help with hdd configuration

only thing I might say is make sure on the scratch partition for best performance make the scratch the outer most partition

 

If a drive is only used as a Photoshop scratch disc, is partitioning necessary? BTW, I understand why an outer partition is faster than an inner partition. Assuming the previously used scratch disc area becomes available again after Photoshop closes a file, I would assume new scratch data will replace it. I'm just wondering if Photoshop's scratch data is always written to the outmost available area of a non-partitioned disc.

If only one drive is available for a scratch disc, is it best to have two partitions; one for Photoshop scratch, and a second for Illustrator or other apps that need a scratch disc. I often work with Photoshop and Illustrator files at the same time.

 

no partitions are not needed and in some cases could be slower !

I might say yes a single HDD for scratch will be just as fast as dedicated partition in real world ? but why waste the space and take a maybe when you can have a for sure




NOW !
also take what I read as a person who makes a living and every minute is a big thing to me so if I can shave 5 minutes a day its worth it ! if this is a hobby then dont worry so much

for the scratch for one or the other program ? no it can all be on the same as long as its large enough ? and chances are when you are doing this you are using one program at a time anyway so size does not usually need to be huge (meaning 100 gigs most likely works but 1TB wont be needed)


as I understand about the data writing to the outer most part ? and I could be wrong
since HFS+ journaling on can kinda auto defrag and keep things to the outer parts it should be fine ?
but it also tries not to write to fragmented parts so the bigger area you give it to play the more it will move around ?
in real world speed I dont think you would ever notice it ?
but on paper in theory keeping it to a smaller partition is better some say ? since it can manage itself better and keep you in a set area of the disc which is faster
the downside is a scratch does not need journal turned on ? some say you can take a performance hit with it on ? so it should be off and the above I think are when journaling is turned on ? so again a double edge sword
and the fact scratch is about a lot on and off and not as contiguous read of data as in a file its on off its done so if it goes on fragmented who cares if it can get put together later its to late then

I will let someone with more experience in this area expand or correct me ?
I sometimes care less about why and more about if it works and putting them together !
and the underlying of HFS+ is not a big deal to me since its what we use


I do know as a PS person and tech I try to put more time in to making things fast and understand storage quite well and when faced with a option to do something like keep the partition small and the reasons above I have read and then thought about make sense

also why waste that space that can be used

also from my own experience and others if you have two HDDs one is slower and one is faster and your files are on the faster HDD putting the scratch on that drive is going to be better than a scratch on a slower HDD even though its writing to the same drive as your files ! which I try to avoid
meaning some say OH yeah I am using my firewire as scratch !!! or I am using my old laptop HDD as scratch ! meaning two HDD that are worlds apart not meaning two modern fast HDD (more on this at the end of my post)


so the bottom line is what is your fastest drive going to be is the one you want for scratch ! if that fastest HDD is also your primary storage then point it to that and let PS and the file system manage it ! PS is very good at writing scratch along with files !!!


now a dedicated scratch on the same speed of HDD is going to be a touch faster when it hits it over one with the files on it also ? I have not tested or read yet how CS5 handles this ? so I always could be wrong

so I guess you can say if you have two identical HDD and one is BU then I would say partition it out

if your main HDD is your fastest say you have a single new WD black 2TB and some WD green for bu I would point my scratch at my 2TB and be happy


if I had two WD 2TB blacks I would do the partition thing on the other one ?


if I had two 1TB fast drives Hitachi and a fast WD 2TB black ? where the HDD are close to speed but the black 2TB is faster ? its only going to be faster when empty and that single fast modern 1TB I bet will be faster on its outer than the 2TB when its %40 full ? and since many put more than they should on storage ? again i feel a dedicated partition is worth it



hope that makes sense and sorry for my bad writing skills

 

I have just bought a Mac Pro and learning the delights of configuring it hence your thread is interesting!

Any reason why you have a seperate drive for windows?? Wouldnt Parallels on the SSD boot disc give better performance??

Out of interest why are you using a green and black drive? Is there a specific reason for this??

 

I know this was aimed at the OP but my thoughts are if one is a BU might as well be quiet

also my setups I always get other HDs for bu ? if my main storage is WD my backups are on Hitachi and vice versa
this way if the freak bad drive bug shows its head I hope I protect myself from it ?

I am slowly switching all my backups to slower HDDs that consume less with over 50+ some HDDs spinning here and 3 towers and running twin 30s etc.. I would not mind bringing down our electric bill and noise a bit