocked system runs every test faster than the system at stock speeds, except for the disk intensive AVI encoding, which shows a 43 second worse performance! On my total benchmarktime it even more than cancels out the gain I get from the better scores on the other tests. Both runs were done with version 5.0.3. Bill Gehrke already let me know that 5.0.3 for some reason has worse disk io performance than 5.0.2, but considering I ran both times in the same version that should not be an explanation.

The reason I post this in this thread is that I'm wondering if performance should increase if I change my HDD setup. Which currently is as follows:

C: 120GB SSD: OS and programs

D: 1TB 7200 SATA: Adobe Media Cache and Windows Pagefile

E: 1TB 7200 SATA: Footage, other media and Adobe project files

F: 1TB 7200 SATA: Adobe Exports and Adobe Preview files

All 1TB HDD's are identical WD Caviar blacks,

This basically follows Harm's guideline for a 4 disk setup. However, other options are mentioned for a 4 disk setup. Somewhere in this thread they are named 4a and 4b, and both involve a RAID 0 setup of the Export disk (F in my case) and either the Pagefile disk (D in my case) or the project disk (E in my case).

My question is simple. Will setting up a RAID 0 in either of those two options going to (substantially) increase my performance? If so, which option would increase my performance most?

I work predominantly with AVCHD files (1080p 50fps) and some CPU intensive plugins.

Don't know if this is relevant, but my other specs are:

Core i7 950 (3.8 GHz OC)

12 GB RAM -1600 (1680MHz OC)

Gigabyte 460 GTX (815 MHz factory OC)

Windows 7

Other than that I'm really clueless about an explanation for the weird results that I mentioned in the first part of my post. If anyone has any ideas they're more than welcome to share it. I haven't changed anything on the multipliers for the uncore clock and QPI, so they have both gone up with the bCLK increase. So that is probably no explanation.

Slightly different, but maybe even more important question: Does it matter for my use of premiere pro? Considering I'm only working with highly compressed AVCHD files (max around 27 Mb/s).

Woops, that's already three big questions in my first post ever to this forum. Sorry about that. Didn't mean to come barging in like that... I also sent Bill Gehrke an e-mail about this, but I figured I should stop harassing him with all these questions and put em where they're supposed to go, which is here.

R

Rob_de_Boer

New Participant

Hi again,

Is there anyone who has any thoughts on any of the questions I have regarding:

1. my disk setup (will raid improve my performance?)

2. and the disk io performance on the ppbm5 benchmark with and without an overclocked system?

3. the importance of disk performance for my specific use of premiere pro (mainly avchd files)

Please see my post of january 10th for a more elaborate explanation. Any input is very much appreciated!

Regards,

Rob

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

Where is the post?

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EstebanMartin

New Participant

i dont understand,

i have two discs 500gb x 2, the fastest should be used for the SO/pagefile and the other for media/project/cache ?

i used one for project/pagefile/exports and other for media.

what is the best config to use ?

A

Anonymous

I too am still a bit confused about this myself, but I am getting a bit closer. I think it really depends on how many drives you have at your disposal that will determine how you are going to set up Premire Pro. According to Adobe by default the scratch disk files are stored where you save your project. But as as sequences become larger, the amount of disk space increases. Adobe recommends that you dedicate a hard disk or disks strictly for your media. This disk/disks should be separate from where you keep your OS, Apps and Project Files. If you have many disks at your disposal, you could dedicate a different disk for each kind of asset like captured video, captured audio, etc. But, you could just as easily have your media disk (the one separate from the OS/Apps and Project File) have folders in them to keep you assets organized. Adobe recommends that your fastest disk be the one for the scratch files that are accessing the media.

I was advised by PaulieDC to use a fast Raptor (10,00rpm) for my OS and apps and I guess this is where I will also keep my project files now as well. But the scratch disk will be my three 7200rpm disks set up in RAID 5. Adobe advises to use the fastest drives for the scratch. In my case, a 10,00rpm drive vs three drives in RAID 5 on a RAID card probably are pretty close in speed and I prefer to have the redundancy where my media files are located in order to provide ample back up.

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Anonymous

PaulieDC and Wonderspark

,

Got everything set up. It was as easy as erasing the Volume and keeping the RAID in place. No problem. Main drive for OS, Apps and project files is the WD Raptor 600GB 10,000rpm

My RAID drive is where all the scratch is going to take place with all of my media files which I will organize on the RAID when I open each project.

I have to now install the drivers and CUDA for the NVIDIA Quadro 4000 and then drop her in place. I have an edit to work on this weekend so I will hit the ground running. I also decided to return the iOmega 2TB external drive Firewire 800 in exchange for a G-Tech 1TB External RAID drive that I will run in RAID 1 through eSATA (have to mod the Mac for that). I will use this drive for Time Machine and for storage from compoleted work done on the internal RAID.

Here is a question regarding this. Am I able to designate different locations for different projects. For example, I would want to use the external RAID 1 drive to work on projects that I know I will need to work on with other editors on other computers, so having that one designated for these projects would be nice so I can easily move it back and forth. The rest of my projects (the majority) will all be done internally.

Also, what files do I need to copy over from my internal RAID to my external storage so that I can store them and open them later if I need to. I do not want to junk up my internal RAID with a bunch of old footage from old projects as I move forward.

Thanks.

A

Anonymous

Thank you, Harm for an excellent guide!

I have the following setup:

OS: Win 7 64 - Ultimate

MB: Gigabyte GA-EX58-Extreme

CPU: Intel Core i7 975X

RAM: 24GB, (6x4 GB Mushkin DDR3 1333)

GFX: Nvidia GTX285

RAID: 3ware 9750-4i

Single Drives:

OS Drive: 7,200 SATA 500GB

Prog Drive: 7,200 SATA 500GB

Page file and Misc.: 7,200 e-SATA 1TB

RAIDS:

Projects, Media, Render etc.: 4 x 1TB SAS2 RAID-5

Backups: 4 x 1TB SATA RAID-5 (e-SATA)

I have one question; My read speed from the SAS raid averages about 400MB/s which I think is OK, but the write speed is about 80-100 MB/s. Is that normal, is that a result of the nature of RAID-5 over 4 disks?

Thanks,

Magnus

ECBowen

Inspiring

Set your write policy for the raid volume properties to "Always Write Back"

Eric

ADK

FITB STUDIOS

New Participant

OK PaulieDC Here we go:

Currently waiting on the WD VelociRaptor 600GB 10,000rpm drive. (Never thought I would say that, I now sound like a total tech geek)

The set up will be this:

Mac Pro 8 Core 2.4 GHz with Intel Xeon Processors

16GB RAM

NVIDIA Quadro 4000 Grpahics Card

Mac Pro RAID Card

Three 1TB SATA Drives 7200rpm in a RAID 5 Configuration for audio and video assets

One WD Veloci Raptor 600GB 10,000rpm drive for OS and Apps

One iOmega 2TB Firewire 800 external drive for back up and storage.

Oh, and one large debt on my credit card.

It looks like the set up will be easy. Just install new drive. Designate new drive as boot drive for OS and Apps. Go into disk utility and wipe the RAID clean of OS and Apps. Install all apps on WD. and I am off to the races with Pr Pro CS 5 for video and Logic Studio for audio.

I will let you know how this pans out after I get it set up.

Bill

Just a thought for you Billy, or was it Pauly. Crap I have lost track. Anyways who ever it was that is setting this up and is a wedding videographer. Here is my experience as I shoot weddings myself. My other screen name was Switch7 from much earlier in this thread. I am sure you read through my build. I couldn't log in with that name for some strange reason so I created a new account. Anyways.

If you plan to shoot a summer of wedding footage. 3 - 1Tb drives in raid 5 will not be enough storage for you. I started out with a similar set up but had 4 640's in raid 5 which gives less than 2Tb. The same you will have. It will fill up quickly. I shoot about 250GB of footage per wedding and if your shooting 10 - 12 weddings in a summer, well you do the math.

What I ended up doing is building an external Raid 5 array with the $300 Sans Digital stand alone external raid Box it has 5 slots, currently I have 4 2TB WD Blacks in there. (Not ideal raid drives I know, but cheap with tons of speed and storage) I now have over 5.45TB after all the conversions and no editing issues. Man that feels like highway robbery, 8tb labeled down to 5.45tb? Sheesh. But I digress. With all my footage stored externally, connected through eSata. I get all the benefits, plus enough storage to get me through a summer. And to top it off. If there is a fire in my building it is much easier to run away with a fully isolated raid box, over my massive computer. Thus keeping my business assets safe and project files safe.

On a side note I also have every wedding I shoot backed up on Individual WD 320Gb External USB Drives and kept off site in a safe deposit box. Peace of mind is worth the whopping $28 a year I pay for my Safe box. LOL

Something to think about.

Malata

New Participant

New to all this, but I've been reading for days now. Thanks for all your help.......... One source of confusion.

Yesterday I found this here (somewhere) C: OS & Programs

D: Projects & Scratch

E: Media

Now, at the begining of this thread I see your table. Does the difference matter??

Thanks, Tom B.

Draal Lala

New Participant

I'm not sure I understand your recommendations for four disks. "D: or E: and F: can be run in Raid0". Does that mean D: and F: or E: and F:? Or does it mean D: or E: and F:? That's not the same. Hope you understand my confusion.

I run automatically in this four disk configuration because the SSD I would like to buy (C300) has excellent reads but slow writes. So it is good for OS/Programs and bad for the page file.

Harm_MillaardAuthor

Inspiring

The first one:

Does that mean D: and F: or E: and F:?

Sorry for not being clearer.

Draal Lala

New Participant

I still don't understand

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