Need help with configuring with current drive scheme...Thanks!

OK few thoughts here

scratch discs should be on the fastest HDD you can ?

also your work and your boot should not be on the same drive that includes partitions separating the info ?
my analogy is a file cabinet if you had to put away info and kept having to open the bottom drawer and close the top then repeat or just have one drawer open which is going to be quicker ?


the 2 drawer is having partition on the same disc accesses at the same time !!


so scratch for PS is great to have but unless you are running into it ? that depends
how much memory do you have ? what mac is it ?
how big are your files you are working on ?
check the efficiency of PS in use search efficiency with my name I outlined it a couple times
and if your efficiency drops below %100 then check the scratch if the left number is bigger than the right number get more memory


so that being said

1) wd black boot 2 partitions outer about 200 gigs but never go over half full for your boot !!!! use the extra space just for archive kinda stuff or 3rd layer of important data to BU

2) wd black data and scratch just point PS to this drive no partitions never fill your working drive over %60 ! if this is not enough room then get a 2TB black for data and we can do a new setup but for now lets work with what you listed

3) partition into two pieces 200 gigs and 800 gigs use the 200 to make a clone of your boot ! and the extra 800 for data !

external as your TM thats good

1.5 TB ? what kind of connection is this ? Iuse this to BU your stuff offsite offline
partition into two
1) 200 gigs clone of boot
2) 1.3 TB rest for your data ! then bring this off site and store it ! bring it back once a week and update ! this will help if you have a fire or theft etc..

 

the only reason you would want to partition the boot is to just have a nice small boot space on a large disc and keep it to the outside for the speed

you can use the extra space for backup ! basically anything you do is better if you are not trying to do two things at once with a disc !


the one exception is scratch for PS is pretty good at working on the same disc as files ! its not as good as dedicated but at the same time if I had a drive with my data on it and its 7200 vs a dedicated scratch at 5400 RPM the 7200 sharing files will almost always be quicker ! I have tested this theory ? so this is my testing my setup I found it better now that said I do use 2 SSD in raid 0 for my scratch cause I want every inch I can get for performance

but if I had the choice like yours I would take the 7200

not sure how your hitachi is hooked up ? if its FW then it wont be a good scratch if its eSATA ? then it might be a good scratch

not sure what your memory is ? 4 sticks of 4 ? or 2 sticks of 8 ?
my files get up around 300 megs mostly doing touch up and I sit at about 18 megs used so I have 24 in my machine and the fast scratch of SSD

for the size of files you are working with ? I might say think about getting a dedicated scratch ? or up your ram ? but again that checking efficiency and scratch will really help you know if you need to do anything and what you need to do ?
remember that efficiency is for the last action you do or last step you do so if a action has 7 steps its not the complete action but each one so keep a eye on it as you go along

the scratch is basically left side number what the file is using the right side number is what the machine has left to use ! the efficiency is just that how efficient things are

on my large complex actions I have a purge built into them so I can clear out and keep the machine quicker

so my action step would be make a snapshot call it say
Pre BW conversion then do a purge this way you can click that snapshot and be back where you were if you do not like it and you dont need to save all those complex steps in memory and scratch space etc.. hope that makes sense but its a good tip when working with big files

also save in uncompressed tiff !

you might want to get a 2TB drive like a WD black use for data in bay 2
then in bay 4 use one of your 1 TB drives and partition the outer say 200 gigs for scratch and use that for PS ? for those large files it will help


the idea of using that 1.5 is still a good idea for security of off site if you can