[mythtv-users] ANN: PlugMyth, a new MythTV distribution for Plug computers

[Mike Perkins]

Tyler T wrote:
> 
>> I think the OP was using yet another drive (he advocated an esata to not
>> saturate the USB port) to store recordings, which he needs to add to his
>> 10w of power draw for the walwart (only).
> 
> I don't suggest using two drives; I use a single USB HD for
> everything. Those with USB tuners would probably want to use a single
> eSATA HD for everything. Or a $10 USB stick for the OS (minuscule
> power draw) and NAS for recordings.
> 
Every month or so we get a query here from someone who wants to put everything 
on one disk and the response is always the same: unless you have a small system 
and you don't record very much, it's not a good idea.

As you make recordings, the video stream is written to the partition you 
identified as storage. At the same time, it is also writing position information 
to the MySQL database. These two are going to be on different parts of the disk. 
  You really /don't/ want to have large amounts of head seek movement while 
you're writing a video stream which you have no control over. Solution: put 
video storage and OS files (including your database) on two separate spindles.

-- 

Mike Perkins