Running Two or More Hard Dives

[Frank Jr.]

I am about to do some upgrades to my over the counter HP Desktop PC. Bigger psu, video card and cpu (Q8200 to Q9650) cooling etc etc. One thing that has me puzzled is the use of multiple internal hard drives. I have done some research which has left me confused. One thing that seems to have made sense to me is to put the operating system and programs on one and everything else on the other. I guess this is the first step to one day building my own from scratch.

Any suggestions or thoughts?​

Thanks in advance!

 

[StevenD]

I am about to do some upgrades to my over the counter HP Desktop PC. Bigger psu, video card and cpu (Q8200 to Q9650) cooling etc etc. One thing that has me puzzled is the use of multiple internal hard drives. I have done some research which has left me confused. One thing that seems to have made sense to me is to put the operating system and programs on one and everything else on the other. I guess this is the first step to one day building my own from scratch.

Any suggestions or thoughts?​

Thanks in advance!

That makes the most sense. I use Acronis, so if I have my OS and programs installed on one drive/partition, its easy enough to keep an image and restore it very quickly in the event of a failure, virus, etc. I also have a BackupExec server that backs up nightly, so I can also restore from that if its been a while since I did an Acronis image.

Purchase the fastest drive you can afford for your boot drive. Right now, the fastest "consumer" drives you can buy are the WD VelociRaptor or the Seagate Barracuda XTs. The Seagate 1.5TB 7200.11 drives are half the price of those and almost as fast.

Once you have your OS installed, move your "Documents and Settings" (XP) or "Users" (Vista, 7) folder to another drive. That way, you can restore the OS and programs without affecting your data at all.

One more thing... If you haven't already purchased all your upgrades, I would serious consider getting a completely new computer. You can get a nice i5 system for $500-$700. Not only do you get a faster processor, you get an updated motherboard, DDR3 memory and more upgradability.

 

[dfergie]

I have always added extra internal HDD's for more storage, but keep folders in my original drives also with no problems... (mainly video)

 

[TheForce]

I follow the windows protocol. They have certain files that love to be on the C drive. The rule of thumb has been to put the OS and program installs on the C drive. Windows Media files for public access also on the C drive. On my Vista system they are in the C:User folder. However, all my additional files are on "data" drives that begin with D-Z excluding optical drive and memory card accesses. When I attach an External via USB for temporary use, I letter them low in the alphabet and use the high letters for internal drives.

Also, you won't need a really huge drive for C drive. Most people can do with a 500Gb or 750Gb for C drive. Second, if you have an internal data drive, use that for more permanent data storage, like letters and documents you need to access all the time. This should be larger than the C drive and NEVER be a partition off the C drive hardware. I found over the years to keep my C drive single partition and then Ghost the C drive often. This way if your C drive goes down you can simply swap out and be up and running very fast. That practice has saved my butt on jobs many times.

 

[digiblur]

I run a 60gb SSD drive for C and have a 500gb and 1 TB for extra storage. I just install the OS and most of my well used apps on C and everything else goes on the other drives.

 

[diogen]

I run a 60gb SSD drive for C and have a 500gb and 1 TB for extra storage.

I second this.
There is no better way to "rejuvenate" an older computer (laptop included) than get a flash system drive. If you can shoulder the associated costs...

Diogen.