Generic Guideline for Disk Setup

There have been many questions about how to set up your disks.
Where do I put my media cache files, where the page file, and what about my preview files?
All these allocations can be set in PR, so I made this overview to help you find some settings that may be beneficial. It is not a law to do it like this, it is a generic approach that would suit many users, but depending on source material, workflow and backup possibilities, it is not unthinkable you need to deviate from this approach in your individual case.
The reasoning behind this overview is that you want to distibute disk access across as many disks as possible and get the best performance.
Look for yourself:
I hope this helps to remove doubts you may have had about your setup or to find a setup that improves performance.

Hi Harm,
Thank you for the disk guidance.  Per your advice, I am going to reorganize my disks and get rid of my RAID 0  I have three 1TB disk, and one 320 GB disk.
Which disk should I use the 320 GB one?  I'm thinking Pagefile, Media Cache.
I have an ASUS P6X58D motherboard and I can use two SATA 3 drives.  Although it seems like current SATA 3 drives aren't much better than the SATA 2 drives, when I get SATA 3 drives, which ones would benefit the most for performance?
Aloha,
Roy

Similar Messages

  • Specifics for Guidelines for Disk Usage

    Using PPro CS4.  Over a year ago I set up my four hard  drives to follow the Guidelines found on this forum.  I'm using four 7200rpm hard drives. Each is one terabite.  Two are SATA and two are eSATA.   However, there are some things that are not specifically mentioned and/or my technical understanding and vocabulary is limited.
    1.  What's the difference in Media Cache Files and Media cache database ?  Should I make separate folders on one hard drive for each or should I select both of these to go to the same folder?
    2.  Which hard drive should select to be my scratch disc?
    3. Finally, how do I select the Pagefile to be sure it goes to a specific drive?
    4.  Where do I find "Previews" to direct them to the proper drive??
    Sorry, if some of these questions make you "roll-your-eyes" .  thanks for your help.
      Thanks,  Tom B.
    I'm following this guide as shown:   C:  OS, Programs
                                                           D: Media, Projects
                                                           E: Pagefile, Media Cache
                                                           F: Previews, Exports

    I'd recommend changing to the following setup for best speed.
    C: OS/Programs
    D: Projects/Cache/Scratch (Previews)
    E: Media
    F: Exports
    Let Windows manage the page file.  You gain nothing by moving it, and can lose big time if you don't set it correctly.
    Also, you can leave the Database where PP puts it.  The files are very small.

  • Need advice on Hardware & Disk Setup for Premiere Pro CS6

    I am about to purchase a Mac Pro and after reading threads on hardware requirements & different disk setups I am still a little unsure which way to go. If someone could point me in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
    Firstly this system will be used primarily for the following tasks: Editing AVCHD media (Sony HDR-XR550) and burning to disk with light editing, Creating Web Videos from AVCHD Media, editing images in Ps & Lr. This is strictly a hobby for me and I will also use the machice for some light AutoCad work.
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    2.     If I can stretch my budget to include another SSD then again, should I make it C: D: E: or F:?
    Thanks in advance for any advice.

    Hi Harm (& Jim),
    After much deliberation I agree with you and Jim. I am not sure what I was thinking!
    I have decided to build my own machine based around your reccomendations in previous posts. Could you please look over the system specifications and offer any suggestions or comments?
    Chassis
    Lian Li PC-A77
    $ 375.00
    PSU
    Corsair CMPSU-850AX Professional Series Gold AX850 PSU
    $ 210.00
    Motherboard
    Asus P9x79 WS Motherboard
    $ 469.00
    CPU
    Intel Core i7 3930K 3.2GHz CPU   
    $ 615.00
    CPU cooler
    Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Universal CPU Cooler
    $ 40.00
    RAM
    G.Skill Ripjaws X F3-12800CL10Q-32GBXL 32GB (4x8GB) DDR3
    $ 285.00
    GPU
    Gigabyte GV-N66TOC-2GD NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 Ti 2048M
    $ 319.00
    Disk
    SAMSUNG MMSASSD840P128 SAMSUNG 840 PRO SERIES 128GB SSD
    $ 135.00
    Disk
    (3 of) Western Digital WD VelociRaptor 1TB 10,000RPM SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drives
    Owned
    Disk
    (2 of) Western Digital WD Black WD2002FAEX 3.5" 2TB SATA 6.0Gb/s Hard Drives
    $ 320.00
    Burner
    LG BH16NS40.AYBU10B LGE OEM BH16NS40 BLK BluRay Burner, 14xBD-R Read/ Write, 16xDVD+-R Read/ Write, SATA, Silt Play, M-Disc Support [BH16NS40.AYBU10B]
    $ 88.00
    TOTAL BUILD COST in Australian Dollars
    $ 2856.00
    I have a few questions if you would be kind enough to help.
    Is the RAM specified compatible with the rest of my system?
    Do you think the GPU is over spec? Could you recommend an alternative if so?
    What would be the optimal disk configuration with the proposed disks? I would consider another WD Black if it would make a significant difference.
    Do you have any other suggestions where this system could be improved whilst keeping the budget around the same value?
    Many thanks,
    Rich

  • Disk Setup Recommendation (1xssd,1x7200rpm,1x5400rpm)

    @Hi!
    Any recommendation on how I should set up my disks for Premiere?
    I currently have one ssd, one 1TB 7200rpm black western digital and one 2TB 5400rpm green western digital hard drive.
    I tried following this guide Generic Guideline for Disk Setup but would greatly appreciate a confirmation.
    Follow up question, would adding a second 640GB 5400rpm hard drive for a total of 2 green western digital drives help anything? If not then I will just leave the 640GB disk as an external and not take it apart.
    Thank you for your time.
    -owbert

    Don't use green drives. Get another 7200 RPM drive and use the green drive for backups only.

  • PC build and Disk Setup for a Pro-Wannabe

    Hi All,
    I know everyone asks these questions and I thought I will not but, when you spend more than $3000 it feels their is no "Harm" in asking the question (but hopefully their will be Harm somewhere in the comments).
    So, after waiting for the Mac Pro update for 2 years (just to fool myself that I may buy it), I have decided to move from the Mac OS to Windows after 4 years. I was only using a Macbook Pro to edit and feel now have the suitable experience to begin working on an actual machine.
    If you ask my budget, I didn't have any so I went on a buying frenzy with my credit cards and will hopfully be driven to work harder to pay it off .
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    Mobo - ASUS P9X79 Pro
    RAM - GSkillz 32GB (8GBx4) @ 1600MHz 9-9-9 (as 3930K is limited to 1600MHz and 1.5V)
    Will buy this same set around end of this year to make it 64GB if I feel AE would eat it.
    Cabinet - CoolerMaster Storm Stryker (was buying HAF-XM but could not resist the looks of this).
    PSU - Seasonic 860W Platinum Plus (Thought 1k is overkill and 750 not future proof, pricey though)
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    Samsung 840 (nonPro) - 128GB - 2 nos.
    Seagate 7200rpm HD - 2TB - 3 nos.
    Monitor (just fyi) - Dell U2412 (planning to buy ASUS PA '13 or Dell Ultra '13 24" after few months)
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    I ordered the ASUS GTX 680 4G as 780 was too costly
    but then I read the actual successor to 680 is 770. So I cancelled my 680 but the seller still has not confirmed, just hoping they cancel. Then it turns out 770-4G is not yet sold in my country (am not from the US) so I may import from US (surprisingly importing from Amazon with duties costs the same as probable street price in my country). So I will mot probably buy a..
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    As I plan to build this on my own, have not thought of overclocking as I am not a geek and feel I should first get comfortable. Fair thought?
    And hence I have not bought any additional Fans or Coolers.
    And now for the Question 2> disk setup! Can you please fill the blanks or suggest alternatives.
    This is what I have planned:
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    D: > Samsung 840 Pro 256GB: Previews and Renders and/or ____ ??
    E: > Samsung 840 128GB x 2 RAID-0 : Footage and ___ ?? (the 128GB version has slowest write speed so assigned it to footage)
    F: > Seagate 2TB x 2 RAID-0 HDD : Exports and General Personal Files (like Docs, Music)
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    And I plan to use my old external USB2/Firewire/USB3 external drives (500GB/1TB) for manual backups.
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    If you have made it till here, thanks for your time. Waiting for your comments.
    Cheers!
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    Regarding question #1, build list, and question #2 drive setup:
    everything looks great except...
    add a good cpu cooler; lots of good choices out there including but not limited to: budget: Cooler Master 212 EVO, high-performance air: Noctua NH-D14, simple liquid: Corsair H110, full water cooling: many options (full water cooling is a pain to plan and build, but ooooohhh so quiet!)
    RAM: suggest go for 64GB at the onset rather than trying to add RAM later
    definitely plan on overclocking - 4 Ghz is a walk in the park and very safe since you aren't totally comfortable with overclocking, and the performance gain is rather significant for renders, etc.
    One SSD is plenty to get started - 256GB would be good for OS, programs, as well as providing some room for AE and photoshop caching
    2 drives in RAID 0 would work pretty well for all projects, media, etc. If you really want to spend more in the drive area up the RAID to a 3 or 4 drive RAID
    Suggest putting your backup drive in a hot-swap tray so you can remove it and provide off-site backup capability
    Regards,
    Jim

  • What is the guideline and/or best practice for EMC setup on ASM?

    We are going to use EMC CX4-480 for ASM storage on RAC. What is the guideline and best practice for EMC setup on ASM?
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    Probably a poor choice of words. Sorry.
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    When I look at my Contact on the CRMOD web page, it shows the appropriate links back to the Account. But when I look at my Account on the CRMOD web page, it shows no Contacts.
    So when I say workflow or Best Practice, I was hoping for guidance on how to properly write my code to accomplish all of the necessary steps. As in this is how you insert an account with a contact(s) and it updates the appropriate IDs so that it shows up properly on the CRMOD web pages.
    Based on the above, it looks like I need to, as the next step, take the ContactID and update the Account with it so that their is a bi-directional link.
    I'm thinking there is a better way in doing this.
    Here is my psuedocode:
    AccountInsert()
    AccountID = NewAcctRec
    ContactInsert(NewAcctRec)
    ContactID = NewContRec
    AccountUpdate(NewContRec)
    Thanks,

  • Hard Disk Setup for Video Editing

    Dear Forum.
    My name is Tom Woods and I was hoping that you may be able to advise me or point me in the right direction, in regards to the question below....
      : ) Im not sure if you are in this area or not, my apologies to you if this is the case.. Here goes..
    I'm thinking of getting Adobe Production Premium installed where ill be using Photoshop, After Effects, and Premier Pro, and need some advice on my current Disk Setup to maximize performance to work with editing HD 1080i video.
    My question is;
    "Which of my internal 'Disks', do I assign the following processes to, these processes are;
    Photoshop: SCRATCH DISK
    After Effects: DISK CACHE
    Premier Pro: SCRATCH DISK Captured Video  / SCRATCH DISK Captured Audio  / SCRATCH DISK Video Previews  / SCRATCH DISK  Audio Previews   
    Premier Pro: MEDIA CACHE FILES / DATABASE
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    D: SSD - still considering size to purchase
    E: SSD - still considering size to purchase
    F: HDD - 500 GB (currently used for all Video Parts and all work)
    *Also, for drives D & E, what 'SIZE' in GB would they need to be for assigning the Scratch, Cache and other files mentioned above? (when i purchase them)*
    If you can help me out with this it would be totally amazing, im really stuck and finding internet advice very unclear..
    I appreciate you will be busy but I thought I would try here first for some help! Thank you so much for reading this so far...
    My Best regards to you
    Timmy

    Tom,
    Let's start with the terminology. Once you understand that, things will become a lot easier.
    MEDIA: Name for all the raw material you shot, whether video or pictures or audio recordings. It does not matter whether this was captured from tape based video cameras, or imported from card or disk based cameras.
    MEDIA CACHE: When Media are imported into a project, PR automatically creates three kind of files that are stored in the location you set up in the Preferences. They are .IMS files or indexed files, .CFA or conformed audio files and last .PEK files, that display the audio waveform in the timeline.
    MEDIA CACHE DATABASE: Also automatically created by PR and contains pointers to the files in the Media Cache.
    Note that occasionally the Media Cache and Media Cache Database can become corrupted and in that case it is a good idea to Clean the Media Cache from Preferences. When opening a project indexing, conforming and generation of PEK files is automatically done. Just be a bit patient for that process to finish.
    PREVIEWS: Also called RENDER files. When you render a timeline to turn the red bar into a green bar for preview purposes, PR stores .XMP files in the PRV directory location you have set in the Project Settings.
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    Media cache files are typically small and many, so here sustained R/W transfer rates are important, making it less than ideal to put them on a SSD, because the major drawback of SSD's is their limited and finite number of writes.
    Now Tom, to your specific situation:
    C: SSD for OS & programs.
    D: HDD for media and projects (because of the size of the media and frequent changes in projects).
    E: SSD for static page-file and exports.
    F: SSD for media cache and previews, although a HDD may give you better life expectancy but also slower performance.
    Maybe this article can be helpful as well, because it shows the impact of codecs on your system: Adobe Forums: What PC to build? An update...
    You may have to get additional HDD's for raid configuations, if you edit 4K material or 422 material, because it is all about transfer rates.
    To give you a rough indications of what you can expect from your drives, I suggest you get HD Tune Pro to test for yourself, but here are some indicative figures:
    SSD: R around 450 MB/s, W around 300 MB/s, depending on the brand/model in steady state with SATA 6G. SATA 3G is far slower. Sandforce controllers may top out around 250 MB/s W.
    HDD: R around 150 MB/s, W around 140 MB/s

  • Best disk setup for Premiere CS6

    Hello,
    I want to improve my disk setup for Adobe Premiere CS6 because I got long loading times.
    My current setup:
    Crucial RealSSD C300 60GB SSD for the program
    Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD for media and Media Cache Files
    Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD for projects and exports
    My planed setup:
    new: Kingston SSDNow V300 120GB SSD for the program
    Crucial RealSSD C300 60GB SSD for Media Cache Files
    2x Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB HDD with Raid 1 for media
    new: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB HDD for projects and exports
    Is this the best solution to improve the performance?
    Thanks
    Tim

    What is the advantage of getting an extra HDD for the exports?
    None from a performance point of view.
    And should I use the 60GB SDD for the Media Cache Files?
    That is much too small. Depending on your projects, you will need at least 256 GB, but possibly even more.
    With only 350 GB of media and projects, my media cache is already 72 GB.
    Read Harm's articles on disk setup, raids and balanced systems here: Tweakers Page

  • Disk setup for Laptop on Premiere Pro CS6

    So, I have read the guidlines on disk setup but I feel that it is geared towards a desktop setup. I would like to know how do I setup a laptop that has the three (3) HDD bays. I only have two drives on it and I am looking forward to buy a new one depending on how you guys reccomend it is set up. My OS disk is 128gb Crucial M4 and the second drive is a 7200 750GB seagate momentus xt. Which will eventually become:
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    External - cache/export/storage
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    Good, that is a strong laptop spec.
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    Suggest you buy it, configure it, and test it out to see if you have the drive speed with your workflow to max out your cores (monitor w/ task mgr) with just the two internal drives and nothing external. I don't have much personal experience with your particular codec (sounds like Canon DSLR?), but I suspect that you will be CPU bound more than disk I/O with this setup.
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    Jim

  • Ideal disk setup for MDFs, LDFs, TempDB, and cube files?

    I'm about to build an enterprise SQL Server that will run both OLTP and our data warehouse (OLAP).  What is the proper disk setup for data files, please?  Is it something like:
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    Please take a look at these URLs:
    How to configure the hard disks for optimal performance?
    Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server
    SQL Server Storage Best Practices
    T-SQL Articles
    T-SQL e-book by TechNet Wiki Community
    T-SQL blog

  • Disk Setup for CS4

    Hello All,
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    I orginally had it setup as a single Array (RAID 5 with online spare) with two partitions ( One for OS and program files, and one for storage and Scratch and Page file)on the array.  I wasnt getting very good performance so I decided to wipe and reconfigure.
    Would I be better off with 2 arrays? One array of 2 drives RAID 0(600 GB) for OS, Program Files, and Scratch Space. and the second array of 6 drives at RAID 5 (1.3 TB) for storage?
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    The speed of a 7-disk raid5 is far higher than a single disk. The speed degradation from a 7-disk to 6-disk raid may not outbalance the addition of a single disk for scratch.
    I am seriously considering to move 2 single disks to my raid array, so I end up with 2 x 7 disks in a Raid30.

  • Performance guidelines for individual HDD/SSDs?

    I really appreciate all the great computer building and system guideline information here in the hardware forum, but I've not found a thread which explains desirable individual hard drive and SSD performance characteristics, and how they pertain to video editing needs.
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    It would also be helpful to understand optimal task assignment based on performance information. I thought I had read one should use the fastest individual drive for previews...or was it for scratch disc? And I assumed the recommendation pertained to drives other than C:, but I hate to assume. And what type of "fastest" are we talking about?
    Note: I asked this question in the generic disk setup guidelines thread and was advised to start a new thread for it.

    These are all valid questions, but OTOH it may be you are oversearching in your quest for information. However to start with a site that delivers or better said, that used to deliver very valuable information about all kinds of disks, look here: http://www.storagereview.com/
    Lately their performance database seems to be rather out of date and very few new entries in the last year or so, but still very informative.
    The much touted IOPS for some SSD's are irrelevant for video editors. They are mainly useful if you have high transaction websites that need to access high volumes of very small files. Examples are news sites, webshops, etc.
    What is relevant for video editors? Generally it is about storing and accessing large files, even when one shoots short clips in the range of 3 or 4 seconds, but especially if one shoots longer clips, say interviews, wildlife, sceneries, live performances, etc. So for video editors sequential transfer rates are far more important than IOPS.
    Once the clips are ingested, they need to be easily accessible for sequential reading, but to add to that are the much smaller indexed, conformed and peak files that are stored in the media cache with pointer files in the media cache database and for these files random access times are more important than sequential transfer rates.
    However, people tend to forget that even more important than benchmark scores in various tests, fill rates can completely undo any advantage of a marginally faster disk. A disk that shows better benchmark performance than any other disk will in practice be slower than many other disks if its fill rate increases more than other disks. Say you have a disk that is a top performer with a capacity of 750 GB and you have a mediocre performing disk with a capacity of 2000 GB. In practice when you have 400+ GB stored on both disks, the smaller one is already showing performance degradation and the larger one is still going strong.
    The best way to improve performance on an editing rig is to increase the number of disks, to lower the fill rates and to expand raids to more disks. Expanding raids (notice the R, so I do not suggest this for aid0 because of the lack of redundancy) means that the performance of the raid controller will get more impact on the system and may be of bigger importance than the choice of the hard disk.
    If I were to build a new system today, I would have a serious look at the Hitachi 7K3000 series of disks, for instance the 2 or 3 TB models. Price/GB is very attractive, around € 0.045 per GB, performance is great and their reliability is reputed to be great and no longer deserve the 'Deathstar' name. With those disk sizes, you will keep fill rates low and not suffer performance degradation, even with large amounts of data stored. Imagine a 16 disk raid30/50 with two hot-spares and a net storage capacity of 24 TB (using 2 TB models) or 36 TB (using 3 TB models) and you will be hard pressed to fill that to notice any performance degradation and you will easily have a sustained transfer rate of more than 1000 MB/s if you have a good controller.

  • If you need help quickly... Guideline for posting an effective question.

    Whenever you have a question that you would like answered, do pose that question effectively.
    First, do not assume that because you have tried many, many times that your question is understood by someone else. What is obvious to you may not be for another. So please state in a very detailed and structured way what steps you have taken to cause your problem, how you can replicate this problem, under what circumstances on what hardware/software.
    The fact that you have nearly given up because of your problem does not mean that someone else can readily understand this problem. When you go to your doctor and say: "I have a pain in my stomach" he will ask you a lot of questions. Same applies here. Your doctor may need to know about any medication you have taken, your blood pressure, history, etc. If you want help, be as PRECISE and ACCURATE as possible.
    Second, this is a USER TO USER forum. So ranting will not help. What may help is a STRUCTURED approach to describing the problem you have.
    Third, do a thorough search of posts here, on other fora and with Google before repeating what has been asked a thousand times and has worn out the patience of regulars here, who have answered your question a dozen times already. Use the FAQ and the Wiki to find answers to questions that have been posed and answered repeatedly. Do not assume you are unique with your problem. Well, you are unique, the problem you have most likely is not.
    Fourth, realize that even though it may be highly frustrating to you to not be able to solve YOUR problem, by posting your question here, you are dependent on fellow editors to help you on their free time without compensation, so bear with them to help identify what EXACTLY is your problem. If you lack that decency, you may forfeit their help, so why did you come here?
    Fifth, consider your work flow in light of the purpose of Premiere, an editing package. If you have problems with rotoscoping, programming with APL, spreadsheets in general, word processing on a mobile phone, importing Panda bears into a local zoo, feeding nearly distinct whales in the Alps, or anything far removed from the purpose of PP, you may be better off in posting your question elsewhere.
    Last:
    Everybody has to learn, has the right to ask questions and be helped.
    If everybody has the decency to pose their urgent, life threatening or other questions in a detailed, structured and comprehensible way, it will vastly improve the chances of speedy and helpful replies, without the need for sarcasm, bundles of to-and-fro posts without meaningful help, just wasting bandwidth.
    I know I have been rightly accused of such behavior, which was the result of sheer frustration with absolutely meaningless and often pointless questions without details, structure and the like. Maybe this can be a general guideline for posters on how to ask questions, in addition to Eddie's links and How to ask questions the smart way
    The most frustrating issues one can encounter are hangs, BSOD's (blue screens of death), system errors and other cases of seemingly random erros that require rebooting, restarting or similar actions, only to be confronted with the next hang, BSOD or system crash.
    These errors are often difficult to locate, due to the large variety of systems, components and driver or software versions in use. This is often further aggravated by sheer lack of expertise, understanding of what needs to be communicated in order for others to help solve the issue at hand. And that list is very long.
    So, in order to make it a bit simpler for the average user who encounters these problems, follow the following steps when posting a problem:
    1. Clearly describe the main problem in the topic, but be brief. Not so brief as to only say: "Help!" or "URGENT" or another meaningless statement but get to the point, like: "PP crashes on opening, requiring a reboot" or "Using DL the system hangs upon return to PP". You get the point.
    2. Briefly describe your hardware, software, OS and versions in use, including disk setup, video card and driver versions, etc.
    3. Describe source material, including codec (not AVI, which is not a codec), project settings and other relevant info.
    4. Describe as accurately as possible what you did, what steps you took, what happened at what moment and what you did to try to resolve it.
    5. Go to Start/Run, type in DXDIAG, enter and save all information to a TXT file. Include a link to that file in your post.
    6. Go to Start/Run, type in MSINFO32 (or similar for 64 bit OS), enter and save the results as a .NFO file. Include a link to that file in your post.
    7. Download Process Explorer , and either post a screen shot or a link to the results.
    8. Make a screen shot of the results of SpeedFan or HW Monitor and include that in your post.
    When you perform these basic steps, you avoid endless questions about your system and people may be able to help you faster.
    If you feel up to it, take a look at The Case of the Unexplained to start your own troubleshooting.
    Hope this helps to post more meaningful questions and get an answer much quicker.

    Whenever you have a question that you would like answered, do pose that question effectively.
    First, do not assume that because you have tried many, many times that your question is understood by someone else. What is obvious to you may not be for another. So please state in a very detailed and structured way what steps you have taken to cause your problem, how you can replicate this problem, under what circumstances on what hardware/software.
    The fact that you have nearly given up because of your problem does not mean that someone else can readily understand this problem. When you go to your doctor and say: "I have a pain in my stomach" he will ask you a lot of questions. Same applies here. Your doctor may need to know about any medication you have taken, your blood pressure, history, etc. If you want help, be as PRECISE and ACCURATE as possible.
    Second, this is a USER TO USER forum. So ranting will not help. What may help is a STRUCTURED approach to describing the problem you have.
    Third, do a thorough search of posts here, on other fora and with Google before repeating what has been asked a thousand times and has worn out the patience of regulars here, who have answered your question a dozen times already. Use the FAQ and the Wiki to find answers to questions that have been posed and answered repeatedly. Do not assume you are unique with your problem. Well, you are unique, the problem you have most likely is not.
    Fourth, realize that even though it may be highly frustrating to you to not be able to solve YOUR problem, by posting your question here, you are dependent on fellow editors to help you on their free time without compensation, so bear with them to help identify what EXACTLY is your problem. If you lack that decency, you may forfeit their help, so why did you come here?
    Fifth, consider your work flow in light of the purpose of Premiere, an editing package. If you have problems with rotoscoping, programming with APL, spreadsheets in general, word processing on a mobile phone, importing Panda bears into a local zoo, feeding nearly distinct whales in the Alps, or anything far removed from the purpose of PP, you may be better off in posting your question elsewhere.
    Last:
    Everybody has to learn, has the right to ask questions and be helped.
    If everybody has the decency to pose their urgent, life threatening or other questions in a detailed, structured and comprehensible way, it will vastly improve the chances of speedy and helpful replies, without the need for sarcasm, bundles of to-and-fro posts without meaningful help, just wasting bandwidth.
    I know I have been rightly accused of such behavior, which was the result of sheer frustration with absolutely meaningless and often pointless questions without details, structure and the like. Maybe this can be a general guideline for posters on how to ask questions, in addition to Eddie's links and How to ask questions the smart way
    The most frustrating issues one can encounter are hangs, BSOD's (blue screens of death), system errors and other cases of seemingly random erros that require rebooting, restarting or similar actions, only to be confronted with the next hang, BSOD or system crash.
    These errors are often difficult to locate, due to the large variety of systems, components and driver or software versions in use. This is often further aggravated by sheer lack of expertise, understanding of what needs to be communicated in order for others to help solve the issue at hand. And that list is very long.
    So, in order to make it a bit simpler for the average user who encounters these problems, follow the following steps when posting a problem:
    1. Clearly describe the main problem in the topic, but be brief. Not so brief as to only say: "Help!" or "URGENT" or another meaningless statement but get to the point, like: "PP crashes on opening, requiring a reboot" or "Using DL the system hangs upon return to PP". You get the point.
    2. Briefly describe your hardware, software, OS and versions in use, including disk setup, video card and driver versions, etc.
    3. Describe source material, including codec (not AVI, which is not a codec), project settings and other relevant info.
    4. Describe as accurately as possible what you did, what steps you took, what happened at what moment and what you did to try to resolve it.
    5. Go to Start/Run, type in DXDIAG, enter and save all information to a TXT file. Include a link to that file in your post.
    6. Go to Start/Run, type in MSINFO32 (or similar for 64 bit OS), enter and save the results as a .NFO file. Include a link to that file in your post.
    7. Download Process Explorer , and either post a screen shot or a link to the results.
    8. Make a screen shot of the results of SpeedFan or HW Monitor and include that in your post.
    When you perform these basic steps, you avoid endless questions about your system and people may be able to help you faster.
    If you feel up to it, take a look at The Case of the Unexplained to start your own troubleshooting.
    Hope this helps to post more meaningful questions and get an answer much quicker.

  • Disk setup again

    Hi everyone,
    I'm asking about a suggestion for HDD setup for using Adobe Premiere Pro 5.5. I did look at some general guidelines on the adobe forums, but my question is not 100% answered in there.
    My specs right now are
    i7-3820
    Asus P9X79 Pro
    eVGA Nvidia GTX 570 HD SC
    16 GB (4x4) G.Skill Ripjaws Z 1600
    PC Power & Cooling Silencer 760 W
    Antec 902v3
    x1 Crucial M4 SSD 128 GB, where I only put the OS and all my programs.
    x1 Hitachi 7200 RPM 2 TB SATA III HDD.
    Even though Adobe is installed on the SSD, it does all the work in the HDD (projects, exports, media, etc.). Apparently it's much better if I add another HDD to the system, which I am planning to do so. My very first option is to get an identical HDD drive as the Hitachi I already have. It just makes sense and it's a very good drive in my opinion.
    Questions:
    1) Would you advice to put these two HDDs in a RAID 0 array? (the guidelines mentioned above don't say so.. they only put RAID 0 starting from 3 work disks and not 2 as in my case).
    2) Either way, could there possibly be any difference if I plug these HDDs onto SATA II ports? Cache of the HDD is 64 mb if that's relevant. The thing is that my MB has 4 SATA III ports, 2 of them are Intel and 2 of them are Marvell (mobo is Asus P9X79 pro). One of the Intel ports has the SSD. So if I want the HDDs to be on SATA III ports I guess the best would be to put them in the Marvell ports (either in RAID 0 or not). But I heard these ports are not very reliable for some reason and have some issues, is this correct? If they do have issues then I'll just put them in SATA II. (maybe one in SATA II and the other in SATA III if they are not in RAID?)
    3) Do you really really recommend that I buy this second HDD? Or just one will be okay? For the moment we're working on small projects so the difference shouldn't be too noticeable, but on the long run I think it could be important, and I'd better buy it now to make sure I get the same drive in case I RAID 0-them. I'm kind of answering myself here, but any opinions are also welcome   We are editing almost every day of the week if that matters.
    Thanks!
    PS: I posted the same question on tomshardware forums, so I apologize if you read it twice

    A volume (whether that consists of a single disk or multiple disks in a raid configuration) is seen by Windows as a single volume and that single volume still is hampered by the half-duplex nature of the SATA connection. In your case, one SSD and one (raid0) or two volumes (single disks) will still have to adhere to the SATA half-duplex nature, but as single disks it allows reading from one volume and writing to the other volume at the same time. That is faster than waiting for the reading to finish (even though the reading is faster on a raided volume) and then starting writing on the same volume. I would suggest not using a raid with only two disks. Reading this answer, I realize this is not well explained, I find it hard to make an analogy, but consider it like a single street where traffic is allowed to flow in one direction only at a certain time. It does not really matter if that traffic can drive at 30 or 50 MPH on that single lane, because the lane is too short to notice that speed difference. Then the traffic direction is changed and the flow from the other side can start to move. That is the half duplex nature of SATA, but what happens when you have two lanes available for traffic (two volumes in Windows speak), each lane may be slower to move but the overall movement of cars is still faster than over a single lane.

  • How do you change the default User in Windows 7 on a non-RAIDed 4 disk setup?

    Hi.
    I have installed Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit on Darling my new machine, which has a four-disk setup without RAID, like this:
    SSD OCZ -OS, Programs (C:)
    WD 2002FEAX - Media Projects (D:)
    WD 1002FAEX - Pagefile, Media Cache (E:)
    WD 1002FAEX - Previews, Exports (F:)
    This setup, and because it’s unRAIDed (four separate disks), created the User file in the OS disk, right under the Programs (x86) folder, which at times causes files, which are not programs, to automatically be saved in the User file that's in the Programs disk, when in fact Programs disk is NOT meant for storage.
    Further, I cannot save stuff in My Documents because that directory leads the files (that I am saving) to the User folder in the OS disk, forcing me to navigate out of there and into an alternative disk, which is time consuming, more so than if i had a directory leading to D disk.
    So, I am wondering, can anyone help me change my directory to establish the default User folder in any folder other than C?
    Or, if can someone refer me to Windows 7 tutorials, resourses, that are a tad more than Dummy level.
    I have heard that changing around the directory as such can mess with the OS, and though not at Dummy level, I’m quite new to PC and profusely insecure about making changes to Darling at all.
    Thanks.

    Hi folks.
    I would like to update you about what happened regarding my wish to move the User location to another hard disk. Heeding your warning, i did NOT attempt that, but rather, moved the location of the My Documents folder in my Library, from its default place on (SSD) disk C:/ (which is the default location because that's where i installed Windows 7,) to another disk -  D:/ called "Media Projects".
    Here is how my directory looked before i made the change, my three hard disks were outside the Library directory that's on my SSD (Programs disk):
    (I did that by right-clicking the My Documents folder in the left column of a browser window, to access the Location tab.)
    What this did is, it put driver D:/ under Documents, which is under Library, see picture, which now enables saving documents quickly, by going from my Library directly to my D drive, however it eliminated the "My Documents" folder/possibility all together from the left-column list of folders in the Windows Explorer browser pane.
    I am now trying to do the same with Music, Pictures, and Videos, i.e. to move them to D drive, but am unable to do so because right-clicking those icons in the directory does not produce the Location tab in Properties panel, and nor does right-clicking inside the files themselves.
    Similarly, right-clicking Downloads, which i also want to have residing in my D drive, does NOT produce a Location tab in properties pane, though it does seem possible to change the directory manually...see picture.....but am wary....
    I am still monitoring my new system, and will see if and how this change effects my system's performance.
    Thanks.

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