Multiple Drives/Partitions on a Single Hard Drive

H

hanguolaohu

Active member
I was wondering whether it's OK to edit a project using 2 partitioned drives that are mounted from a single hard drive. The reason I would want to do this is I started a project 6 years ago when 400GB hard drives were the largest available. My project grew over the years to span 3 drives for the main project and other drives to hold 10 bit and HD outputs. What I'd like to do, is put all the contents of 2 or 3 drives on a single drive and partition it, but wasn't sure if while using FCP whether the drive would freak out trying to read it's data. I'm editing on a laptop and having 3 external drives always ready can be a hassle. I'm not doing hardcore editing, but don't want to regret making the move. Any info would be most appreciated!

Thanks,
Alexander
 
Why do you need it partitioned? It would work fine once you relink all of the project files, but keep in mind there is always risk of accidents when moving data. Make sure you have proper backups of everything.
 
I would NOT suggest putting files from the same project on different partitions of the same drive. Reason being is that the read head will be moving back and forth a much larger distance and this will affect drive performance and wear.

Using files from different drives like you have been is fine, and sometimes better, but as you say, it's a pain to have that many drives connected.
 
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Also to add- I do partition media drives over 500 gigs because I work on multiple projects at one time, and I can keep the files physically separated that way. I think the drive gets less fragmented and performs better.
I make the 1st partition the biggest and use it for stuff that needs the fastest access, because as you fill up and get towards the outside of the disc, it becomes slower.
 
Different partitions are needed, if:
* filesystem cannot handle your large drive as one partition
* you want multi-boot multi-OS environment
* you want to separate OS components from documents and to, say, keep the main partition relatively defragmented to speed the system up, while the document partition would be for bulk writes/deletes and you can simply reformat it from time to time.
* Multiple boot records and file allocation tables provide some degree of additional safety.

What else?

So, what is the exact reason why you want multiple partitions?

Like David. S said, I would keep it as one partition. Video takes so much space that you will need all that you have and more.
 
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