Partinioning my hard drives - suggestions?

I'm not a computer guru like others here, but in response to #4, Partition Magic is a pretty good program that makes partitioning drives and setting up dual-boot systems much less complicated.

 

2. If you don’t want data redundancy, then look into RAID 0

3. I don’t need my Linux boxes to write to my Window’s drives but last time I checked (about a year ago) Linux could only read NTFS, but had problems writing to it. Linux has r/w abilities for FAT32.

4. There are a lot of articles on this, here’s one of them: http://littlewhitedog.com/content-52.html

5. Windows XP

6. I normally dump my Window files to my D partition, then have the D drive sync up with my Linux file server using scripts or through Unison. Windows is able to talk to Linux over Samba.

7. Don’t use Premiere, so I don’t know.

8. IMHO, I would use the 30GB or even the 5GB hd in a separate Linux box. I find the Linux user experience to be much more enjoyable when something goes wrong and I’m able to troubleshoot the Linux box on a different computer. It really sucks when it’s a networking problem and you’re booting back and forth between Linux and Windows to go online for help. But I don’t know the budget for additional hardware to properly run Myth TV.

9. Use Gentoo instead of SuSe.

 

1. 
   
   1) NTFS on 40G of your main 160G drive.(for windows and apps)
   120G of that drive in FAT32 for space for your Linux based pvr(MythTV) I say that because as of this writing, NTFS support is spotty at best in Linux.
   Devote your other 160G to storage space for your editing.
   Keep in mind that Suse takes over 6G to install everything..
   
   2) If you arent worried about redundancy...dont worry about using RAID.(imo)
   
   3) Storage partitions need to be formatted with FAT32 to be accessible from both Win and Linux until they get the NTFS support worked out.
   
   4) Make sure to leave yourself 6-8G on whatever drive you want to put Linux on...then leave it unformatted...you will format it during the Linux install.
   
   5) Install XP first...then Linux...Linux's bootloader(grub or lilo) will take into account your existing OS and make an entry in the bootloader so you can choose at boot.
   
   6)already covered above...Suse does not support working with NTFS yet..well..it kinda does...but last I heard...support was still real buggy.
   
   7) Which partition are you referring to? the one you will be using for Myth? You want to use the same storage partition for both Adobe and Myth? possibly...how much space do you need for both of them? will you be saving what you record from TV for any length of time? how large are your editing projects?
   
   8) I see no problem with dual boot...hell...if you could find a decent vid editing program...I would say stick with Linux exclusively....but thats just me..
   
   ths is the way I would sdo it...but obviously, it depends on what you really need as far as sotrage goes...I have many partitions on my machine with 240G of space..but I have different requiremenrts than you do.

 

How much did u spent on that computer? Man, with a good video card, it can beat the new Alienware.

 

I have basically the same setup at my house....same motherboard, but a 2.8Ghz processor. Go with RAID 0. It has no fault tolerance....in fact, if you lose one disk, you lose everything......but it's fast, and you'll appreciate that for video editing.

 

I think a lot of your questions depend on whether you can write reliably to NTFS partitions under Linux. If you can, it would really simplify your partitioning scheme. Recently I heard of a promising new project that claims to support reading and writing NTFS partitions called Captive. I haven't tried it yet though.

1) I suggest using your 30 Gb drive for dual-booting your Windows XP/Linux and their apps, and the 160 Gb drives for video storage/editing. NTFS format one of the 160 Gb drives, and see if the Captive project fits your needs.

2) Don't know much about RAID. Can't help here.

3) This may be a problem. FAT32 is an option, but if I remember correctly, there's a limit on file size (2 to 4 Gb? someone help me out here). If you do video editing or capturing, you can easily exceed these limits. I think your best bet here would be NTFS formatted, provided the Captive Project delivers on its promises.

4,5) Install Windows XP first. Resize its partition with Partition Magic or fips. Then install Linux (I recommend Fedora Core. There's an excellent
MythTV Guide that is based upon it. I run a Fedora/MythTV system also. )

6) Maybe. Again, check out the Captive Project. Test it out for us

7) If the Captive Project is successful, then you should be able to.

8) No.

 

ugh...I didnt take into account the 30G drive...what Mack said sounds good.

btw...video editing in Linux.

here is something that sounds promising....one problem there might be...I think it may require more machine than you have..

but check it out anyway and keep us informed...if it workd good..I may start doing my editing in Linux instead.

http://heroinewarrior.com/cinelerra.php3

 

VMware might be a better alternative to dual booting. VMware also scales well if you need to add more OSs later (almost a given knowing MS release tendencies).

BTW, I installed XP on my system at home that had 2 100 Gb HDDs. I bleed a river of blood trying to get W2K and another XP (tricked out for development) installed. Someone here mentioned VMware and it was a total walk in the park to add new OSs. I would have added Linux by now, but Red Hat is getting out of the desktop business and I am been too lazy/busy to find an alternative.

 

I have an AMD 3000+, 1 gig of PC3200 RAM, and a little over a terabyte of hard drive space (850 gb internal and 200 gb external usb2/firewire drive).... and it ain't enough. One recorded/uncompressed Rockets game is around 30 gigs each, so if I ever fall behind in editing (and I most certainly do) each game gobbles up 30 gigs. I finally gave up recording whole games and then editing good plays out. Now I record the game in sections and don't save sections where there are no good plays to be had.

 

it not so much the space(tho, that isnt insiginficant...)the site for that editing prog appears to recommend a dual processor setup...I didnt say it wasnt enough..I said it might not be enough.

go read thru the link...I was short on time so I didnt read too far.

I might have misrread it.

 

Alot UBS TV tuner has MPEG 2 live encoding function now, you may want to try them.

 

XP, AMD XP2000+,512 DDR, 240G drive space
ATI AIM Radeon 7500, cap to MPEG2.

Use VirtualDub to edit, framserve to TMPGenc for encoding to 352v240 MPEG2

using Nero to burn to my pacific digital 4x DVD

I only use my computer to record shows I dont want to miss...and ROckets games.

I have all but 2 games(hardware problems) this season recorded and archived to DVD

LEgend,
the reason why Doc's take so much space is because he records uncompressed for best quality...that takes a TON of space...I would do it if I coud afford another drive...I just dont have the excess space to record that way.
Thats why I record to dvd quality mpeg2

 

I can easily convert to mpeg. I don't want to. I want to keep the clips in its native DV format.

 

Capture machine :

AMD XP 2100+
512 MB PC2100 RAM
200+ gigs HD space
Windows 2000
Canopus ADVC 100 DV Converter

I do my editing using Adobe Premiere on my main machine :

AMD XP 3000+
1 GB PC3200 RAM
About 1 terabyte of HD space
Windows XP

I don't capture entire games, but probably will next season. I don't author dvd's - I just save highlight clips. Too busy with work, house hunting, and finances to get into authoring dvd's much. I just edit out highlights and save those and delete the entire game capture file. The reason I have so much hard drive space is that if I start saving entire games, I could go several days before I can edit stuff. For what I'm doing now, I really don't need that much space. Next season, however, is another story.

On a down note, I had about 200-300 highlights from last season that I lost due to crosslinked files on my HD. Including Yao's first successful shot.

 

heh...our capture machines are darn near identical.
except for the capture device..

I forgot to mention...I dont bother with authoring..I just burn them to disc in their normal format..If I ever have a reason to author a dvd...it would be easy to do so...and when I do author DVD..I use Adobe Encore