Need Hard Drive Configuration Help VS9

[integron]

Hope someone on this forum can help me understand the best way to configure my hard drives to render video to Mpeg4 and burn to a DVD? I have Windows XP Pro, 1gb RAM, P4 3ghz, Asus Motherboard (P4P800Deluxe) using an ATi capture card(ATI AIW-9000). I have two existing hard drives 80gb each. and just bought a hitachi 160 Parallel hd. Please help me understand where the Preferences should be set for VS9? Where does the preview folder go? Where does the actual rendered video go?

[maddrummer3301]

Hi,

Set the drive up as NTFS file system, basic or dynamic disk.
Install the video program(s) (VS9) under your working drive, program files
where all your other programs are at.

Then:
In ANY video program (not just uleads). When you run the program and
set it up:
Make all your references to the new Ntfs drive. temp files. preview files,
working folder, project files etc, etc, etc.

Hope this helps,

MD

[integron]

If i understand correctly. I can skip using two drives and just use the one 160gb drive? Making all references to this drive. Thanks again for the reply.

[maddrummer3301]

Hi,

>Hope someone on this forum can help me understand the best way to
>configure my hard drives to render video to Mpeg4

You said "Configure my hard drives", meaning more than one drive.
I read your post as if you were adding the drive to your system and not
replacing replacing the drives with a new one.

Sorry if I misunderstood your post.

It's best if you can, to ADD the drive to your system. You have a fast
system and running everything from one drive will not be good in
comparision to 2 harddrives.

The recommended setup is
1st Harddisk - Operating system and programs.
2nd or more disks - Data storage, video/audio recording etc.

Two hard disks reduces "Disk Thrashing". This makes the overall system
faster and more efficient.

Hope this helps,

MD

[kebrinton]

I would add that the "other" drive can be a virtual drive -- it doesn't need to be a physically separate hard drive.

I have a 160GB hard drive inside my box. The C: drive is the first 30GB of this and that's where the Video Studio program is located. But all the temp files, the captured video, the stills I capture from video, the .VSP program files, fall into folders on my virtual second drive D: which is the rest of my 160GB hard drive, 130GB mostly for video. Before I capture a new video I just create new folders on my D: drive and then specify, in Preferences, that this is where I want the new material to go. (Save before you capture.)

Keith

[integron]

Thanks excellent responses to my question. To clarify my existing problem relates to the use of two drives in this system. For some reason my second drive solely used for data storage is not capturing at the same rate. These are exactly the same drives same manufacturer. But for some reason the playback after capture when captured to the second drive(non OS drive) is slower and drops frames. Perhaps I should just replace the drive with the 160gb Hitachi and see how that goes. I thought it might be a configuration issue bewteen where preview temp files are created and where the actual capture files are created. Splitting these folders should increase the speed but does not on my system. i chagned all folders to the OS drive and system captures good.

[GeorgeW]

I would add that the "other" drive can be a virtual drive -- it doesn't need to be a physically separate hard drive.

I have a 160GB hard drive inside my box. The C: drive is the first 30GB of this and that's where the Video Studio program is located. But all the temp files, the captured video, the stills I capture from video, the .VSP program files, fall into folders on my virtual second drive D: which is the rest of my 160GB hard drive, 130GB mostly for video. Before I capture a new video I just create new folders on my D: drive and then specify, in Preferences, that this is where I want the new material to go. (Save before you capture.)

Keith

Two separate physical drives would be better. Your 160gb drive only has one read/write head. If you are copying from one place to another, the head is constantly moving from point "a" to point "b". If you have two physical drives, the read/write heads require less movement because one can be reading from drive-X, while the other is writing to drive-Y.

[kebrinton]

Y'know...I do blieve you're right about that, George! Funny how writing a post will concentrate the mind.

Till now I'd always paid attention to the separation of data etc. Just after submitting my post, I began realizing that no matter how virtually separate a drive is, it still is served by the same head!

However! I've never had a problem, and UVS8 works really fast on my present system. Any problems I've had since starting with Ulead in 2003 have been my own fault.

But now I'm going to start thinking "maybe my system could work even faster." (Thanks a lot, George...!)

Keith