Yet another thread on Hard Drive setups (sorry!) and file management
Magic81587 May 8, 2013 5:56 PMHey all,
So I have done some reading on the forums on the subject of hard drive setups with Premiere Pro projects, and have found some great information out there so far. However, I was hoping to get some advice on my specific situation. I apologize for cluttering the forums with yet another post on hard drive setups. I also apologize for the incoming long post!
Some basic info on my situation.
I'm using both PPro and AE CS6 on Windows 7, 64 bit. I am considering upgrading to Windows 8 at some point though if that is recommended. I'm only working with AVCHD footage right now, but will hopefully take on higher end formats in the future. I also currently use an external sound recorder so I have separate audio files.
Breaking the parts down, it looks like the main components I'm dealing with are:
OS, Programs, Windows Pagefile, Projects, Cache/Scratch/Previews, Media, Exports, and Backup
Based on what I do now and reading through some posts, I've come up with the below minimum disk setup. I would appreciate any and all feedback (on both the hard drive setup and my file management!).
OS, Programs, Windows Pagefile
128GB SSD - Samsung 840 Pro or similar
Projects and Media
Unknown HDD (Any suggestions? Maybe something I can RAID in the future?)
Right now my folder organization is like this:
Cache/Scratch/Previews/Exports
WD Caviar Black 1TB - This is a 3 year old hard drive that I already own. Would this be a good place to use it? Have the Caviar Blacks changed at all in the last few years?
Would exporting to the drive with Cache/Scratch/Previews be slow? My hope was that this would be faster than exporting to the Projects and Media drive, and there wouldn't be any room on the OS and Programs drive to export there. I would then later copy the final finished render back into the [Project Folder] on the Projects and Media drive just for good housekeeping.
Backup
Seagate Backup Plus - 1TB (USB 3.0)
I routinely run a backup of all the projects I'm working on to this external. (I just mirror the entire [Project Folder] of every project I'm working on to this hard drive after each editing session).
I am not necessarily against adding more hard drives to this setup, but I would be looking for two things:
1. I don't over complicate the "housekeeping" needed for project folders and backing things up.
2. I am seeing a decent to significant increase in performance for the cost. I am not yet in the situation on having strict client deadlines to meet (I mostly just do personal projects or videos for friends/family, but my hope is to one day get there).
So looking to expand, what is the next step I should take if I can add one more hard drive? This is where I start to see diverging opinions on the forum. Below are a few I've either seen or thought of myself:
- Separate the Projects and Media onto two drives.
- Separate Scratch (this is what people mean by preview files, correct?) and Exports from the Cache.
- Run a RAID 0 for the Projects and Media for a performance increase.
Which would give me the best increased performance if I could only do one? I've also never touched RAID, so I'd have to do some more digging on that. I'd rather not take that option if it involves buying RAID controllers. Would a two drive RAID 0 work in either Windows 7 or 8 with no extra hardware needed?
I think that's all for now! I appreciate any feedback you can give me!
- Dan




