Need advice re new SATA drive

[Bob Carruth]

Got a good deal (I hope) on a 500 GB internal SATA drive. It should arrive next week.

All these years the only additional drive I've ever used besides a one partition "C" drive is my USB 2.0 Maxtor One Touch for backup.

My plans for the new drive include a recovery image of the OS, capture area for more converted Hi 8 tapes than I want to think about, and scratch disc areas for both Photoshop and Premiere Elements to improve performance. There are about 40 GB free left on the C drive.

Should I just go ahead and format one 500 GB partition or break it up? I don't yet have any software to create the OS image but would like to reserve whatever is needed on the first format.

Should I keep all associated PreE 3 files on one drive or keep some on the C and others on the new drive and how would be the best way to arrange them?

Are there any questions that I haven't asked that I should have?

Please don't consider any advice too basic. I'd like to get it right the first (or at least the second) time.

Thanks,

[Chuck Engels]

I would be sure to format the drive when you get it, or at least verify that it is NTSF and not FAT32 like most external drive come.
There shouldn't be any reason to partition the drive, but maybe someone has a good reason or thinks that would be a good idea.

I keep all of my current project work on my secondary internal drive, everything else on the external.
There are many folks that use the external drive as their video drive, that is fine too.
Whatever you do, make backups of whatever you don't want to lose

[Bob Carruth]

Thanks, Chuck. (Boy you guys are quick.) I noticed in your Water Cooler post on PC Backup that you use Acronis for backup. Do I need to do anything special to prepare for using it's image of the OS and software or will it just use whatever drive I give it?

I back up nightly at midnight and keep really important stuff on archival DVD at my son's house. My only concern is room for the huge DV-AVI files I'm going to end up with. Is burning them back to Digital 8 tape a good alternative? I'm pretty sure my old camcorder (Sony DCR-TRV510) can do that via firewire.

I'll be back tomorrow.

Bob

[Chuck Engels]

Hi Bob,
Exporting back to tape is a good way to archive your video, probably one of the safest backups possible.
Just be sure you keep something around that can play those tapes if you need them

Acronis will clone any drive as far as I know, it makes an exact duplicate and will copy Windows system files and the works even while the drive is running. I have been very happy with the results.

[John 'twosheds' McDonald]

Second that advice about Acronis - saved my bacon on more than one occasion.