I must have missed something, but I didn't see an choice to install MC (from the boxed set) on a non-system drive. As you can see from my system specs, I like to put the OS/drivers on my C Drive and the applications on my D drive. (A faux raid if you will, but at least, if one of those drives goes south on me, I only lose half my stuff.)
I'm somewhat nervous asking such a simple minded question in a roomful of power users, so I'll plead for mercy up front. My first forays into MC make me feel like the apprentice carpenter with a 4 penny nail in one hand and a 20 pound sledgehammer in the other. I'm bound to smash a few fingers before I become competent.
Thanks in advance,
John
John, with a new app and a new workflow, my first thoughts would not be to do a customized install, using all the defaults and all " by the book " is usually a good start, also helps in searching for possible future errors.
and, welcome over here of course
Tomas
As simple as that:
Do not install at anything than the OS drive.
You have probably there the pagefile.
So it will be for example D>then C to load resources from pagefile>D to access the program>then C to read some dll's which are going anyway to the root of the OS drive>then back to the program's drive.
And you can add to this, that the program has to read Media files which will be at another drive as E:.
This theoretically limits any programs speed and responsiveness.
But this is in theory. You could try and let us know.
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I say "go for it" - do a custom install. Let's see what happens. You can always uninstall it - and then you can see what happens on an un-install. Once custom installed, drop a 10 minute clip HD on the time, slice or razor it and put a few transitions, and write it out to a file - timing how how long it takes. Then deactivate MC (if you got that far) and uninstall MC and then reinstall it using the install defaults. Now do the same test. Compare the time and you should see if installing the program on a non-system drive causes any kinks. The only reason I say that (other than it's not my system <wink><wink>), is that I have seen posts saying the MC program needs to be installed on the system drive, and that your video media files should be on a different physical drive. But I have looked through the manual and searched on-line, and nowhere "officially" can I find that recommendation (till this post, anyways) .Even though in “theory” that setup (separate drives) seems to make sense, I know also that that same setup was recommended for “Liquid” . And I know there were many times I had a notebook with one drive – and everything worked just fine. I had another notebook with two drives in it – and it didn’t seem to matter much "time" or "error" wise in “Liquid” whether my data files were on drive 1 or drive 2, or interspersed – not that I spent any time really measuring differences.Liquid basically loaded it’s program into memory, and when you asked it for certain activity, it would go load some other part in memory so that you could do whatever it was you were doing – an effect, transistion, etc- But it sure didn’t seem to me that Liquid was going crazy with activity on the C: drive – just exchanging stuff out of memory, at least it seemed. So maybe, just maybe, having media files on the root drive might not be that much of a performance killer for MC. And maybe, installing program files on a non-system drive might not be any different operation wise. With these computers, you never know tell you try it youself – and then you know. I know some pretty experienced MC editors have recommended at least 2 physical drives – one for media only. But I bet there are some laptop users of MC that only have one drive – maybe they attach a firewire or USB or esata drive – but maybe they don’t.But the real question for me is - why are you loading your system that way and why are you thinking it's ok to lose half your files an you will be ok ? My guess is that you’ve probably will lose all – cause the half’s have different data and probably you will need pieces from both sides to get your data back. My thought without hearing your explanation is that you probably should take a look at what you are trying to achieve – it may be easier with 1 system drive and a good timely backup (mirror). It would nice to hear your theory and the advantages of installing program files on a non-system drive.
Colorado User GroupVideoByDave.com
Hi,
Dave Messinger:I say "go for it" - do a custom install. Let's see what happens....
I have two thoughts about this. First, that attitude is ok if you're a hobbyist or you just like playing with computers or for whatever reason you have lots of time to spend troubleshooting if things go wrong. If, on the other hand, you are using Media Composer to make money, and you need it to run all day every day, and every hour you're not editing is an hour you are losing money, then I'd ignore the "see what happens" suggestion and configure your system with Media Composer on your system drive and your media on a separate physical drive.
Second, seeing as this is the forum for Liquid people presumably coming to Media Composer for the first time, I'd concentrate on figuring out how Media Composer works and getting comfortable with it before I started going off track and seeing what configurations work and what ones don't. In other words, learn to use the software first, then later on see if you can break it.
ciao,Carl
p.s. I'm looking for a configuration guide that speaks to drive configuration. If I find one I'll post it here.
"There is hardly anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who only consider the price are this man's lawful prey." - John Ruskin (1819-1900)
Carl Amoscato | Freelance Film & Video Editor | London, UK
Carl - that's a well made point that anyone installing MC should consider - part of the reason why I added the <wink><wink> about it not being my system. I think your point about coming from Liquid is also important because for many of us (I speak singlely) , we're trying MC to see what we think. I would hope MC's install/unistall process is fairly rock solid - and if it is, I would think there would be no issues with a custom install being uninstalled - but with computers, you never know.
Before I install any big software package, I clean up the drive, defrag it, reg clean it and make a mirror image backup. Just a habit. I am a bit on the "I don't know till I do" side of things, so I like those challenges, and since I am just learning MC and am still using Liquid and other software for my "part-time" editing journey in life, and since it sounded like macqina may be a bit of a rebel in his description of hs drive setup, I was a bit to the left (or is that right - I'm getting confused in the current political climate) on making that suggestion.
I just mention this so everyone knows where I was coming from in my suggestion. I feel that you are "right on" if it's your money maker and you don't want to or need to "test" the tried and true.
And I look forward to finding out about that drive configuration if you find it. I just have to think there are some MC's out there running on a single drive notebook.
Hi Dave,
I understand where you're coming from. I'm glad there are guys around who are happy to play with the system outside of what's recommended to see what can be done. :)
Experimentation can be fun but, if you want an official word, here it is, we won't support a system that has not been installed, as an Admin User, on any drive other than the C drive.
So, you can experiment, see what happens but, if you have trouble, we can't help.
In agreement, Unity. In Disagreement, Discussion. In all things, Charity.
And, as one more comment, please, and please again, add to your profile that you have customized your install, just in case of getting into probs and coming to the forum asking for help
Thanks BLKDOG. That 'official word' is what I was looking for. And I can adapt even though I qualify as an 'old dog.'
As regards my system performance, the set up I have now really 'rox.' Because, with a quad core, I'm not running a single application at any one time. I can be editing in Liquid, do some rendering, tab out and work with some photos, music, check the forums; and my system just keeps on choppin' the bits. I've never been happier with my Liquid performance than I am with my current setup and I've been with liquid for 6 or 7 years now, so I've seen some slow days and I know how well it's performing now.
My other consideration for separating applications onto a non-system drive has to do with the fact that most programs save their 'settings' in their 'home' folder. When I was first experimenting with an SSD drive for my OS, it failed on me before I ever decided to make a backup of it. Regardless, this was also the time I decided to test drive Windows 7 RC. So, once my OS was rebuilt and 'drivered,' I was able to reinstall Liquid over itself without removing it. Everything I was working on was there exactly as I left it: projects, templates, everything.
So, as much as I have learned about MC so far, I do see that I can save quite a number of it's 'parts' (settings, maybe?) stuff on non-system drives. I plan to explore that further, but at this point I am still in the 'wading in the kiddy pool' stage and I'm not even wet up to my knees.
Thanks again.
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