I ordered a computer from AVA Direct, (no connection), and it should be here next week. It will have Win7 installed on a 500 gig hd. In addition to that, I plan to move a 1.5 tb hd from my XP machine to the new computer, hopefully without having to reformat it and thereby losing all my photos. I do have a backup though.

Anyway, what's the best way to set up the new machine? If I need to partition the 500gb drive, I want to do it before I load anything onto it.

Thanx,
Ron

Anyway, what's the best way to set up the new machine?

1. Install Mac OS X
2. Install Photoshop
3. Install Lightroom
4. Kick some photo butt

All in good fun

I'm not sure what you mean by setting up the new machine. Did you mean installing the 1.5TB HDD?

btw... Don't you lose the warranty if you open up the box yourself?

Ron,
I'm a Mac person for my PP. I don't use the internal 160gb HD on my MB Pro but instead use a series of external HDs. Someone told me if you have too many files on the internal it will slow down processing times. I don't partition my 1TB external HDs.

I'm not a computer expert but just sharing my set-up.

Good luck.

Thanks,
Voltaire

mikethevilla wrote:
Anyway, what's the best way to set up the new machine?

1. Install Mac OS X
2. Install Photoshop
3. Install Lightroom
4. Kick some photo butt

All in good fun

n0b0 wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean by setting up the new machine. Did you mean installing the 1.5TB HDD?

btw... Don't you lose the warranty if you open up the box yourself?

One suggestion I have read is to have one hd for the os, one for programs, and one for photo storage... Edit to add: I was thinking I could partition the 500 with one partition for the os and a second partition for programs.

Not sure about the warranty thing, but I will check that out.

Edit to add: it looks like the warranty still applies, but they don't cover anything I add. I will have to call them to verify...

voltaire wrote:
Ron,
I'm a Mac person for my PP. I don't use the internal 160gb HD on my MB Pro but instead use a series of external HDs. Someone told me if you have too many files on the internal it will slow down processing times. I don't partition my 1TB external HDs.

I'm not a computer expert but just sharing my set-up.

Good luck.

Thanks,
Voltaire

I assume you are using usb external hds? Don't you loose speed that way?

surfnron wrote:
voltaire wrote:
Ron,
I'm a Mac person for my PP. I don't use the internal 160gb HD on my MB Pro but instead use a series of external HDs. Someone told me if you have too many files on the internal it will slow down processing times. I don't partition my 1TB external HDs.

I'm not a computer expert but just sharing my set-up.

Good luck.

Thanks,
Voltaire

I assume you are using usb external hds? Don't you loose speed that way?



I have an esata docking station and several sata hdd,s for my back up and storage with the esata set up they run at the same speed as your main drive. I have the c:drive for the operating system and programmes and have a second drive for everything else.

Wouldn't worry about partioning the 500g c:drive just don't load it up with unwanted junk they are a bit big for a main c:drive these days but smaller dives are getting harder to obtain.

Also you can get some good mirroring software these days so you can make a copy of your c:drive and put it away for the day your main c:drive stops

Ron,
I think you do but I use firewire. The external WD HDs have a firewire option and it works well with my Mac Monitor that has ports for USB and firewire so the MB Pro firewire port is still available if needed.

If you read Scott Kelby's book on PS for Photographers one of his suggestions was to keep the files in separate HDs from your OS internal HD and use the internal for the programs that you install. This set-up makes it convenient for portability in case you need to move systems down the road and in case the internal HD fails. I'm sure you already have your files backed up for redundancy.

Hope this helps.

I have an esata docking station and several sata hdd,s for my back up and storage with the esata set up they run at the same speed as your main drive. I have the c:drive for the operating system and programmes and have a second drive for everything else.

Wouldn't worry about partioning the 500g c:drive just don't load it up with unwanted junk they are a bit big for a main c:drive these days but smaller dives are getting harder to obtain.

Also you can get some good mirroring software these days so you can make a copy of your c:drive and put it away for the day your main c:drive stops

Showing my ignorance for all, (I'm replacing a computer I built 5 years ago)... Do most computers now come with an external esata connection?

surfnron wrote:
I have an esata docking station and several sata hdd,s for my back up and storage with the esata set up they run at the same speed as your main drive. I have the c:drive for the operating system and programmes and have a second drive for everything else.

Wouldn't worry about partioning the 500g c:drive just don't load it up with unwanted junk they are a bit big for a main c:drive these days but smaller dives are getting harder to obtain.

Also you can get some good mirroring software these days so you can make a copy of your c:drive and put it away for the day your main c:drive stops

Showing my ignorance for all, (I'm replacing a computer I built 5 years ago)... Do most computers now come with an external esata connection?


Most drives and mother boards now have sata ports to get an esata port (external sata) if there is not one on the back of the computer you can get one that plugs in to move a spare port on the board to the back of the pc. BTW usb ports are done the same usually a few on the back of the case and a lead that brings one around to the front of the case could also then be called eusb

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=Section_5&vgnextoid=cfeed20cacdec010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD

http://www.thebestcasescenario.com/frontpage/?q=node/374

Hope this is of some help

surfnron wrote:

Anyway, what's the best way to set up the new machine?
Thanx,
Ron

Things I do, this can take several hours.

Delete all the AOL/MSN type crud you are never going to use.
Some of the spyware like Apples Bonjour you are going to have to use the command prompt to get rid of.
Go through clean up all the zero byte files and empty directories
Get in to Windows services and stop all the stuff from loading on start up
that you are not going to use.
At this point I usually clean up the registry.
My next step is install a firewall to keep the programs from "calling home".
After the firewall it is usually safe to get on the internet and figure out how to kill
all the annoying windows pop ups.
Finally defrag the drive and you are ready to start loading your software.

This is what I do:

Insure you have 2 internal hard drives. Create 2 partitions on your main one.

One partition needs about 20-30 GB for all of your OS and programs which will be your C drive. The other partition is for anything else you save on your computer.

The 2nd drive is for back-up and is all one single partition. I don't setup RAID because I want a disk for my Photoshop scratch file. Having PS use a scratch file located on a drive other than the one it is installed on will net you good speed increases when working with large files.

I then have an external USB drive that I plug in from time to time. I downloaded this free Microsoft program called SynchToy and I set it to monitor any folders that I think are important. I perform an incremental back up when ever my external is plugged in via the SynchToy program. It is seriously easy to set up and use, just remember to use an incremental backup.

The stuff about removing services or tooling around in the registry does not pertain to Windows 7 unless you really, really know what you are doing and have some sort of OCD. It runs lean, especially with a modern computer. The only thing I would turn off is anything to do with remote access to your computer for security and also Apple's Bonjour Service like mentioned before. In CMD type:

sc stop "Bonjour Service"
sc delete "Bonjour Service"

Next thing I would do is set up your colorspace profiles for your monitor and color aware programs.

Lastly, if you are using some kind of a home router, log into it and see if it has an option for an "SPI Firewall". If it does, turn it on and ensure you stop Windows Firewall and remove any other that may have been pre-installed on your system. It is not necessary to use those. Also, install a free Anti-Virus. I setup Avast! for my systems and I only have to add a new key that is emailed out to me for free once a year for each install.

surfnron wrote:
n0b0 wrote:
I'm not sure what you mean by setting up the new machine. Did you mean installing the 1.5TB HDD?

btw... Don't you lose the warranty if you open up the box yourself?

One suggestion I have read is to have one hd for the os, one for programs, and one for photo storage... Edit to add: I was thinking I could partition the 500 with one partition for the os and a second partition for programs.

Not sure about the warranty thing, but I will check that out.

Edit to add: it looks like the warranty still applies, but they don't cover anything I add. I will have to call them to verify...

Don't partition that drive! Partitioning the hard drive gives you no advantage, in fact it will give you a performance hit! The OS and programs will still compete for the disk. I don't know if you were aware of this.: disks are filled from the outside in. The performance of the outside of the disk is faster than the inside (e.g. 110 MB/s vs 70 for sequential reads on mine). When you partition the disk, the new partition will need to be for the programs, and that will be placed at the logical end of the disk (physically the inner part of the disk) where the disk performance is slowest. So you will be forcing your programs to be on the slowest part of the disk by portioning it.

Instead, get some disk defragmenter like diskeeper professional 2009, which will put your most frequently accessed files near the logical beginning (faster outer portion) of the disk.

Use your second disk for photoshop scratch space and photos.

If it is not to late, you should be getting 64 bit windows 7 and 6-8GB of RAM. You can;t use enough RAM in 32 bit windows, and it is unstable against using the maximum for photoshop.

- Gene

Partitioning the disk is a good idea. If your OS crashes, you will need to reformat your entire drive if you did not partition. I would also rather have my OS running on the fastest part of the disk, but in practice the read and write speeds on the disk almost make no difference since there is always going to be some kind of fragmentation and very few long sequential reads. Basically, there is no real world benefit for home use by not partitioning your drive.

Excellent images on your Smugmug BTW GeneO.

Steezus wrote:
Partitioning the disk is a good idea. If your OS crashes, you will need to reformat your entire drive if you did not partition. I would also rather have my OS running on the fastest part of the disk, but in practice the read and write speeds on the disk almost make no difference since there is always going to be some kind of fragmentation and very few long sequential reads. Basically, there is no real world benefit for home use by not partitioning your drive.

Excellent images on your Smugmug BTW GeneO.

Thanks,
But why would you format your drive if the OS crashes? I mean you don't have to. In any case, If you have your programs on another partition and you have to reinstall the operating system, you have to reinstall all of the programs anyway, so you gain nothing. There is no benefit to partitioning it this way.

Well there is one way a partition can benefit. I have a partition where I put things that change often (caches). I do this so that my system drive doesn't need fragmented that often, only the cache partition.

An up to 50% performance increase is nothing to sneeze at. And since your executables, once defragmented, don't become fragmented again, you see a significant difference in program load speeds. And if you do minimal defragmentation maintenance, you retain this.

- Gene

I keep a partition on my main drive for my important files, of which I have a lot. It saves me time from having to copy everything back over if I ever reload or upgrade.

I would like to see benchmarks about the performance increase gained by not partitioning. Everything I have always read says that what you are talking about is all theory speed that does not translate to real life, mostly due to limitations on seek speeds. Just like NCQ enabled drives show a good speed increase in theory, in reality it doesn't increase performance by much at all.

Thanx all for the comments.
Ron

Steezus wrote:
I keep a partition on my main drive for my important files, of which I have a lot. It saves me time from having to copy everything back over if I ever reload or upgrade.

I would like to see benchmarks about the performance increase gained by not partitioning. Everything I have always read says that what you are talking about is all theory speed that does not translate to real life, mostly due to limitations on seek speeds. Just like NCQ enabled drives show a good speed increase in theory, in reality it doesn't increase performance by much at all.

The difference in speed to access of your data may not be significant to you, and the functionality you get may outweigh any performance differences. I was speaking against putting your program files in a second partition.That would increase their load time. For your use I understand the functionality you gain outweighs the performance. I even have a 50GB partition for files that change a lot (like internet and other caches) on my boot drives. There I don't care about the performance (getting a cached file from any disk beats over the net), but it reduces the defragmentation that needs to be done on my C: drive since it now contains only files that don't change frequently.

Let me put it another way. When purchasing a disk, would you purchase one that could do 108 MB/s sequential read with a 7ms access time or a 50 MB/s with a 20ms access time? That is the difference in speed I measured with HD Tune of the outer sectors (logical beginning of disk) vs the inner sectors (logical end) on a 750 GB SATA hard drive of mine. If I create a 50GB partition on it, it will be in that 50 GB/s region at the logical end. This is true in general of hard disks - the logical end of the drive has about 1/2 the performance as the beginning

I have two identical boot disks - the second a backup, the main has file placement based on use (diskeeper I-FAAST) and the backup not. The main boot disk performs noticeably faster.

- Gene

If speed is what you are after, partitioning for the OS would still be the best route (BTW I work with EMC disk arrays for the DoD and to gain maximum performance out of our servers on top of high availability, we partition our local server drives and our arrays).

If you partition your drive and make your OS partition FAT32, you will gain speed and eliminate the need to defragment your drive on a daily basis since the OS files will not be allowed to be placed amongst the rest of the entire drive, and since seek times are the bottleneck for a drive since almost no applications that are typically used will have a single contiguous block of data to read, this will ensure those file are close to each other as possible and reduce short stroking.

HD Tune is a nice theoretical measure of hard disk performance, but like I said, it does not hold up in real world. If it did and RPM was truly what mattered the most, then you would see the entire industry move to 10,000 rpm drives and faster. Instead, we get a very minimal increase in performance that does not scale with RPM increase.