Qs about adding 2nd hard drive (not installation, but the aftermath)

Factual Questions
1

My current hard drive, a 160Gb SATA drive, is getting pretty full, so i decided to add some storage. I’ve purchased a new Seagate Barracuda 160Gb SATA drive, and am going to add that to my computer. I’ve never done this before, but i’ve read all the instructions closely and it looks like the actual installation shouldn’t be too much of a problem. I’ve backed up all my data, and i’m going to do the installation tonight.

My questions aren’t about the installation itself, although if i run into trouble i might come back later with a plea for assistance. Rather, i would like some advice about how to get the most out of the new setup. Some of my questions and concerns are:

1. Should i reinstall Windows?

My first thought was that, after setting up my new drive, i would move all of my files to it and then reinstall Windows and all of my programs on the first drive, just so i have a fresh install. This may not really be necessary, as i’m not actually having any trouble with Windows. The thing is, though, i’m still only running SP1, because i had heard reports that the installation of SP2 often messed up various Windows programs. I figured that maybe i could reinstall Windows, patch with SP2 and other updates, and then add all my programs, and that this might reduce the likelihood of conflicts.

2. If i do reinstall Windows, what happens then?

That is, all my files and documents will be on the second drive. Once Windows is reinstalled on the first drive, how do i associate those files with individual users on the computer? Right now, i have threee users set up, and some users cannot see another user’s files. But, if i understand it correctly, this requires that the files be stored in that user’s profile. How does Windows deal with this when a second drive is added? Is all the data on the second drive automatically available to all users?

3. What about partitions?

I’ve read so many conflicting stories about how to allocate partitions that i don’t know what to do. My current drive has a single partition, but i’m contemplating creating a small partition (10-20Gb) and putting Windows and my programs onto that. Do most people do this, or is it unnecessary?

Also, is there any point in partitioning the second drive?

4. Should i move my pagefile?

I’ve only just been introduced to the workings of the pagefile, and some of the stuff i’ve read suggests that a system works best if the pagefile is on a different drive than the operating system. Is it worth moving the pagefile to the second hard drive, or to a different partition on the first hard drive?

I should add that i use Photoshop, and this program also asks about settings for the pagefile, but i’m not sure if moving the pagefile will mess with the program in any way.

5. What about video and image processing?

I sometimes do video processing, such as authoring DVDs from movies that i download from the Prelinger archive. I also, as stated above, use Photoshop for images, and often do batch processing.

I’ve read that prcesses like this work best if the source material is on one drive, and the output files are written to another drive, because both drives working is more efficient than one drive doing all the work. Is this true? Have people gained noticeable increases in performance from doing this?
That’s about all the specific questions i can think of right now. Also, if anyone has any other advice about using a two-drive system, i’d be happy to hear it. If the mods feel that this post is more appropriate for IMHO than GQ, feel free to move it.

My system specs, in case they’re relevant:

P4, 3.0GHz, 800MHz FSB
2 x 512Mb PC3200 DDR RAM
160Gb SATA150 HDD
DVD-ROM
CD/DVD R/RW

2

The simplest thing is to install the new drive as the secondary or slave drive and leave the existing Windows installation untouched, including the pagefile.

But I sometimes like to get a clean install, so you might instead disconnect the current drive or make it the secondary drive, set up the new drive as the primary drive and do a clean install on it.

3

(1) Create a folder on the new drive called something like ‘documents’.

(2) Point ‘My Documents’ at this folder (in Windows Explorer, right-click My Documents - Properties - Move). It’ll move everything across.

Once this is done, you can do as many reinstalls as you want on the original drive, and the documents will be untouched. You can also move other things such as Firefox profiles across to the second drive, to retain them after an installation.

Regarding partitioning, I wouldn’t bother with the new drive. If you do a reinstall, I’d suggest a partition of 20-40GB onto which you can put Windows and all programs. This leaves the rest of the drive free for other files, and any subsequent reinstall won’t affect these.
Pagefiles - the principle is to put it on the least-used and fastest drive. Which in this case is surely your new one.

4

Don’t bother reinstalling Windows. There’s simply no need. It’s not broken, so why fix it?

Before you put in your second drive, make sure you assign your CD/DVD drive(s) letters well down the alphabet. You don’t want them changing letter on you.

As for the partitioning, don’t repartition your existing drive. There’s simply no need. However, resist the urge to make any volume a Dynamic Volume. That’s Bad Mojo reserved for servers. You should partition your second drive as an Extended Partition and create one drive within the partition. This way you will avoid the problems which arise from drives being assigned different letters.

5

I’ve only ever seen XP use the next available letter for a new hard drive, after those of CDs & DVDs. (And it’s retained them and assigned the next letter when I’ve done reinstalls on a separate partition before…at one point I’d got up to Windows being installed on I: )

6

I typed a bunch out, but on preview I just second most of what Quartz said (but in my experience GorillaMan is right about drive letter assignments).

If you are still in doubt about how to partition things, re-read those stories that say to make multiple partitions, but look for actual evidence of how this improved performance or convenience in a real, tangible way. There are almost no situations in which having multiple partitions on one drive actually helps anything on a single OS box.

7

If i do this, what happens to the Windows installation on the original drive? Can i remove Windows from that drive without formatting it and losing all the other data?

I tend to agree, but i would like to install SP2, and figured that it might go more smoothly if i did it before loading all my programs. Because if i just install it now, and it refuses to play nice with some of my programs, i may need to do a reinstall anyway.

Of course, it’s possible that the reports i’ve read about SP2 messing up some programs have been exaggerated.

How does one go about doing this?

8

Yes, those reports were exaggerated - if you want a compromise option, then disconnect from the internet, uninstall all firewall & antivirus software, install SP2, and reinstall everything.

If you simply plug in the drive and reboot, you then just need to format it. AFAIK, if you’re just using the whole drive as one partition, nothing else needs to be done.

9

Go ahead and install SP2, you don’t need a fresh install. If it breaks any of your apps, you are going to have problems no matter what order you do it in. However, it is highly unlikely you will see any problems, since you sound like you are using Photoshop and other common and well supported COTS tools instead of strangely coded custom business apps.

This article explains some of the issues that can occur with SP2. At most only 10% of users saw any problems, and that was right when it came out. The most common issue was that you might have to disable the windows firewall if it breaks one of your network apps. However, most applications have been patched to work with SP2 by now, and disabling the firewall is really easy anyway.

10

Thanks for the advice, folks. You’ve convinced me. Here’s what i think i’ll do. Tell me if any of this sounds arse-about or wrongheaded.

  1. Install the new drive as the slave drive.

  2. Keep my current drive as the primary drive, with Windows on it.

  3. Install SP2

  4. Move the pagefile to the new drive.

11

Oh, one more question about SP2.

Does the Windows firewall that comes with SP2 make my ZoneAlram firewall redundant? Can they work together? Should i uninstall ZoneAlarm? Or disable the Windows firewall?

12

If you successfully install Windows on the new drive and then use the existing drive as the secondary drive, you can remove Windows from it (although you’ll have to do this manually, as Windows won’t recognize that software is installed on it). Or you can leave the Windows folder alone, which is what I’d tend to do. That way, you won’t accidentally lose anything in the Documents and Settings folders.

If you’re nervous about XP SP2, set aside the old drive, install Windows XP on the new one and update it to SP2. That way, if anything goes wrong, you can always return to the known good installation of Windows on the old drive. But I doubt you’ll have any problems.

13

Certain recovery modes mandate that you have at least some swapfile on C:. In your case, you might as well leave it all there. For any situation where you’d see a significant performance increase (i.e. crawl vs limp), you’re better off buying more memory. And with 1 GB, you’re hardly going to be touching the swap anyway unless you’re seriously into BF2 or Photoshop.

What I would suggest is that you point %temp% and %tmp% at the second HDD.

14

I think that unless you switch off System Restore, there’ll always be a minimal (4MB) swap on C: (or I: :wink: )

Interesting idea…have you foolproof :wink: recommendations of how to set this up?

15

Thanks.

While i use Photoshop a fair bit for processing digital photos, and while i do some video encoding occasionally, i’m not really a power user. My computer’s performance is, for the most part, perfectly fine for my needs, so i might as well leave the pagefile where it is.

Cheers everyone. Now to crack open the computer case and venture where i’ve never gone before. :slight_smile:

16

Well, that installation was easy and painless. The only thing i’d ever done inside a computer before was add a stick of RAM, so i was a little nervous, but everything fit into place properly and, after changing the BIOS setting to recognize the second SATA channel, i have now doubled my storage space. Excellent!

I think i was lucky that my first effort and adding a new hard drive involved a SATA drive, because the whole procedure seems much more straightforward than it is for an IDE drive, with those annoying large ribbon cables, and concerns about drive order on the cable, etc.

I’m now going to download SP2 and take a stab at installing it.

Thanks for your advice, everyone.

17

If you’ve got the RAM for it, keep running ZoneAlarm. The Windows firewall isn’t bad at blocking incoming traffic but it’s no good at stopping outgoing traffic. ZoneAlarm will warn you that a program is trying to phone home, which might be your first indication that you’ve gotten infected with soemthing.

18

Thanks. That sounds good.

I’ve had ZoneAlarm for quite a while now, and i’m comfortable with it, so i think i’ll stick with it.