PT3 Database on an external USB hard drive?

[Srdfsh]

Hi - hope someone can help me.

Usual problem - going to run out of space on my C drive!
I've read through some posts and reckon I can manage moving postgreSQL to another drive.

My question is, will I be able to run a PT3 database from an external USB hard drive. I'm trying to plan for the future (serious datamining/multitabling) and so would like to know if I'll be able to run a database of say 5 million hands from an external USB hard drive. How fast will it display the HUD on say 16 tables? Will it run as fast as it does now, a bit slow but acceptably so, quite slow or just rediculously slow?

My other option is to move the postgreSQL to my computers second hard drive (75GB). Could you please give me your best estimate of the database size (in number of hands?) this drive will be able to hold (of course I would set the processed file location to the external drive - I mean the postgreSQL database only).

I'm running VISTA home on a laptop - 2GB ram, 2ish GHz Dual Core Processor.

Also while I'm asking questions (thanks in advance) - would having less stats displayed on the HUD speed things up? Would turning off HUD pop-up windows speed things up too? And what does the most recent beta's HUD optimization improvement do? What 'features' don't work with that option selected, I can't seem to work it out.

Thanks very much in advance for any replies - hopefully this exact question hasn't been asked before, I sure couldn't find it!

Mike

[keggler]

USB2 theoretical speed is 60MBYTES/s; but this is a burst speed not a sustained transfer rate - maybe 15MBYTES/s is more realistic for a sustained rate.

UDMA and SATA drives will have a much higher sustained rate - probably around the 60 mark; it also depends on how well the PC manufacturer has implemented the USB2 hardware/firmware and the associated interfaces.

if you haven't already bought the external drive, go for a firewire interface instead.

but seeing as postgres performance is most influenced by drive speed and you plan on having a large database, i would steer clear of the external drive and go with your second hard drive option.

i reckon a GB is good for around 75k's worth of hands... so 5 mill uses most of your 75GB - owch...


susan

[Srdfsh]

Hi Susan,

Thanks very much for the swift reply. I think i've got a plan - if you could answer just a few quick questions you will helping me out a lot.

My plan is to buy an external hard drive and get myself a eSata PCMCIA Express Card for my laptop (heading to the pc shop to make sure I get one that fits!). Then when I get an eSata hard drive I'll be able to plug it in.

My questions are...

1) Is there a way to have my database on my 75GB internal drive until it gets too big and then split the rest of it over onto the external drive? (If this is possible I guess it makes sense for the greatest speed for my situation). (Like can I tell Vista to merge the two drives into one drive like what you can do with partitions?)

2) Or how about having the database on the second drive until it gets full, and then moving it over to the external hard drive. I realise I could keep the hand histories on the second drive and then when it gets too big I could simply start all again on the new drive and reimport them all, but that seems like a bit of a fuss come import day - I mean week. Is there a way to 'move' the postgreSQL over to a second drive?
While typing this I've realised the solution if there is one might be quite compicated (I'm no expert with Word, let alone postgreSQL) and so don't worry about explaining complex stuff - I'm only really interested in a simpler solution.

I think these are long shots so basically I'll end up on the external sata drive reimporting loooodsa of hands to make a new database once my 75GB are full. But if there is a better solution you can think of then I would really appreciate it.

Thanks again

Love the site and the support

Mike

[keggler]

ok short answer:

1.No.

2.Yes - when it comes to the time, i'll walk you through the backup and restore commands for the database...


susan

[Srdfsh]

Ok sounds good.

Thanks again for the help

Mike

[dendron]

I've had an external drive go bad before so make sure you periodically backup your raw hand histories to CD or something. I'm not a hardware expert but I'm pretty sure external drives are mostly for storage and not really intended for constant use like a normal hard drive.