Partitioning will do nada for performance.
Partition only if you want to for whatever organizational, stability, security reasons float your boat.
If it is really just for PS Scratch and storage (ie no OS-related files or applications) you don’t even need to partition.
The object is to avoid the OS and Photoshop trying to access the same drive simultaneously.
The first partition is on the outer edge of the spindle and will be faster, because the read/write head doesn’t travel so far. Use that as scratch. Depending on the file sizes you work with, 60 – 120 GB should do fine.
Edit: cross-post, differing opinions.
The first partition is on the outer edge of the spindle and will be faster, because the read/write head doesn’t travel so far.
So when the OS and Photoshop’s scratch start fighting each other, instead of writing to the closest available space, the heads will have to move from the outside to the inside, back and forth as the OS and Photoshop are writing to the drive. I’m pretty sure that using a partition for scratch offers no benefit and may even cause poorer performance. A scratch disk should always be a separate drive.
Peter,
That’s what I was saying. This is a separate drive we’re talking about here. The OS is on the other drive.
I have read that a scratch disk with the constant write/rewrite can quickly fragment a disk. So putting it on a separate partition confines that activity to a specific disk and does not affect the rest of the hard drive and programs.
That sounds very plausible but in my experience my primary scratch drive, which is a 500GB Seagate and also used for storage of active projects until they are archived, never gets more than 3 or 4% fragmentation.
Sergei my system is running Vista 32 bit Ultimate….
Seems like I’m getting some conflicting info from people. Hope i didn’t resurrect a sore subject!!!!
Freeagent
The files we work with are raw files from a D700 Nikon and can be anywhere in size from 12mb – 60mb depending on the number of layers, amount of detail etc…
some conflicting info from people
We’re probably in area where opinion and taste matters more than fact 🙂
As JJ pointed out, the really important thing is to have OS and scratch on different drives. How you configure the scratch drive is probably not all that critical.
I have, I guess mostly for aesthetic reasons B-) , a 100 GB scratch partition and the rest of that drive for image files before they go to external backup.
Do you think that same setup will work for me Freeagent? Are your file sizes similar in size to mine? I don’t know if it matters or not, but often times when working on wedding images, we will have like 30 pics open at once in Photoshop… Does that affect how I should setup my cpu at all?
Also, does anyone recommend a particular company’s partition utility? I think Vista Ultimate has one that comes with it….
Are your file sizes similar in size to mine?
we will have like 30 pics open at once in Photoshop
Yes, and bigger, but I don’t have that many open. In any case, your scratch disk will be very busy, but around 100 GB should still be enough.
You can do the partitioning in Admin Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management.
Awesome. Thanks to Freeagent and everyone else who helped with this issue. You guys are awesome! Its great there are forums like this with knowledgeable people. You would think that after dropping $700 on CS3 adobe would offer more tech support but I guess thats a typical software company for you!
Anyhow, thanks again everyone!
Mark
Well, I received my hard drive today and it isn’t a Samsung, its a Seagate 750gb SATA2….however, it is exactly like what is installed in my cpu now. I have a few quick questions for anyone who cares to answer.
My existing HD with the OS on it has a jumper limiting it to 1.5 Gbits per second. Any reason why I shouldn’t take that off to get 3?
Also, I have 4 sata ports on my mobo (Asus P5kc) and one sata on the go port…which I really don’t know what that is. all of my 4 "standard" sata ports are being used (two for dvd drives, one for HD and one for floppy drive)…where should I plug my new drive into???
Do I need to worry about the jumper thing? I’m so confused…please help!!!! I fear I am in over my head….
Hopefully this is an internal drive. If so it probably did not come with a cable. There should be a socket in the motherboard to plug the cable into. Look at the configuration of the plug needed and length of cable as compared to the HD you now have and buy locally. Check in your computer manual for second HD installation instructions.
Just throwing in a bit of info here…In case anyone should consider adding an external drive via USB2, 1394, or SATA, don’t go expecting to use that for anything but data storage, as it will not offer anything near the performance of an internal drive. That’s something I didn’t know with regard to SATA, as I thought a Seagate FreeAgent Pro eSATA external drive was going to be a nice, fast supplemental hard drive when it proved to be scarcely faster than USB2, and even that required a non-advertised firmware upgrade that I learned of. Part of the problem was also a JMicron SATA/RAID controller that apparently wasn’t all that compatible with the Seagate drive. So, it seems a lot more may factor into how usable an external drive is than one using an internal system interface.
Meanwhile, I’m using a partitioning scheme across 4 internal hard drives that has my Windows operating systems and applications all on one Raptor 10,000 rpm SATA3 drive, the windows page file and temp files in the first 25GB of a second Raptor, and the PS scratch disk on the first 25GB of a 7200 SATA3 drive. The extra space on the latter 2 drives is largely used for archives, video captures and renders, extra image/video file storage, etc., while my 4th drive then serves largely as my workspace for whatever files I’m most actively working with. Optimum or not, I can’t say, but it seems to work well for me.
Regards,
Daryl
My existing HD with the OS on it has a jumper limiting it to 1.5 Gbits per second. Any reason why I shouldn’t take that off to get 3?
I’d just rip it out, I never could see the point in that jumper.
Some older mobos only support the SataI standard, which is 150 mb/sec, but then you get that speed with or without the jumper.
all of my 4 "standard" sata ports are being used
Lose the floppy. In case you ever need it (not likely) you can borrow a slot from a DVD drive.
yea, apparently my mobo has several sata ports. I unplugged one that looked like it went to a port on the front of the cpu. I plugged the new internal hd to that and partitioned it and everything is working great. I just need to remove the jumpers from both and I will be all set to go.
Daryl, your setup sounds great, but way to advanced for my noob self!
Thanks again to everyone for your help. As things progress, I may need more performance and may try and setup something like you have Daryl, but that won’t be for awhile…baby steps for this guy!
Thanks again everyone, you guys are great.
