Scratch disk media editing vs. internal

Hello
My current setup is Win8 Pro, i7-990x Extreme, 24Gb kit, and a Quadro2K.  I've been editing Full HD nicely in realtime for the last two years.  I have a single bootup SSD drive for the OS and programs, and two 2TB drives - one mirrors the other.  I had to go this route because my initial 2TB RAID 0 Glyph had died and since then I've been skeptic of that protocol regardless of the fact that's how we were rigged in film school.  I do know however know that my old RAID Glyph setup loaded video (thumbnails) significantly faster than now.  I have gone through numerous ways to RAID my motherboard but without success. 
So I was curious of any other hard drive configurations that significantly improve editing time and perhaps rendering.  Should I forget about my rig containing big TB drives and simply downgrade in capacity to two more SSD's like the following:
Boot Drive 1 60 SSD - Win8 Pro
Drive 2 - 240GB SSD media
Drive 3 - 240GB SSD media
Drive 4 - 2 TB backup
Also are there any benefits in working in a multiple SSD setup if I plan to edit some files that are on (let's say) Drive 2 while Premiere Pro is running on boot from Drive 1?  Or would it be better to have one bigger SSD like Crucial's M500 that's running the OS and working on media files from one SSD architecture?  Retrieving files from another SSD internally is also a scratch protocol is it not?

Well, if you can afford SDDs with enough capacity for your needs, such a system would fly with disk loads.  Many editors would find 512GB (the largest common size for SSDs) far too small for the Media drive.  You may also want more room for the Exports and Cache drives as well, depending on how many simultaneous projects you have going on, so it might not be a bad idea to use those 2TB drives in the mix.
Whether SSD or HDD, that config will spread the load out pretty well so that you're rarely reading and writing to the same drive at the same time.

Similar Messages

  • How do I setup the scratch disk on a 2nd internal drive?

    I am having difficulty setuping up a scratch disk on a 2nd internal hard drive for final cut pro X. When I go to file/import the second drive is not visible. Any ideas....
    Thanks!

    I had the same issue with my iMac and 2 internal disks: system & applications on 256GB SSD, another 2TB internal hard disk that was meant to store media, and Final Cut Pro X 10.0.3 just wouldn't see my 2TB internal disk. Only the SSD would appear in the Event Browser.
    I solved it by checking read/write permissions on the hard disk. I have 2 users: one with admin rights which I used to initially set up the iMac and install software (including FCP X), and another user with standard rights for everyday use (including FCP X production).
    My 2nd user only had read permissions on the 2nd internal hard disk. I selected the disk, Command-I, changed permissions to read/write, and when I launched FCP X again, both volumes would show up now. Issue solved!
    Hope this helps.

  • Scratch Disk, Media Drive, etc Question.

    I just got a new Seagate 7200.11, 32 mb cache, etc hd for xmas. I have the stock 7200.10 in bay 1. From the readings, I've concluded that the 7200.11 is faster. Should I use the faster HD as my startup disk and run programs; or should I use it as my media/scratch for photoshop and premiere? Size isn't an issue, I just want to know which configuring would be better performance-wise?

    I would buy two more 7200.11s if you like them.
    Boot drive should be fast(-est)
    So, too, should scratch. Often people use 1-8 drives in RAID for scratch.
    You need a data drive. And external to backup projects as you work.
    And, CS3, depending on file size and work flow, can benefit from 4-8GB of memory, more if you keep and work in multiple applications throughout the day. Memory will help reduce the amount of disk I/O for scratch, and you never want the boot drive to be used by CS for scratch (and you need to disable Spotlight on scratch as well).
    Seagate drives have been troublesome and slow, taking a big hit on small file I/O writes especially. Taking 5-9 hrs to zero a drive when 1 hr should have been more than enough.
    750GB drives offer better price/performance than 1TB models. And the Seagate ES (Enterprise) line got poor rating in benchmark reviews from Techreport and StorageReview recently.

  • Photoshop CS5 does not want to open after I changed the scratch disks in prefs

    I was working on a large document in Photoshop CS5 that ate too much of my main drive (to the point I had to quite and restart a few times to clear it out) when the main drive was set as a scratch disk. I went in to preferences and changed the scratch disk to my secondary internal drive, where I keep all my media. Then quit Photoshop to clear the cache.
    When I tried to open Photoshop again I get a message at start up (haven't gotten in to the program yet) saying: "Could not open a scratch file because the disk is not available". Clicked OK. Then another warning message: "Could not initialize Photoshop because the disk is not available."
    Both disks are mounted and available. Since Photoshop never actually opens up I cannot go in and reset the scratch disk to my intinital settings.
    Anybody got an idea what I can do to solve this?
    Thanks,
    /Fred

    Worst case: trashing prefs by keeping ctrl-alt-shift pressed while starting Photoshop (and then using the dialog) should allow you to open it.

  • Network drive as a scratch disk?

    Is it possible to use a network drive as a scratch disk? I have very little space left on my only internal drive and don't want to have to purchase a drive just to connect to my PC for a couple projects.
    Thanks!

    Noel,
    I have never tried to use any of my networked drives for PS Scratch Disks, but have tried with various flavors of externals, and while they worked, my benchmarks showed that USB 2.0 and FW-400 (IEEE-1394a) to be horribly slow. It was not until I tested a FW-800 (IEEE-1394b), that the slowdown was minimized to the point that things worked OK. There was no USB 3.0, or eSATA, when I did those tests, so I had no benchmarks for those connections. In the case of my tests, I was using a laptop with a single SATA HDD, which was partially full. Directing my Scratch disk to that one internal (with the OS, programs, Images, etc.), was still about twice as fast as the USB 2.0, and 1.5x as fast as the FW-400. With the FW-800, it was about 1:1, with only fractions of a sec. different for the benchmarks.
    Not exactly PS, but I tried to edit to/from my NAS in Premiere Pro, and while it worked, it was far to slow to allow me to actually use that setup. I did not do a benchmark, but just tried, and made observations, and quickly ruled that out, as a possibility.
    Just some observations, though they do not apply to the exact question posed by the OP.
    Hunt

  • SCRATCH DISK MYSTERY

    Hi Gang
    I've got several external drives - I always use at least one of them for Scratch Disk, (since my 2nd internal is filled). I was capturing to an external drive designated 'OWC 6'. I checked system settings several times to make sure. However at the time I didn't realize that there was no sub-folder called 'FC Pro Documents'.
    Please see the Screen Shot;
    http://www.locationstudio.net/NoSubFolder.jpg
    I started to get the Beach Ball and couldn't understand why? Had to do several 'Force Quits'
    Finally I trashed preferences, and that's when I saw the Sub Folder. Please see the Screen Shot;
    http://www.locationstudio.net/SubFolder.jpg
    Things seem 'ok' now, but I see that the captured video wound up on the system drive.
    Anyone have any insight into this puzzle?
    Thanx
    Mike
    http://www.vimeo.com/7340608

    ENIGMACODE wrote:
    Hello Rienk
    ... I'm capturing Mini DV Tapes at 720x480, 29.97 and I checked the Film Log for confirmation of this.
    Well, shouldn't give a problem whatsoever
    I've been working on this project for 5 years - never any Beach Ball problems until I installed a new reliably proven WD 640GB system drive - any problems with drive? - I seriously doubt it.
    Proven Reliable? Who says? Some disk reviews? Or that you had 10 of those before? Doesn't say anything about THIS disk. But I get your point.
    I first got the Beach Ball, after I inadvertently/accidentally captured some video into my system drive.
    It is unclear to me if you changed the media that you captured to the internal system HD to the extaernal HD AND reconnected the masterclips in the project to that media on the external disk...Did you do so?
    Ever since then, I haven't been able to get of it, even after I double check the Scratch assignment. When does it occur? It's indescrimate - can't pin it down.
    Did you import a lot of stills in the project? Do you see this behaviour on other projects? Does this behaviour stop when the OWC 6 is detached?
    Tell us what you did to descriminate the problem.
    I also originally asked about and posted these screen shoots;
    http://www.locationstudio.net/NoSubFolder.jpg
    I saw those. Sorry not answered that one. Well actually it shouldn't really matter. As lomg as FCP is finding the clips, it can play them. The folderstructure has nothing to do with the performance of FCP. As long as you don't try to play back footage from the internal system HD.
    Finally I trashed preferences, and that's when I saw the Sub Folder. Please see the Screen Shot; http://www.locationstudio.net/SubFolder.jpg
    Same.
    Does the Sub-Folder make any difference?
    No. Not for the performance. It does bring your newly captured footage in another folder. that's all.
    When I get time, I'll try David Kuhnen's suggestion.
    How are the disks attached? FireWire 800?
    Other footage than DV? Stills, JPEGS, etc?
    Tried reinstalling FCP? Asking this, because you had a new internal system HD.
    Installed everything fresh? Or updated from the old HD. Could cause all kind of performance issues.

  • *Noob* Which of these would I use for a scratch disk? How much Ram?

    Hello, I am fairly new to Photoshop as I have used Lightroom ever since I've been a photographer. I recently got into Photoshop with the cloud as well as layering multiple exposures together. I never KNEW anything about scratch disk, until yesterday.
    First let me stress, please answer my questions in layman's terms. I search the net before I start a topic on a forum and I read a lot of answers that seem to be responding to people who have a general idea of what is already going on. Remember, I DO NOT. Here are my questions:
    A:If the scratch disk acts like RAM, do I need to allow it to use any of my ram at all? If so, how much? I have two Macbook Pro's, they are the highest model Apple makes, both have SSD drives, Quad Core i7's, etc. I unchecked my Macbook hard drive and told it to use an external SSD drive that is plugged in via USB 3.0. Would it be better to use an HDD instead of SDD? I have lots of hard drives to choose from due to being a music producer.
    B:When I exit the program does it delete all the data it created? This question is two fold, does it delete it regardless if I saved the project or not? If I save the project does it stay there? What if I delete the original photo, was the photo imported into photoshop upon camera raw?
    C: Like question A, how much ram do I choose? I have 16GB of Ram in each of my MacBooks.

    OK, I have now copied your hillbilly text and pasted it into a text editor to change the typeface so I can read it.
    I'll try to address the lose ends here.
    A:…I have two Macbook Pro's, they are the highest model Apple makes…
    Please forgive me for not being impressed.  I just happen to consider any laptop a sub-optimal choice for Photoshop photography work.  My personal opinion.  (Please don't ask me why.)
    , both have SSD drives,… I unchecked my Macbook hard drive and told it to use an external SSD drive that is plugged in via USB 3.0. Would it be better to use an HDD instead of SDD?…
    I assume you are talking about using the external drive as your primary scratch disk, not as your boot disk.  That is the appropriate thing to do.  HD or SSD will both do the job fine, as long as they're physically separate, dedicated Photoshop scratch disks.
    Obviously the internal drive will be your boot disk.  Adobe applications really like to reside on the boot disk, the drive where the OS resides.
    B:When I exit the program does it delete all the data it created?
    This question is two fold, does it delete it regardless if I saved the project or not?
    If I save the project does it stay there? What if I delete the original photo, was the photo imported into photoshop upon camera raw?
    NOTHING is ever imported into Photoshop, ever.  You use Photoshop to open your files exactly where you put them in the Apple Finder. And you save them wherever you wish, in the Finder as well. Your images will always reside in the Finder.
    You don't import files into Adobe Camera Raw either.  You open them in or with ACR.
    Of course you need to save your data, not only when you quit the application, but at frequent intervals while you're working on it.  Nothing you saved will be deleted by Photoshop.  How can you even conceive and ask such a question? ?? ! 
    If you ever try to close a file or the application when you have open, unsaved files, the application will ask you for confirmation in an unmistakable way.
    Your images will always reside in the Finder, wherever you put them.
    Photoshop does not have the abominable "Libraries" scheme that made me detest Lightroom when I tried it.  Nor does Photoshop hide your image files in "packages" like the even more abominable iPhoto does.
    Please forget anything you may be accustomed to in Lightroom and/or iPhoto, and approach Photoshop with a fresh mind, respecting it like the granddaddy of image editors it is.
    C: Like question A, how much ram do I choose? I have 16GB of Ram in each of my MacBooks.
    Again, you don't "choose RAM", instead you select a percentage of dynamically changing Available Memory (not RAM; see above) to allow Photoshop to use.  Leave at around 70%.
    Please see the following post for an important tip.

  • Requirements for an external scratch disk

    Hi guys
    I am looking into buying an external hard drive to use as a scratch disk for editing. I was wondering what the requirements are for it to work as a scratch disk.
    Thanks

    Sorry Luke to correct, but Firewire is the way to go. USB2 does not guarantee sustained data transfer as video requires. Even though some posters claim they had no problem with USB2.
    Even though slightly more expensive I'd always buy firewire for video.
    Piero

  • Best External Scratch Disk for iMac?

    I'm a new Mac user and i'm now using my iMac as my primary computer. I've been looking online to find out which approach is best when using adobe products that require scratch disks. Should i use external USB or Firewire interface? What I've done for my windows system in the past is I purchased a 10,000rpm hard drive and dedicated it as a scratch disk and installed it internally. If I do this with either USB or firewire, my big plan is I would go and get a 10krpm hard drive and by an enclosure with usb and firewire. Anyone know how I should approach this on an iMac and will my plan work?
    Thanks!

    You could go with an external Firewire 800 disk and a 7200 or faster drive. But that won’t be as fast as your iMac’s internal drive which is SATA II 3Gbps. You could partition the internal drive so that you have one ‘work’ drive to be used for video/graphics scratch files. At least I did that. Bit of work ahead of you though since your internal drive currently is likely just one big partition. Post back your conclusions.

  • When I try to use the internal hard drive as a scratch disk I get this error "unable to set scratch disk- the selected directory is on write protect or non-writable media.  Any ideas on how to fix this.  It only happens in fcp.

    When I try to use the internal hard drive as a scratch disk I get this error "unable to set scratch disk- the selected directory is on write protect or non-writable media.  Any ideas on how to fix this.  It only happens in fcp.

    By internal, I assume you're referring to your systems (boot) drive. Is it, by chance, a partitioned dive?
    Also…although many people successfully use their systems drives as scratch disks, over time you'll have better results using a dedicated drive for your media.
    Good luck.
    Russ

  • Internal hard drive for use as scratch disk

    Am running OS 10.4.11 on a dual core 2.3 Ghz PowerPC G5. Want to install a 2nd internal hard drive for use as a scratch disk w/ FCP and for my media files, etc. Given that I can only accomodate an SATA I drive w/ 150 Gbps transfer rate what might some decent choices be for a 500 Gb to 1 TB drive suited for video (and a PowerPC G5)? I'll also be adding an external drive for backup if anyone has any suggestions.

    Thanks for the recommendations. I had been looking at the Hitachi CinemaStar series but you have to reset the drive to SATA 1 for use w/ a G5 PowerMac. Resetting the drive, according to Hitachi, can only be done on a PC which I don't have access to. And I think that holds true for all their drives that are not strictly SATA 1.

  • FCPX editing on internal or external drive for small media files with lots of layers and compositing ?

    I am upgrading my mid 2012 MBP with an internal SSD. I have16 RAM. OS is Mavericks.
    I edit videos using a mix of photos (imported layers via photoshop), short animations, short video clips. I do some very basic stop animation also. So each media file is not heavy (photos, pics, short videos), but I do a lot of layering and compositing in FCPX.  I had a lot of delays and freezes with 5400 rpm HDD… so I decided to upgrade to SSD.
    Some people have told me to edit it all on my internal SSD as the media files are not big..
    Everywhere else on the web I read that all media / libraries should be on an external while I edit them. But most of these contributors are using huge video files, HD, which is not my case.
    So – with small media files but lots of editing and effects  / animation, should I spend the extra money on a good external 7200 rpm USB3 to edit from ? Or just use external drive for storage and not editing.
    Not going for TB as I read there would not be a difference between USB3 and TB on a 7200 rpm external drive (difference is felt when using RAID, r SSD external)
    Thanks!

    I uses external SSD Thunderbolt for my all my editing stuff. I make small projects and only keeps one library at a time on my external drive. When finished I backup the library to another big external. I would strongly recommend external SSD Thunderbolt such as LaCie Rugged 256 GB or 128 GB. I use this setup with my Mac Pro late 2013. I never edit from internal. You could also go for RAID with 4 disks but that might be an overkill.

  • HDV editing from an external scratch disk?

    I use FCE to edit High Def video from my HCR HC1 and at the moment have my scratch disk on my internal hard drive. In the past i stupidly put it on my USB 2.0 external hard drive but quickly found i had problems with dropped frames etc. during playback. Can anyone give me feedback on using an external fire wire hard drive for a scratch disk (with HDV) and playback results/any problems encountered?
    Thanks.

    Hi Ross, I don't currently use an external scratch disk, only my internal 500Gb disk, but my experience may still have some relevance. My external 250Gb USB is used purely for copying files around via Finder.
    I use two HCR-HC3 camcorders to do multi-cam edits. I have found that I get an occasional dropped frame during playback, especially if I am scubbing the timeline too agressively, or have another app in the background.
    Good luck with the comments from other folk.

  • Fcp vs 4 scratch disk to 2nd internal hd

    I've designated an added 400 gig internal hd as my scratch disk/render location but final cut is bloating this hd at initial capture with hidden bloated files and after capturing 2 short (50 min each) dv tapes the storage is almost totally consumed. i've verified the disk and everything is normal and the data is not corrupt because i've successfully captured to my origianl 160 gig hd without problems...

    don't use capture now.
    if you really insist on it, set capture limit to no more than the length of a tape - 60 minutes.
    Without a 'capture now' limit, FCP will allocate the entire disk for capture since it does not know how much of the disk you REALLY intend to use.
    x

  • I can't do any edits to my photoshop project because it says scratch disk is full when I have 50gb free!

    My scratch disk is pointed to the C drive(the only drive I have at the moment). When I open photoshop it makes  a 64gb Temp file! that leaves me with 50gb free but whenever I go to make a change or add text it says scratch disk is full! Help please!!

    @Ronald,
    I'm glad to know that you can get by on only 120 GB .  However, that's not my experience on Windows.  Admittedly, Mac and Mavericks in particular seem to manage memory a lot better than Win.  But I've been using PS since ver 4 and it's always been a huge memory drain. 
    In CS6, I'm finding my scratch disk often exceeds 100 GB.  I have dedicated almost 300 GB to mine and it's still not enough for everything I do. But I know how to manage my resources so I can get by on what I have until new computers arrive.
    Nancy O.

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