Harddrives. Which to choose?

[didi]

I think Maxtor n Western Digital provide 3 years warranty.

 

[crazybeans]

Actually, you could do it without the 2gb PATA HDD. Simply format your 160GB SATA using the XP install software and install XP on your 160GB drive (be sure to press F6 to install your 3rd party SATA/RAID drivers at the beginning of startup). Then copy the files from your 80GB to the 160GB while in Win XP:160 and format the 80GB and install a fresh copy of Win XP on the 80GB. Make sure you disconnect the 160GB HDD when installing the OS on the 80GB so it creates the boot file for only one installation. After the installation is done reinstall your 160GB HDD and copy the files BACK to your 80GB HDD while in Win XP:80 and reformat the 160GB HDD so you can simply use it for storage. This can be done in XP:80 by going to Start/Programs/Administrative Tools/Computer Management and using the Disk Management Utility. After formating the 160, copy your files back onto it and erase them from your 80GB HDD. Then you will have your OS and no songs on your 80GB, and your songs on your 160GB. I would also recommend setting your system up so it uses the 160GB HDD for its paging file for a minor performance boost. Hope that helps.

 

[Lone Wolf]

CrazyBeans don't you think PersianMafia would be better off using the new SATA HDD as the primary with XP loaded on it? Personally, i like the idea of having my OS on the faster drive. He could partition that 160 sucker into 1/2 making each partition 80 gigs ea., using the 2nd partition exclusively for data.

that would make it easy when he's backing up his data partition onto his older PATA drive.

PersianMafia, there's nothing wrong w/ CBean's idea, i'm just giving you an alternative.

Didi, here in the states, both Maxtor and WD announced in the summer of 2002 that they are no longer offering 3 year warranties on most of their HDDs -- it is now 1 year only. The 3 yr warranty is only certain models (mostly high end models).

 

[crazybeans]

ok here's my current situation:

Got one 80gb SATA hdd with all my data but its registry is messed up so I cant access it unless through the os of another hard drive.

And I have one 160GB SATA for storage.

Now in order for me to transfer my music/videos from the 80 gb to the 160, I will need to have a middle man harddrive right? So I'm thinking of installing xp temporarily on a 2gb PATA hdd and using the OS on that drive to transfer the music/movies from the 80gb to the 160, then formating the 80gb and putting a fresh install of XP on it. Of course, before I use my new 160gb I need to format it right? The Windows XP Pro format is good enough right? You just exit the installation after XP has formated the drive correct?

Or should I format the 160gb through XP on the 2gb drive?

I don't see anything about a PATA HDD except for his 2GB drive? I posted the last post assuming he had two SATA drives to install his OS on etc. If you, PersianMafia, do have one PATA and one SATA, install your OS on the SATA. If your PATA drive is at least ATA/100 or higher it doesn't matter because no HDD is faster than 100MB/s.

 

[Lone Wolf]

My bad. It's been a while since i read his original question and i had the false impression his old one was PATA.

 

[PersianMafia]

yeah, thanks guys, crazy beans your idea is great, except for the fact that if I go your way, I'll be installed XP twice and tranfering over 60gb of files twice. But using the PATA 2gb, I will be installing XP twice still, but only transfering the files once. Thanks anyways! But if the PATA simply crashes or dies since its so old, I'm gonna go with your method. Or if it simply takes too long to load

Do you guys recommend I partition my 160gb hard drive to 100, and 60?

And I was also thinking of paritioning my 80GB one to 10 and 70. Then I would install XP on both partitions, and use the 70 gb as my main, and the 10gb partition with XP on it, kinda like my safemode so that I can access my computer if anything goes wrong on my main 70GB partition. Is this a useless idea or not?

 

[crazybeans]

It's up to you. I personally am not too fond of running more than one OS on a system. If I were you I would simply install the OS on your smallest drive and use the larger drive as your data storage unit. Store everything from your songs to personal documents and downloads on the larger drive. That way if a problem happens to your OS, which is the drive that usually has problems, you can simply reformat, reinstall and be operating as you were before. Another thing I don't recommend is creating multiple partitions, it sounds cool but I've heard your computer takes a performance hit. Personally I like to run everything as simple as possible so when something goes wrong it is easy to fix. It's up to you though. Good luck.

 

[PersianMafia]

Thanks man, I think I'll not do the patitions.