Hard Drive Question

[BroncoBoy91]

Hey guys,
So I have a 120GB (unknown brand) IDE drive...(old school I know) and I'm going to be purchasing a Western Digital 1TB SATA drive next week. I just recently built a new computer (thats why I need a new hard drive, my old mother board had 2 IDE's, this one only has one) so I had to dump my 2 hard drives, for my DVD and 120GB Drive.
Is it possible to hook up the SATA drive and "transfer" all my files over? I know it will work with all my music, movies, and games, but when it comes to the system files it seems like the computer wouldn't like it. Is there software out there to make that possible??
Which brings me to my next question...would a system run any smoother if the hard drive it was installed on was "dedicated" to the system and the other had everything else??

Thank you for all your input!

 

[Yami]

You can use a drive cloner such as Ghost or Easus Partition Manager to copy everything over (it will copy it as if it were a 120GB drive so you'd need to expand that tot the 1TB.

Which brings me to my next question...would a system run any smoother if the hard drive it was installed on was "dedicated" to the system and the other had everything else??

Yes, that's a good idea. I personally have an 80GB with the OS and programs, while everything else (music, video, games, etc.) is on my 640GB. It's good for performance because if you're playing a game from the larger drive than anything requiring the OS drive won't be impeded by the game.

 

[BroncoBoy91]

Ok thanks!! I think I'll do that then, I'll just get the Sata installed, move all my movies, music, n games over to that bad boy, and just keep my system folders on the 120 GB.

Thanks for the quick response!!

 

[BroncoBoy91]

Another quick question regarding the hard drive..so I have decided to keep my 120GB IDE and use that only for my system files etc, and have my new SATA for all my music, movies etc. Now when I get my drive (keep in mind its a bare drive, so no software, etc) is it possible to just plug it in to my computer, and when I boot up windows will recognize is, set it as my D: drive, and can I just move all the stuff I want on there then unplug it, format my IDE, reinstall windows and plug in my SATA and be good to go??

I have a bunch of music files, and movies, and I have a external but its fairly small and I have to transfer files to it, then move them to my moms computer, then move more files to the external, and if I could just plug in the SATA move my music and movies to it, unplug it, and format the IDE and install windows on that and just plug the SATA back in and be good, would be ALOT easier.


Also too, I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit.

 

[bigred1001]

Hey guys,
So I have a 120GB (unknown brand) IDE drive...(old school I know) and I'm going to be purchasing a Western Digital 1TB SATA drive next week. I just recently built a new computer (thats why I need a new hard drive, my old mother board had 2 IDE's, this one only has one) so I had to dump my 2 hard drives, for my DVD and 120GB Drive.
Is it possible to hook up the SATA drive and "transfer" all my files over? I know it will work with all my music, movies, and games, but when it comes to the system files it seems like the computer wouldn't like it. Is there software out there to make that possible??
Which brings me to my next question...would a system run any smoother if the hard drive it was installed on was "dedicated" to the system and the other had everything else??

Thank you for all your input!

All you need is an IDE/SATA to USB converter. Plug in the drive and do all of your data exchanges through the USB port. Cost around 25$.

 

[BroncoBoy91]

Yeah, I know that, what I meant was, if I plug in my new SATA drive into Windows 7 64, will it automatically recognize it? I know I will probably have to format it the very first time, but if I format an put my music n vids, etc on it and THEN start over fresh with Windows 7 on my IDE will I have to format my SATA AGAIN? or do I just have to do it once and windows will recognize it again.

 

[95BlackGA]

It should, but if it doesn't automatically mount it, and assign the drive letter. Type in "Partition" in the Start Menu search bar, and open "Create and Format hard drive partitions." There you will see a RAW drive, which you'll have to format, and assign the drive letter to it.

 

[BroncoBoy91]

ok, I just don't wanna put all my stuff on the SATA and format my IDE and reinstall windows and find out later I have to re-format it again and lose all my stuff.

 

[kmote]

You will not have to reformat the SATA drive just because you format the IDE drive.

 

[BroncoBoy91]

So just to clarify..sorry I just have tons of vids n music n games I don't wanna lose, I will format the SATA when I get it..dump all my stuff I want to keep on it..Unplug it from my Comp..Format my IDE..reinstall windows onto my IDE when thats all done, I'll re-plug in my SATA and be good to go...right?