Hello everyone:
A question for which I have not found a conclusive explanation.
How much a data disk can be filled? I do not mean the disk where the operating system is installed, but the one that stores user data ... let's say kontakt libraries.
I know a disk needs free space to be able to defrag, but that should not be a problem if the disk is not fragmented.
Thanks in advance.

 

I have read that you have to leave about 10% of the space free on a SSD drive.
Probably would be about the same thing for HDD but can't be sure about that.

 

System disks and data disks are very different. When someone say that you have to leave at least 10-15% of free space, usually they are talking about system disks, where the operating system and programs read and write continuously, as well as page file, hiberfil, etc. Data disks store only static files. So, I think it does not matter to fill these disks almost to 100%... But I am not sure.

 

Well I think it is important when you defrag the drive.
The software needs space to move the files on the drive in the process.

 

You don't need to defrag an SSD drive anyway, so leaving space free specifically for defragging is unnecessary.

 

I`d say that the more free space You have, that faster data can be written to the drive... It doesn`t have to look for free space.
Defragmenting and consolidating files should help with that matter I think.
I would leave space for a big library ( +/- 50 gigabytes), regardless of drive size.

as for ssd drives, sadly, I don`t know how they work, since I don`t own one.

 

for loading kontakt library better use onboard ssd drive, portable ssd are expensive. portable hdd for other sample/file storage

 

That is not applicable to a disk that only stores samples, since they are already there. It is only a question of loading them when necessary. And in that case, it does not matter that the disk is more or less full.

 

You are missing out Rhodes, The time it takes just to boot is dramatic along with the system drive just being so smooth. I have not gotten around to getting one to use as data/sample library and project storage drive yet but I plan to do so. The access time it is down to along with lower latency. They're made up of IC's and use regular block I/O, Off the top of my head SATA express is one along with another which the name I forget that has been created to get the best out of SSD's. Best way I could try to describe it would be an oversized SDHC card. No moving parts, no read/write head meaning no moving parts which obviously translates into a lot less problems for failure.
I'm certainly no expert and maybe have some stuff not as accurate as the computer experts that are around on AudioSEX and deliver, So in advance if I've misrepresented or totally got something arse about face do set me straight/It was not intentional.

I tend to leave around 100GB - 150GB free on the C/System drive, I fill storage specific drives pretty much full and for the drive I use for sample libraries, ROMpler libraries...etc. along with projects being worked on, I tend to leave/have anywhere from 200GB - 50GB free.

I don't know if I'm doing it right quite honestly, So just my 2 pence FWIW not that I can back it up with any actual reasoning, It just makes sense to me/allows for transferring stuff leaving some room to maneuver/shuffle things around should I need to do such. All the best to all as always

Dean

 

I only use SSD drives in my primary system. They don't need to be defragmented and access time is so low, that it doesn't matter how full they are.
Harddisk drives get slower as they fill up. Every time, a file is written, the OS tends to place it in consecutive clusters. If there are not enough cnsecutive clusters, the file is split over the disk as needed.
When the disk gets filled up more, the probability, that a big file can be written in one piece of consecutive clusters gets lower and lower with the grade of the filling of the disk. If the disk is very full, a file could be split into millons of pieces. And it takes access time to place the R/W head and wait for the disk to rotate to the right place. Most operations will get slow. Rule of thumb: As long as they are untouched, big older files will be read faster than big newer files.
So one should defragment disks on a regular basis to produce a maximum of consecutive clusters.
The defragmentation needs to sort the file allocation so that file are stored in consecutive clusters again. The defragmentation does not need a lot of free space, but it is clear, that it's easier to find consecutive clusters on a quite empty disk.
If you habve only 1 Mbyte of free space on a 1TB disk filled with big files, defrag will take weeks. The more free space, the better defrag works.
For the drive the OS resides on (C, there should be a lot of empty space (10-20%), because the OS rewrites thousands of files everytime the system boots.
On data drives, where the files are written once, followed mostly by read operations, the amount of free space can be quite low (e.g. 1%).

 

Last edited: Mar 6, 2017

The way I do it is:
- fresh format the drive
- install a library, defrag and consolidate the files
- install another lib ... defrag and consolidate...
...repeat until the drive is almost full
- and out of habit and maybe ignorance I leave about 50 gigs free on every drive.
(libs that i use often are installed as last on the outside part of the drive)

This way every lib has it`s place on the drive in one spot.
And that way, when I load the lib. the seeking for files should be reduced to e minimum in my opinion.
All seems to work fine in my case doing so.

(I use WD Black sata drives with 12 mb cache)


Nevertheless, thanks for Your input

 

Yeah, That's what i wanted to hear. I think that's the correct answer

 

Yes, I think yours is the correct method. Thank you!!