windows frequently needs to access your system drive for various reasons, so attempting to store your audio/video files on your system drive will provide unacceptable performance.
your system's virtual memory paging (swap) file must be stored on your system drive and not on your a/v drive. by default, windows stores this file on your system drive. for information on how to configure your system's virtual memory, see your windows documentation.
do not create multiple partitions on your a/v drives. doing so can reduce performance leading to dropped frames in your projects. make sure you have only one partition per a/v drive.
planning your connections
in addition to most scsi devices, almost all recent eide storage devices are able to meet the data throughput requirements of your matrox rt.x100 system. you can have only two eide devices on each of the two controller connections found in most pcs. when you connect your eide devices, you must connect your a/v drive and your dedicated export drive to separate controllers.
the following diagram provides a typical eide device configuration for your system:
optimal system with separate system, a/v, and export drives
the following diagram provides an example of an improper eide device configuration.
storage information on our web site
most hard drives and controller cards manufactured in the past year should be suitable for use in your matrox rt.x100 system. for more information on storage recommendations, and a list of any devices we've found to be unsuitable for use with rt.x100, see the rt.x customer support section of our web site at www.matrox.com/videoweb/support.
use the ntfs file system
your a/v drives must be formatted using ntfs for use with matrox rt.x100 because ntfs overcomes fat32 file size limitations. when a hard drive is formatted using fat32, files saved to this drive cannot exceed 4 gigabytes in size. this translates to approximately 20 minutes of dv video, which poses a serious limitation to a nonlinear editing platform like your matrox rt.x100 system.
with ntfs, you also have the option of creating a striped volume, which consists of multiple hard drives formatted as a single partition. this allows you to work with multiple drives as a single large drive, which offers more disk space and enhances hard drive performance. ntfs also provides better audio and video synchronization than fat32 when you play back your clips.
if you already have windows installed on your computer, you can check the format of your drives. in windows explorer, right-click the drive letter (such as d:), then choose properties. under general, check the format of your drive next to file system.
if you need to format a drive using ntfs, right-click my computer, then choose manage. under computer management ] storage, select disk management. in the disk management utility, right-click the appropriate drive and choose format. in the provided dialog box, specify a volume label for the partition you are creating. from the file system list, select ntfs. leave the allocation unit size at default. do not select the enable file and folder compression option. if you are formatting the drive for the first time, do not select the perform a quick format option either.
1.all information on the designated drive will be lost.
2.for more information on how to format your storage devices using ntfs, see your windows documentation.
disk defragmentation
it's important to make sure that your storage does not become too fragmented. overly fragmented drives will lead to a major reduction in your system's performance, which will in turn seriously reduce the rt.x100's ability to work properly.
to ensure that your storage is operating at optimal levels, defragment your hard drives regularly (once a month at least).
for information on how to defragment your storage devices, see your windows documentation.