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Band-in-a-Box for Windows
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Hi all
Anything to be gained by moving my BIAB to a usb drive
Looking for some advise.
Is there anything to be gained apart from. 120 G disc space on my laptop C: drive by moving my BIAB installation to a spare 300 G usb drive.
Making it much like an preinstalled version on hard drive.
Big question is will it run faster or slower? I should save some access time with less contention on drive C: I am thinking, but could that be negated by running BIAB from a usb hard drive?
Your thoughts would be appreciated .
Mike


BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro
Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth
Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt

http://mikesmusic.byethost16.com/
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Mike,

I noticed a substantial delay (slow program loading and file seeking) probably 10%+ when using BIAB from the USB drive. I then loaded everything to my C drive and was a lot happier.

Just a thought.

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I think the answer is going to depend mostly on your computer hardware.

What is the USB port rating, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0 or 3.1? Each rating has a different transfer speed.

Is the USB device a memory stick or hard drive mounted in an external case? A memory stick with that much storage is likely recent vintage so it will have acceptable transfer speed. An external hard drive you must consider the transfer speed of both the hard drive and SATA to USB convertor that is part of the external case.

The computer USB port typically connects to a SATA data bus on the motherboard. Motherboard SATA bus speed rating can be 3 GB or 6 GB per second. Laptops typically have the slower bus.

Using my laptop computer as an example, all the USB ports are 2.0 and the motherboard bus is 3 GB. Data transfers over the USB ports are slow enough to be able to start the transfer and then take a break. The hard drive rotates at 5400 rpm and shares the same bus so hard drive transfers are not much better.


Jim Fogle - 2024 BiaB (1111) RB (5) Ultra+ PAK
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Hi Mike,

The SATA connection used by internal drives is quite a bit faster than USB2, so songs will generate a bit faster from the C drive, as Don has described.

I'd say the only advantage to using a USB drive would be to free up space on the C drive so you can use it for something else.

Congestion on the C drive isn't really something you need to worry about though, having more data on the C drive won't slow it down unless it's so full that it's not working properly.

Cheers
Kent
PG Music

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Mike, it will work.

But there is maybe a hybrid solution that could work well.

Move the RealTracks and RealDrums on the USB removable drive, but install the main program and everything else onto your hard drive.

That is the way many of us use the Audiophile version.

The majority of data is stored on the USB, the main program is local to the machine itself.


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Hi Mike. I have one question. How large is your internal HD and what kind is it?

HDs have come way down in price. A 500GB 2.5" internal HD is around $40 USD :

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1Z4-0002-001C2

A 1TB internal HD is around $60 USD:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822179111

A 500GB internal SSD is around $100 USD:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820250087

A 1TB SSD is expensive!

As you know SSDs are a lot faster than platter HDs but a platter HD is still faster than an external USB drive. YMMV


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Cop, that's not how field sobriety tests work.

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Hi guys

Thanks to all for such a quick response.
Well it seems as I still have about 100 G left on drive C: I would be best staying as I am , I certainly don’t want to slow down BIAB in any way.
Should I ever need more space on C: I am sure there is other stuff I could move out.
So thank you all for your advice very much appreciated.
Best regards
Mike


BIAB2021 UltraPlus,AsusN55S1Tbssd, W10/64,Akai EIEpro
Yamaha CVP405,SquireStrat, CoolsoftVMidSynth
Novatation Impulse61 Ctr kbd, Cwalk blab Kontakt

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I am a fan of the USB MyPassport ULTRA USB 3.0 drive BIAB is delivered on .... BUT ONLY when connected to a Freslogic 3.0 4 controller PCIe card on my desktop system. Data transfer is up to 100 MB/s. So if you have a (free) 3.0 USB port for it on your laptop? It behaves quite slower, some 28 MB/s, on a normal 2.0 USB bus.

As this drive gets a little warm it seems to use power, so check you laptop if it's capable of the USB power needed, or use an alternative external drive with a separate power supply maybe.

PS i took apart an old barely used BIAB USB drive i had, think it had 500 GB, and mounted the 2.5" harddisk inside a Dell laptop as second drive; there was a drive bay and port free for it; lucky i found matching small screws for the bay. Works well there, the laptop is a Precision model, built for quality, but i never tested this drive it for speed, only use it storage. F

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This is where SSD's come in. I have a 256 gig SSD and had the full Biab package on it including all the RT/RD's. I noticed the drive was getting full so I deleted those and kept the Biab program only and run the RT/RD's from the PG external HD. I can't hear any extra delay at all.

Bob


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