Laptop-I have 3 different hard drives

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The Wizard Of OZ

Well-Known DJ
Dec 13, 2007
3,130
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Tampa Bay Area
I have the original 160GB now in an external enclosure, a 320GB is now inside as the C drive and a 500GB is in an external enclosure. My Dell Inspiron 1720 can have 2 internal hard drives.

The 320GB is nearly full and I keep buying more and more music CDs and I'm hot on the trail of what sounds like a large collection of Karaoke discs.

Which two drives would you put inside and how would you partition them?

I just bought Acronis True Image so I can create a clone drive and back up everything and manage partitions.

I need to start doing more regular backups and if I have to buy another drive I will. I've seen external 1TB drives now going for good prices.
 
Get a 1.5TB the price is not that much different.
 
Which two drives would you put inside and how would you partition them?

I would put the 500 in as the second drive (providing it will fit -- it may be a 3 1/2" drive, which wouldn't fit). I generally setup the entire drive as a single partition, so there would only be two drive letters in this case.

At that point, I would move all music onto the 500, leaving only the OS and your programs on the 320 -- which will make for quick partition backups using Acronis. There's no need to do partition type backups on the music drive -- a simple SyncToy to an external will be faster for backups of the music.

When you eventually need the extra space now on the 320, you could partition it out then, for a smaller OS/Program partition, and a larger data partition (you could do that now as well)...
 
No the 500GB is a Hitachi 2.5" eSATA in a Simpletech drive enclosure.

Let me run this by you Rick, what about using the original 160GB drive as the primary drive, partition 50GB for Vista and 100GB as storage for DJ music then use the 320GB Western Digital as one big partition in the second drive bay for more DJ music and Karaoke files and use the 500GB external for backing up the internals-OR-partition the 500GB with 50GB for Vista and the rest for music storage? then use the two other drives as backup drives, one for the OS drive and the other for music backup. I doubt I'll ever have 320GBs of music, but at the rate I'm buying CDs you never know?
 
Edit: This is kind of a duble post-I didn't think the previous message went through,LOL

At one point I considered using the 500GB as the internal and partitioning it as 50GB-60GB for Vista-the rest for music, actual space is like 479GB I think. It's a Hitachi 2.5" SATA in a Simpletech enclosure that can easily be removed and installed inside the Laptop.

The 320GB is a 2.5" Western Digital SATA drive I got off ebay back in February. I cloned the original 160GB internal drive and removed it. I never thought I could fill a 320GB, otherwise I would have gotten a 500GB instead.

The reason I was thinking about this is because I want all of my DJ music and all of my Karaoke on one drive or one drive partition and I want to make sure I have everything securely backed up. I don't want to have to rip hundreds of music and Karaoke discs again.
 
Rick i'll leave you with this one - you have a handle on it

i'll go do these systems that need fixing :)
 
Good luck, when putting together that sub project and the 2 ohm amp thing you will find happiness.
 
Good luck, when putting together that sub project and the 2 ohm amp thing you will find happiness.


LOL:sqlaugh::sqlaugh:

Wiz,

Why not edit all your music both KJ and DJ down so that what you need will all fit on a single internal 500 gig hard drive. Put any extra KJ or uncommon (probably will never use) DJ songs on an external terrabyte drive along with everything else you have as a back up (which you can keep in your truck for just in case)!

Why insist on making life difficult for yourself!
 
LOL:sqlaugh::sqlaugh:

Wiz,

Why not edit all your music both KJ and DJ down so that what you need will all fit on a single internal 500 gig hard drive. Put any extra KJ or uncommon (probably will never use) DJ songs on an external terrabyte drive along with everything else you have as a back up (which you can keep in your truck for just in case)!

Why insist on making life difficult for yourself!

My hero....:sqlaugh:
 
Why not edit all your music both KJ and DJ down so that what you need will all fit on a single internal 500 gig hard drive. Put any extra KJ or uncommon (probably will never use) DJ songs on an external terrabyte drive along with everything else you have as a back up (which you can keep in your truck for just in case)!!

Looks like he wants 'everything' on one drive...

The reason I was thinking about this is because I want all of my DJ music and all of my Karaoke on one drive or one drive partition

I can definitely see his point...I'm the same way and hate the idea of an external drive (other than for back-ups), even if just some of my content is on there. I'd say go get the 2 biggest laptop drives available right now and stick them in your current laptop...then I'd think you'd be good for a while.
 
Y'know Thunder made a good point. I'm going to start going through my library. I'm going to listen to EVERY song and if I feel it isn't going to get played it's going to get moved to an archive drive. I need to do this anyways to become more familiar with my music library. Then everything else that isn't 100% important gets moved too. At that point I should be able to fit everything on the 320GB drive and use the external 500GB for backing up the 320.
 
Y'know Thunder made a good point. I'm going to start going through my library. I'm going to listen to EVERY song and if I feel it isn't going to get played it's going to get moved to an archive drive.

Well shall we put your account on hold for 5x years while you listen to them all !!

i'll talk to you then :)
 
You're right Dennis, it's a time consuming process. I went through a few folders and it took hours, but I'm glad I did, it's an extremely useful thing to do. There are a lot of songs I won't play and I need to identify them and segregate them.

So far I identified 165 that I would play and 297 that likely won't ever get used. I bet of the 165 I'll actually use MAYBE half. This is after only a few folders out of around 80 that I have so far.
 
You're right Dennis, it's a time consuming process. I went through a few folders and it took hours, but I'm glad I did, it's an extremely useful thing to do. There are a lot of songs I won't play and I need to identify them and segregate them.

So far I identified 165 that I would play and 297 that likely won't ever get used. I bet of the 165 I'll actually use MAYBE half. This is after only a few folders out of around 80 that I have so far.

Once you get through what you have Wiz, it becomes much easier. Just do it when you rip them in -- you'll thank yerself in the long run... :sqwink: :sqbiggrin:
 
Y'know Rick, in retrospect I wish I had. It would have been much easier, but since I'm still learning about this DJ stuff I just didn't think of it.

I'm still primarily doing my singing show and not much else. As I continue buying CDs I'm going to screen each one after it's ripped and archive the songs I don't think will get played which seems to be 3 or 4 to one or more.

I'll still have them on an external USB drive and I'm going to have a searchable listing of ALL of my songs so if someone wants something in the archive it'll be really fast and easy to plug the external USB drive in and play it.

By the way, I don't listen to every entire song. If it's a song I know and like I listen to a few seconds, if it's a song I don't really know I listen to parts of the song and if it isn't REALLY good it goes right into the archive. Otherwise the process would take forever.
 
By the way, I don't listen to every entire song. If it's a song I know and like I listen to a few seconds, if it's a song I don't really know I listen to parts of the song and if it isn't REALLY good it goes right into the archive. Otherwise the process would take forever.

I only listen to entire songs that make the cut into the working library. Sometimes you'll get a jitter or two in a song on the rip, so it pays to know, so you can re-rip it...

Don't wanna be caught with yer pants down in front of a crowd... ;)


One of the bennies of that process, is you'll find songs that mix well together, that you never would of thought! Sometimes, I'll be listening to a full song, and another song will pop into my head halfway through.

I do a lot of that while I'm working -- just run a random mix of new tunes I've just ripped in. I keep a notepad nearby, and write down the songs that come into my head, then try the mixes later :)
 
I really like Ace Of Bass and some of the Backstreet Boys songs, am I gay? :sqlaugh:

We need further information -- take the test below...


Do your speakers look like phallic symbols?

Do you ever wear a skirt?

Do you tap your foot when Milli Vanilli songs are on?

Do you DJ behind a lit up facade?



If you answered yes to any of the above, then yes, you are either gay, or leaning in that direction... :sqlaugh: :rofl: