New user, has a few questions about hard drive set ups!

[jhighmore]

Hi everyone, newbie here! You all seem like smart people so I was wondering whether I could squeeze some advice out of you.

I recently purchased a 60GB external USB drive (for storage of music - ripped CDs and my own work - mostly) to complement my 40GB internal hard drive which currently hosts my OS and software.

Right now I am using the external drive to back up files because my Pc is long overdue a format.

What I was wondering was what is the best way to set up my two hard drives... ie, should I install the OS on my internal one and my software on the external one, or OS and software on one hard drive? As mentioned the external HD is mainly for music storage but if better performance can be derived from installing my software on the external HD then I'd be interested to hear about it.

Also a minor point: if I were to install win XP on my internal HD, would I be able to configure it so the My Documents folder (ie, my music and other files) would be located on the external HD? Is it even possible to install an OS on an external HD after a format, seeing as it's USB connected?

That seems very rambling but any help would be much appreciated. Thanks very much!

 

[t0rdenskjold]

yes depends on you bios.. but you can boot from external hdds i am quite sure.. but the question is why the **** would you want to! i mean whats the point. You want you os to run fast so you install it on your fastest harddrive and that would not be your external unless your running firewire but still.. i wouldnt even consider it even if ur using usb2

 

[jhighmore]

Okay, cheers! That was just a side question really. So I'll install my OS on the internal. What about programs?

 

[COD2_fanatic]

set your programs on the internal one as well, you want all the space you can squeeze out of the external

 

[jhighmore]

Thanks very much, shall be formatting today!