Dual hard drive for PC?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 9:42 am

I am exploring the realm of PC recording and attempting to learn as much as I can before making a decision. Besides reading everything I can off the forums on this website, I read Home Recording for Dummies. The author states that when purchasing a PC it is important to have dual hard drives, one for the song your are recording and one for the program you are using.

Do any of you have thoughts on this? Perhaps I am missing what he is really saying but I've not read anything about dual hard drives in the messages on these forums.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 10:53 am

The idea is so that you can stream audio data froj one disk and get your program and OS data from the other disk simultaneously. This way you avoid any performance bottlenecks.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:30 pm

So, is this what others are doing? Or can one hard drive do the work without backing up?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:55 pm

Everyone I know, including me, does things this way.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 1:54 pm

Are people using a zip drive or something like that for their second hard drive?

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:35 pm

Usually it's an IDE, SATA, or Firewire.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:38 pm

No, a zip drive probably won't do you much good. Many people like myself will use 2 internal (inside the computer case) hard drives. One for Windows+programs, and the other larger one just for your audio projects and files. For instance I have two IDE UltraATA100 internal hard drives: Western Digital 60 GB for system/programs, and a 120 GB Seagate Barracuda for audio files.
If you are planning on recording/mixing several tracks at once, I would recommend doing something similar.

Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2004 3:51 pm

I like using external FW drives for my portable needs. I can take a FW HD enclosure to my tracking room, lay some tracks, and even "Save" the project parameters. I can then simply take the FW HD home, where I can open the project exactly as it was at the tracking room, and mix away! Then, when I get a good rough mix, I can save that, and bring the FW HD back to the Tracking Room for overdubs. Using external FW drives also frees up the OS drive to do its thing (just like a second internal HD would).

You don't HAVE to buy $$$ Glyph FW drives (but I hear they are good). I buy empty 5.25" FW enclosures for about $40 (MUST be fan cooled for reliability and the 5.25" size allows more air flow - I like Aluminum ones for better heat dissapation, too), and fill them up with "OEM" Hard Drives, and save tons of money over Glyph or lesser brands. Glyph does not make their own drives, so they are likely using good quality HD's just like I am. Instead of paying $300 for the "overnight replacement" benefits of a solo Glyph, I just build 2 or 3 external drives for the same price, and I already have my "Overnight Replacement" in front of me Wink

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