Partitions, SATA, Ultrabay, aargh. I'd Love To Hear Ideas...

[CRSO]

I am a music producer and I HAVE to use Windows XP because my Tascam Digital Audio Workstation doesn't have Vista drivers plus, all of my software (Logic, Acid, Soundforge, Goldwave, etc.) runs a lot better on XP. Also, Iwant keep my audio stuff entirely separate from everything else (on a different HDD with a barebones XP OS). I don't want to install any other programs on that drive / OS except for Audio recording and playback programs.

Now, I also have music video's (a ton), a few thousand pictures (my wife is a photographer) and a buttload of documents. All the basic stuff everyone has but I want to keep that stuff seperate from my audio.

I have a T60 and have 2 HDD's that I use.
100GB SATA: Used for audio production only (70GB's)-Must stay in the main bay because of the SATA
160GB PATA: Everything else (85GB's)-Must stay in the ultrabay

I want to go back to XP for everything!!!

This is my dilemma:

I am currently booting to the 100GB SATA in the main bay and accessing the 160GB PATA in the ultrabay. I sometimes boot to Vista in the Ultrabay but what if I want to burn a disc or watch a DVD? My main concern is that I want to be able to have ALL of my information on one drive.

I currently back everything up onto a 250GB external drive. I simply drag and drop the folders (easiest way for me, I can actually see all the files moving over) because I don't trust compresion, images, backup software, etc.

1. No drive is big enough for all my stuff. I had everything on the 160GB but only had 5GB's left. I cannot even use the 160GB in the main bay now due to the fact that it is a PATA. The only SATA drive I have is the 100GB that came with my new T60.

2. I don't want to fork out more ca$h on a huge SATA drive. I just bought a 100GB PATA and 160GB PATA when I was using my T43. I just got such a good deal on this T60 and this SATA stuff just banged me out....

3. If I do get everything onto a bigger drive, should I just partition it or something? I've NEVER used a partition before and am new to it. I can diagnose the hell out of any networking, hardware, software, etc problem but have no idea if a partition would benefit me.

Any ideas are greatly appreciated!

[mgo]

Some good questions here, and it all sounds a bit more complex than necessary, I my reading of your post.

Your thoughts seem to be:
1: Vista vs XP
2: backups
3: SATA vs PATA
4: partitioning your drives

1: if XP works for your production chores, the answer is clear. Stick with XP. Vista isn't ready for you as a computer user at this time. Maybe later.
2: drag and drop as backup? Risky. One slip of the old mouse and then files could get sent to the wrong destination. Drag and drop is too much work, and when you stop to think about it, Copy and Paste (which is what Drag and Drop really is) -is- software...embedded in the operating system. And in Vista, Drag and Drop is horribly slow due to some bugs in that operating system's file handling Bureaucracy.

I suggest Synchback (try the freeware version first) or XXCOPY or even Microsoft's own built in XCOPY. They are proven reliable. I've used the paid version of SyncBack (like to support the creators of the program) for around $30.00 until I was guided to a stand alone version of Microsoft's Robocopy which is XCOPY on steroids. I could send you the download link for that freeware if you ever want it.

3: if you're stuck with SATA...well it's a pretty good protocol and PATA is fine, too. Not much a person can do about how the machine handles the drives.

4: I partition for One Big Reason. To isolate the operating system and programs from my data. Then, when it is necessary to re-image my machine, personal data on the second partition is not disturbed.

I just sense that you are swimming upstream against your own equipment and you do not have to work so hard to get the results that you want and need.

-just my thoughts....

[CRSO]

Some good questions here, and it all sounds a bit more complex than necessary, I my reading of your post.

Your thoughts seem to be:
1: Vista vs XP
2: backups
3: SATA vs PATA
4: partitioning your drives

Exactly!
1. I am going to use XP Pro exclusively
2. I just liked the simplicity of copy and paste. I would copy a folder to the backup drive and then delete the older folder I copied a few weeks ago. I guess I should look into a backup program like you recommended?
3. I will have to convert all over to SATA I guess. I can however use PATA in the ultrabay but am stuck with the 100GB SATA as my main drive
4. Should I partition my data seperate from everything else? That sounds like an awesome idea. I knew I should have looked into partitioning a long long time ago.

Say I get a 200GB SATA for my main drive... I could make partition 1 my XP OS, Partition 2 (80GB) my audio files, and Partition 3 everythig else???

If I do a partition, can I put two separate copies of XP on two different partitions? One XP with only Audio Programs installed (I want to have no crap running (systray stuff, etc) when I'm recording or DJ'ing with Serato) and the other XP with my Adobe Master Collection, Maya, Vegas, etc?

Also, if I do the 200GB SATA in the main bay, what can I do with the 100GB SATA (or 160GB PATA or 100GB PATA) in the ultrabay?

[mgo]

Regarding your most recent remarks:
>1. I am going to use XP Pro exclusively -good idea, it's a stable and mature operating system.
>2. I just liked the simplicity of copy and paste. I would copy a folder to the backup drive and then delete the older folder I copied a few weeks ago. -Yikes, too much work! Something like the freeware SyncBack or RoboCopy would just copy new files only, delete the old unwanted files and get done in a flash, after the first big copy job. SynkBack is loaded with excellent options so you can custom create your backup.
>3. I will have to convert all over to SATA I guess. I can however use PATA in the ultrabay but am stuck with the 100GB SATA as my main drive -SATA and PATA are for the most part just different physical connections, and PATA is a little faster because it is newer and more developed.
>4. Should I partition my data seperate from everything else? -Oh yes. Operating system and programs on drive C: and other data on any other partitions you would want to create. One for pictures, one for music, etc.
>If I do a partition, can I put two separate copies of XP on two different partitions? -I do not mess with dual boot, i just use separate hard drives that I plug in, or a separate computer dedicated to a specific task. Two instances of the same XP license on the same hard drive but on different partitions would likely flag a licensing violation and you would have to re-activate the XP. Better to bite the bullet and buy another copy of XP for another machine or another hard drive. For reasons too long to enumerate here, Windows will poll your hardware and yell if there are too many differences (like another partition)
>Also, if I do the 200GB SATA in the main bay, what can I do with the 100GB SATA (or 160GB PATA or 100GB PATA) in the ultrabay? -if I read your question right, that other drive would be for your additional data, or for backups of what's on your main drive. If your personal data is really very important, a separate USB hard drive for a 3rd backup would be an excellent idea.

-hope this long post is somewhat helpful...

[ptantra]

4. Should I partition my data seperate from everything else? That sounds like an awesome idea. I knew I should have looked into partitioning a long long time ago.

Say I get a 200GB SATA for my main drive... I could make partition 1 my XP OS, Partition 2 (80GB) my audio files, and Partition 3 everythig else???

Yes, you can do that. Each partition would be assigned a drive letter. So in your example, C:\ would be XP, D:\ Your audio files, E:\ Everything else, F:\ your DVD\CD-ROM drive (or maybe your ultrabay drive), etc.

If I do a partition, can I put two separate copies of XP on two different partitions? One XP with only Audio Programs installed (I want to have no crap running (systray stuff, etc) when I'm recording or DJ'ing with Serato) and the other XP with my Adobe Master Collection, Maya, Vegas, etc?

Guess you can do that if you intend to dual boot. Install both XP's to separate primary (bootable) partitions, and leave your data partitions as logical/extended partitions. I used to partition drives all the time. Now-a-days, I just have one partition per drive.

Quite frankly, with such huge amounts of RAM and disk space available today, I'm not sure it's necessary to partition drives anymore. I think with XP's Disk management tool, you can change the drive assignments so they're consistent no matter which version of XP you booted into.

Also, if I do the 200GB SATA in the main bay, what can I do with the 100GB SATA (or 160GB PATA or 100GB PATA) in the ultrabay?

Put the stuff you don't really need to access all the time?

[CRSO]

Thanks mgo and ptantra!

I think my questions have been answered. I will look for a 200 or 250GB Main SATA drive, partition out 2 OS's (I'll have to dual boot to have audio on the "audio only" OS partition) and a partition for the rest of my crap.

I guess I'll get a Vantec Drive Enclosure and put my PATA's in there to free up my DVDRAM.

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