2 hard drives & SolidWorks new computers

[Standing]

I strongly believe that we should have 2 hard drives when using SolidWorks. My reasoning is to keep my working directory clean and not having my SolidWorks on the C:\ drive. This would prevent fragmenting the C:\ drive.

We do also work off a network drive.

My question is: Does anyone know of any written documentation that I can give management to justify 2 hard drives? I know I have seen documentation on the net, but cannot find the documentation anymore.


Bradley
SolidWorks Professional x64 2007 SP3.0
Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 3.93 GB of RAM
Virtual memory 12577 MB
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400

 

[Theophilus]

I've done this with my last two systems (plus one for a client), but not in the exact configuration you mentioned.

My current system uses two 160GB 7,200RPM Western Digitals, SATA II, with no RAID configuration (or whatever it's called when I have two distinct drives staying independent of one another).

So, the C drive is where Windows and all other programs live. Everything is installed there.

The D drive is where all my files live. SolidWorks parts, documents, etc. all get put there. I also put my SolidWorks templates, materials, PhotoWorks materials and decals there. Essentially, if I create the file, it's on this drive.

Here's the trick. I use something called SyncBack to back up important files from one drive to the other every night. So I do have some Windows-friendly files like photos in My Documents on the C drive--they get duplicated each night to the D drive in a back-up directory. The same goes for all my SolidWorks parts--every night. SyncBack is smart enough not to literally duplicate everything everynight--only the stuff that changed or is new.

The result: If Windows melts down (and I have no reason to believe it won't), I simply plug in a new hard drive (go to Best Buy or whatever--$100, who cares?), format it, and I'm up and rolling in a matter of hours. I can then retrieve all my files off the old C drive and everything is just how I left it (SATA format is nice that way--just plug it in). If my D drive fries, same thing, except this will take even less time and I've only lost the current day's worth of progress (not bad).

On top of this, I back up files each month on DVDs, storing one copy on-site and the other off-site (in case of fire or space debris crashes down and destroys my system). I use an Access database to quickly track which project files are on which back-up DVD, so I can quickly retrieve old project files for clients who need to renew tooling or make tweaks or whatever they want.

If you've worked with computers long enough, you understand that the things that hold your data files can be very fragile--and once they're gone, they're gone.

How can it NOT pay to do something like this? Hard drives are almost free per megabyte, and not much more per gigabyte.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.

 

[Standing]

Jeff,
Thanks for the reply. I will use your idea's to convince management.

Bradley
SolidWorks Professional x64 2007 SP3.0
Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU
3.00 GHz, 3.93 GB of RAM
Virtual memory 12577 MB
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3400

 

[PDMAdmin]

Bradley,

Instead of asking management to commit to what could amount to roughly 10% extra hardware cost per computer just on faith (which they'll be reluctant to do), you could ask them for one machine with the two hard drives. (A RAID configuration optimized for speed might be worth considering in that case.) You could then do some benchmark comparisons between machines with one and two hard drives, and come up with hard numbers to justify your position.

Keeping the temp/working directories clean and defragging the hard drive can both be easily accomplished with site-wide setups and/or scheduled scripts; my suspicion is that you'll need to demonstrate a performance boost (i.e. increased efficiency) to justify spending the extra $$$.

 

[draftsman101]

Theophilus,
I would like to know more about the access database that you use for keeping track of the dvd's.

B. Long
P 4 2.80 GHz
2.5 Gig Ram
Solidworks Office 2007 Sp. 2.2

 

[Theophilus]

Well, I'm not much good at the whole database thing. I just created a single table to track what I need.

Your document control method (how you deal with your files on your hard drive) needs to work with your archiving method. I have a specific way of doing this, but I don't have to share my files--so I have lots of freedom in this regard. Since each iteration of my projects has its own folder (named "070416 Proto", as an example of today's iteration of a project), it's easy for me to properly label and track things in a database table when creating DVD back-ups.

I track things with the following methods--these are headings across the top of my Access table. (If you don't have Access, download a free [[open source] database system as part of Open Office.)

ID: This is the automatic number given to each row in Access

Disc: This is the name of each archive DVD--such as 070416 for today.

#: This is the suffix name of each archive DVD--in case I make multiple DVDs at one time. So I may have 070416-1, 070416-2, and 070416-3.

Client: This tells me who the project was for.

Project: This tells me the project name--such as Utility Knife.

Description: This is an additional field that doesn't always get used. I might add in a descriptive term here, such as the vendor name tooling files were sent to or "animation" or some other thing--to better let me find what I'm looking for within the database.

Rndr: I put an "x" here if the iteration contains any renderings.

Proto: I put an "x" here if the iteration contains any prototype file exports.

Mfg: I put an "x" here if the iteration contains any tooling exported files.

Rev: I put an "x" here if the iteration contains multiples for the folder date--so if I have more than one iteration in a single day--to distinguish which set of files is most recent.

Date: This is perhaps the most important one--it's the name and date of the iteration folder--such as 070416 for today.

I use all these columns as various ways of quickly finding what I need for a client or other needs when the project has been long completed. I must have near 30 DVDs packed with archives of projects over the years, so I had to have some method of quickly accessing the millions of files I've created over the past ten years.

If you know what you're doing with Access, you can also create a query interface to do the same things with your various table columns. I like seeing all the stuff, just in case there was a typo or slight variation in naming a project, so I haven't bothered with a query format.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

Reason trumps all. And awe transcends reason.