In terms of disc performance, either is quite adequate for audio, although it's tempting to say use the one with the higher spin speed if you have a lot of channels. However, from the point of view of space, I would put the OS on the smaller one and use the larger for audio projects.

Don't forget you need backup media of a similar capacity!

I would make a 10 - 20GB partition on the larger one and call that "TAPE" and use that for the projects you are working on. When you are done working on them you can store them on the larger partition

I second Music Junky. And common wisdom suggests to make the smaller "tape" partition toward the outside edge of the disk.

The reason behind using a smaller partition for recording is to keep it clean with only one (possibly another one or two..) project, and to keep the little heads from skittering all over the larger surface of the entire 250 GB disk to find the data you want to use for the project, that is probably fragmented amongst all the other data from all the other projects...and has to write back to whatever the next open space will hold it...wherever that may be on the drive. Just makes things faster, more reliable, and saves wear on the drive.

Kind of like trying to move a thousand peanuts (in this case, the peanuts represent only all the data of our young peoples' newest hero's new hit song "Death Rattles"), one by one...from one can to another, from a can of only 1000 peanuts, or trying to move them from a can of mixed nuts with 1000 peanuts, 1000 cashews (his other new hit "Kill Da Mall"), 1000 filberts ("The Misogyny Club"), etc. :shock:

Which would be faster and cause less stress for the arm (the disk heads)?

Kapt.Krunch

While having a smaller partition for working projects is a good idea from a fragmentation point of view, storing the non-current projects on another partition on the same hard drive is not such a good idea for data reliability.

If you follow this argument further, you would be better off splitting the larger drive into (say) a 50GB partition for the OS and the rest as repository, and use the smaller drive for active projects. It doesn't replace the need for external backups, but doing this does give an added level of security against disk drive failures.

Boswell wrote: While having a smaller partition for working projects is a good idea from a fragmentation point of view, storing the non-current projects on another partition on the same hard drive is not such a good idea for data reliability.

If you follow this argument further, you would be better off splitting the larger drive into (say) a 50GB partition for the OS and the rest as repository, and use the smaller drive for active projects. It doesn't replace the need for external backups, but doing this does give an added level of security against disk drive failures.

I was not meaning you should store them on the same disk as backup. Always backup your files to a different hard drive. Thank you Boswell for pointing that out.

In no means was i describing how to use the larger disk for backup, only how I would split it up for audio usage.

i was going to buy two 500 gig drives.
no? maybe buy a small one to dump to first?

Excellent answer Boswell, couldn't have said it better myself.

Boswell wrote: While having a smaller partition for working projects is a good idea from a fragmentation point of view, storing the non-current projects on another partition on the same hard drive is not such a good idea for data reliability.

If you follow this argument further, you would be better off splitting the larger drive into (say) a 50GB partition for the OS and the rest as repository, and use the smaller drive for active projects. It doesn't replace the need for external backups, but doing this does give an added level of security against disk drive failures.

True, and good point. I do move them to the other partition of the same drive, but they are also backed up to the second, larger partition of my OS drive.
And, occasionally, (should be more often), I back up to an external. That way they are ALWAYS on at least two different physical drives.

Kapt.Krunch