Hi All,

I've done a search and couldn't come up with anything but I was wondering:

Does anyone know of / has anyone used a programme to turn a SSD + Rotational Hard drive set up into a virtual Hybrid Drive?

Eg, what I want is:
1. Say I've got a 64GB SSD drive with my system on it.
2. I record a programme in the middle of the night of say 30GB size, in quiet.
3. After 8am, the programme automatically transfers this file to my larger 1TB rotational media storage HDD
4. The SSD is ready to record in quiet during the night again.
5. Maybe even other recordings during waking hours go directly to the rotational HDD. Oh, and the rotational drive needs to be 'killed' outside of waking hours.

Thank youuu!

BTW, if this was possible, I'd definitely splurge out for a SSD!

well i'd probably just make a scheduled task run a batch file that copied the contents of a directory from the ssd to the hard drive (forcibly waking it up), then cleared the directory if the copy succeeded. the hard drive would eventually go back to sleep and the cycle could continue.

though i can't fathom why things have to be quiet enough to involve a ssd, you could just get a quieter hard drive and record straight to it.

Thanks for that. I'd appreciate more detailed instructions if possible.

Reasons why: I'm looking at getting the PC silent as I use it as a Media centre and it is in my bedroom / study - already have two of the quietest 1TB HDD around (WD E10ADS, Samsung HD 103UJ), the ticking wakes me up sometimes. Plus of course there is the performance gain with the SSD - I do a lot of video editing and the bottleneck at the moment is the HDD.

well i'd make a batch file that contained something like:

@ECHO OFF
copy c:\some_ssd_folder\*.movie d:\some_hdd_folder
IF errorlevel 0 GOTO delete
ECHO something went wrong!
goto end
:delete
ECHO deleting off ssd..
del c:\some_ssd_folder\*.movie
:end
ECHO and we're done

then set it as a scheduled task to run every night at 4am or something

it's a bit of a hack, i'll probably think of something better tomorrow

Quietstick: "already have two of the quietest 1TB HDD around (WD E10ADS, Samsung HD 103UJ)"

I doubt whether they are the quietest around. They are quiet, but I think HD103SI (5400rpm, 2-platter) is quieter than HD103UJ (7200rpm, 3-platter) and WD10EADS (5400rpm, 3-platter).

Also, if you're using multidrive setup, you can put a small capacity laptop drive in there. But that doesn't really eliminate the ticking unless you're able to disable unloads.

Quietstick: "Plus of course there is the performance gain with the SSD - I do a lot of video editing and the bottleneck at the moment is the HDD."

Yeah, that's a good reason. Video editing is the most IO demanding of applications. High bitrates of uncompressed video streams, and constant seeking if overlaying several videos together. For noise alone, laptop HDD can easily be quieter than your PSU. Also, HD103UJ is nowhere near silent. Even worst of 5400rpm desktop HDDs (like 4-platter WDs or Seagate low-rpms regardless of capacity) are pretty much awesome compared to the very best of 7200rpm drives (which category HD103UJ no doubt belongs to). Low-rpm HDD of laptop form factor tend to suck in performance so achieving practically the same noise while saving money might not be an option. Stuttering video-editing behavior can make it pretty painful experience to edit. Been there...

incorrect: "then set it as a scheduled task to run every night at 4am or something"

Incorrect advice. Pun intended.

OP specifically wanted than no HDD activity occurs before 8am. Anyway, the batch file is still the same. Just set the scheduler to launch it at proper time.

You are incorrect.



Sorry, couldn't resist

Was just wondering if you've got a bit more time to consider this again please?

NB: I know nothing about running these batch files, although I can see the programming logic in what you've written. The computer will be in Standby or Hibernate mode of Windows the whole time. (It automatically returns to this state when it has finished recording a programme, and yes, the file will run in 'waking hours'.)

Could I have some more instructions please?

Thanks!

You could use SyncBack for this. Just schedule a job to run daily that copies files from the download location on the SSD to their destination on the rotating disk. SyncBack can probably also delete the originals from the SSD.

SyncBack has a very friendly user interface - especially compared to batch files and the task scheduler!

You can simply have windows handle the spinning-down of the rotating disk when it's idle.

Thanks Swivelguy! Will check it out

How can I get windows to spin down the HDD and not sleep the SSD please? (or only wake the SSD in the night) The only option I know is in Power Management where you select Turn Off Harddrives - after x minutes.

Also do you or anyone know of a way to Record only to the HDD in waking hours (so I don't fill up the SSD) please?

(I'm using Sage TV recording software, there is no timed / auto setting to select recording directory)