I have a little over 310 GB of music in MP3/WMA and am wondering the
best way to organize my hard discs to maximize computer speed. I have
two new Maxtor 250 GB hard discs (7200 rpm), 4GB RAM, and 3.2GHz dual
processors.
The two discs are currently divided into about ten 50GB partitions and
the MP3's are distributed somewhat evenly between the partitions.
Is this most efficient way to store these files or should I have less
partitions with bigger capacity?
At times my computer runs slow when accessing the whole list and I
just want to make sure its not because of my file organization.
> The two discs are currently divided into about ten 50GB partitions and
> the MP3's are distributed somewhat evenly between the partitions.
>
> Is this most efficient way to store these files or should I have less
> partitions with bigger capacity?
>
> At times my computer runs slow when accessing the whole list and I
> just want to make sure its not because of my file organization.
On what OS ? For Unix filesystems, the bigger the filesystem the
****her away a directory entry will be from the inode on
average. That's no good.
Directory fragmentation will slow things down, as Arno pointed
out. On the other hand, if you create subdirectories to fight
that, fewer directories will be fragmented but there will be
more of them so the total seek time may actually increase.
There are good reasons for avoiding directories with large
number of entries, though (CPU).
--
André Majorel <URL:http://www.teaser.fr/~amajorel/>
(Counterfeit: wog@skiff.comaqif@baldwin.com)
There is always someone somewhere who needs a good laugh.
On Sep 10, 8:43 am, chrisv <chr...@nospam.invalid> wrote:
> matthewhargr...@msn.com wrote:
> >I have a little over 310 GB of music in MP3/WMA
>
> Steal much?
No Chris, I don't steal at all, but thanks for the implication. I
have been collecting music for more than 30 years and have digitized
most of my albums and tapes, the more than 3,000 CD's I have purchased
since my first one in 1985, and have been a subscriber to eMusic since
its launch. Digitizing all the music of has taken me years of
meticulous cataloguing, expense, and tons and tons of time. Since I
am not a computer guy I came here for assistance on how to best
organize it. Your post was not very helpful.
I have defragged and have an organized directory tree set-up (each
letter of alphabet --> band name --> album --> song files), and am
running Windows XP.
I am trying to decide if I should have just a few large partitions or
a bunch or smaller ones to organize the hard disks for speed of
accessing the data. Thanks again.
On 10 Sep 2007 05:34:59 GMT, Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> put finger
to keyboard and composed:
>Previously matthewhargrove@msn.com wrote:
>
>> I have a little over 310 GB of music in MP3/WMA and am wondering the
>> best way to organize my hard discs to maximize computer speed.
>
>What do you mean by "speed"?
>
>> I have
>> two new Maxtor 250 GB hard discs (7200 rpm), 4GB RAM, and 3.2GHz dual
>> processors.
>
>> The two discs are currently divided into about ten 50GB partitions and
>> the MP3's are distributed somewhat evenly between the partitions.
>
>> Is this most efficient way to store these files or should I have less
>> partitions with bigger capacity?
>
>It depends on what you want to optimize.
>
>Search speed would need something like separate subdirectories for
>each starting letter or use of a database system in the first place.
>
>Space would mean to store them in archives, e.g. .zip.
MP3s are already compressed. Winzip doesn't appear to shrink them by
very much.
- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.
Previously Franc Zabkar <fzabkar@iinternode.on.net> wrote:
> On 10 Sep 2007 05:34:59 GMT, Arno Wagner <me@privacy.net> put finger
> to keyboard and composed:
>>Previously matthewhargrove@msn.com wrote:
>>
>>> I have a little over 310 GB of music in MP3/WMA and am wondering the
>>> best way to organize my hard discs to maximize computer speed.
>>
>>What do you mean by "speed"?
>>
>>> I have
>>> two new Maxtor 250 GB hard discs (7200 rpm), 4GB RAM, and 3.2GHz dual
>>> processors.
>>
>>> The two discs are currently divided into about ten 50GB partitions and
>>> the MP3's are distributed somewhat evenly between the partitions.
>>
>>> Is this most efficient way to store these files or should I have less
>>> partitions with bigger capacity?
>>
>>It depends on what you want to optimize.
>>
>>Search speed would need something like separate subdirectories for
>>each starting letter or use of a database system in the first place.
>>
>>Space would mean to store them in archives, e.g. .zip.
> MP3s are already compressed. Winzip doesn't appear to shrink them by
> very much.
Indeed. But if you have small mp3s and a large cluster size, you get
less filesystem loss. Does not matter that much, admittedly.
<matthewhargrove@msn.com> wrote in message
news:1189393219.094091.285450@50g2000hsm.googlegro ups.com...
>
> I have a little over 310 GB of music in MP3/WMA and am wondering the
> best way to organize my hard discs to maximize computer speed. I have
> two new Maxtor 250 GB hard discs (7200 rpm), 4GB RAM, and 3.2GHz dual
> processors.
>
> The two discs are currently divided into about ten 50GB partitions and
> the MP3's are distributed somewhat evenly between the partitions.
>
> Is this most efficient way to store these files or should I have less
> partitions with bigger capacity?
>
> At times my computer runs slow when accessing the whole list and I
> just want to make sure its not because of my file organization.
>
> Thanks!
> Matthew
>
Hi Matthew
I see youve already had good advice re managing the file distribution.
FWIW I did wonder if you have any backup regime for all your music data
files?
Given the amount of time and effort it has taken it would be more than a bit
upsetting if one of you drives expired (sorry to say that IMHO Maxtors dont
have the best reputation for reliabilty).
Given the amont of data I'd suggest using disk imaging software and another
drive to save to - perhaps in a removeable caddy.
> FWIW I did wonder if you have any backup regime for all your music data
> files?
My backup regime is not very good... I have everything burned to DVD's
using Nero's Back It Up. My initial backup took over 50 disks, and
since then I just periodically burn a new disc with what I have
transferred recently. Would love advice on how to back it up if an
easier way exists. I have never tested the backup, so I have
nightmares that I lose the data and it doesn't work, then I am back to
transferring everything again.
However, I am still unclear if a few larger partitions are better than
a bunch of smaller ones.
47,900 MP3's - How To Organize Hard Discs? 
Linear Mode
