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SageTV Software Discussion related to the SageTV application produced by SageTV. Questions, issues, problems, suggestions, etc. relating to the SageTV software application should be posted here. (Check the descriptions of the other forums; all hardware related questions go in the Hardware Support forum, etc. And, post in the customizations forum instead if any customizations are active.) |
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#1
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64K Block partitioning?
I installed SageTV on my PC this past weekend for the first time. I see that SageTV recommends partitioning your hard drive (that will store recordings) into 64K blocks. I am completely clueless about this.
I have an external USB 500G hard drive that will be used exclusively for storing recordings, both SD and HD. In anticipation of getting the system set up, I copied all my MP3s to this drive, to be shared through Sage. When I looked into formatting the 500G drive, it said "all data will be lost", so obviously I need to move the MP3s to another drive - at least temporarily (?) - so my question is, if I format this drive with the 64K block partitioning, is it still usable for other files besides the recorded TV shows? What does this exactly do to the drive? Would it effect the ability to store music, photos, etc., on the drive? Do I just need to move the MP3s elsewhere, reformat the drive, and then move them back? In other words, what effect does "64K block formatting" have on things... and what problems would/might I see if I do not? |
#2
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Pro = 64K clusters increases drive read speed. Helps prevent stutter.
Con = Wastes a small amount of disk space, because every file smaller then 64K, will take 64K of space. |
#3
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jerryt is 100% correct - The advantage is in improving read speeds and decreasing disk fragmentation - helps keep your video playing smoothly. The downside is you waste a lot if space IF you have a lot of small files (smaller than 64K) on that drive.
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#4
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And just to complete the loop on this question: MP3s are generally 3-10mb/ each, so you wouldn't be losing any space on these files. However, if you have lots of smaller coverart (or other small files), you'd be losing space.
There are some in-place formatting programs, I think. This has come up before, search around and you might fine a commercial recommendation. Matt
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Server: Ubuntu 16.04 running Sage for Linux v9 |
#5
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Thanks for the info - I agree, the MP3s wouldn't be the problem (and there wouldn't be any other files of mine on there), but I forgot about the cover art! That's a lot of wasted space. Of course, with a 500Gb drive, it might not matter, as the wife and I don't really let a lot of stuff pile up (our current Tivo is only a 35-Gig model and we have never come close... though granted it doesn't do HD).
If I move the MP3s to the PC's hard drive, they will take up about 75% of it (it's a small drive, hence the external one for TV), but will leave it at probably less than 10% free in total. My fear there is that the PC performance might suffer due to the hard drive being so full. Could I pretty much count on stutter while watching recordings or "live" TV, if I do not format the drive with 64K blocks? Is it "frequent" or "rare"? |
#6
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Quote:
Gerry
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Big Gerr _______ Server - WHS 2011: Sage 7.1.9 - 1 x HD Prime and 2 x HDHomeRun - Intel Atom D525 1.6 GHz, Acer Easystore, RAM 4 GB, 4 x 2TB hotswap drives, 1 x 2TB USB ext Clients: 2 x PC Clients, 1 x HD300, 2 x HD-200, 1 x HD-100 DEV Client: Win 7 Ultimate 64 bit - AMD 64 x2 6000+, Gigabyte GA-MA790GP-DS4H MB, RAM 4GB, HD OS:500GB, DATA:1 x 500GB, Pace RGN STB. |
#7
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Quote:
Thomas |
#8
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#9
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The cover art for albums won't take that much wasted space.
I just remembered that I have a utility to report disk space usage, taking cluster size into account to report wasted space, and reporting on the disk's current cluster size. This utility was more important when I had limited drive space & needed to make better use of the clusters, but since there seems to be a frequent question about how to check a drive's current cluster size, I've put it in the forum's download section: File Size & Disk Usage. You can use it to see just how much those music files + cover art really use and how much space is wasted... and you'll probably see that the % wasted space is fairly low. - Andy
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SageTV Open Source v9 is available. - Read the SageTV FAQ. Older PDF User's Guides mostly still apply: SageTV V7.0 & SageTV Studio v7.1. - Hauppauge remote help: 1) Basics/Extending it 2) Replace it 3) Use it w/o needing focus - HD Extenders: A) FAQs B) URC MX-700 remote setup Note: This is a users' forum; see the Rules. For official tech support fill out a Support Request. |
#10
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Actually, estimating wasted space is pretty simple. The key is the "slack" (the industry term for space wasted due to partial cluster use), which averages 1/2 the cluster size*.
So you can get an approximation of wasted space by computing (cluster size / 2) * (total number of files on the disk or partition). So with 1000 files on a drive w/64K clusters, it's (64K/2 = 32K) * 1000 = about 32 megabytes. The same drive with 4K clusters (NTFS default) would have (4K/2 = 2K) * 1000 = 2 megabytes of wasted space. Neither number is very large compared to current HD sizes of 500, 750, 1000 gigabytes. *This method assumes most of your files are much larger than the cluster size (usually the case on a HTPC). Doesn't work so well with small files, like on a web server with a bunch of .htm files that are only a few K each.
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Be alert! America needs more lerts. Eric Law |
#11
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To put it in perspective, that works out to about 20 seconds of HD video, maybe a minute of SD. Hardly worth worrying about.
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-- Greg |
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