Hard Drive Help

[Foyman]

hello, what I would like to do would be to store my OS and Games on my SATA WD Raptor 10k rpm, and then store all the other stuff on a WD Caviar SE 80gig 7200rpm, Im new to the whole computer building scene and would like to know how I would go about setting the two HDD's up to do what I would like.

If you could explain, how I would setup the 80gig drive being that it is for storage of videos, music, and other stuff like that, and what form would it need to be in? eg. NTFS, FAT32, FAT?

Thanks

 

[SHAWN]

What operating system?

Windows 95/98 - FAT32
Windows 2000/XP - NTFS

 

[Foyman]

It's XP

 

[Elbatrop1]

If you put your OS on your Raptor, and your games and files on the 80GB 7200rpm HD, then that would give you the best performance overall.

As long as you have a decent amount of RAM (512MB or 1GB), you should have fast game-loading times.

Also, use NTFS. NTFS is more efficient than FAT32. Also, NTFS allows you to place permissions on files (if you want to).

 

[RicoDirenzo]

I have operated for a long time under the impression that all program execut. files must be resident on the master (SATA or PATA)? So you can demand at windows install which drive the execut. file is located? I also assume that the program file list in start only was executed form the master? If not, I'll not be glad to be ignorant and very interested in who to accomplish this task.

 

[Elbatrop1]

I have operated for a long time under the impression that all program execut. files must be resident on the master (SATA or PATA)? So you can demand at windows install which drive the execut. file is located? I also assume that the program file list in start only was executed form the master? If not, I'll not be glad to be ignorant and very interested in who to accomplish this task.

You can install Windows on a slave drive. It doesnt have to be the master.

Also, SATA doesnt use Master/Slave configurations.

And, If using a SATA and PATA HD, it doesnt really matter where the OS gets installed. In this case, the SATA is 10k rpm and will yield fast OS reponse.

 

[Foyman]

If you put your OS on your Raptor, and your games and files on the 80GB 7200rpm HD, then that would give you the best performance overall.

As long as you have a decent amount of RAM (512MB or 1GB), you should have fast game-loading times.

Also, use NTFS. NTFS is more efficient than FAT32. Also, NTFS allows you to place permissions on files (if you want to).

Like I said I'm new to this so sorry if this sounds dumb, but I could install my games on the 80gig and I am still able to run the game on the raptor and benifit from it on the load times and stuff?, how does that work?

Also do I need to install XP PRo on the 80 gig or do I jsut format and partition it?

 

[Foyman]

Could anybody help me out wit the question above ^^^^^

 

[Elbatrop1]

When you install games on the 80GB as compared to the Raptor, you'll get the benefit of the Raptor not having to serve the OS's requests as well as the games.

Games' performance doesnt really get improved by a fast hard drive. The only difference you would probably notice would be when a level, etc is loading.

Because the OS is still running as you play a game, it's still nice to have a separate HD for each, so that one hard drive can service requests for data from the OS, and the other for the game.

No, you just install XP on your Raptor. When you boot off of your WinXP CD, you will get a choice of which of the 2 drives to install windows to. You can choose either one, but the Raptor is gonna be the better choice. You do not have to install any form of Windows on the 80GB drive as well as the Raptor.

When you finish installing Windows, and boot into it, Windows will recognize the second hard drive (which will be unpartitioned as well as unformatted). From within Windows, you can then partition and format the second drive.

 

[Foyman]

Ok, great, thanks for all your help, it's much appreciated.