I went out today and picked up a 200GB HDD. (Western Digital for $99 new. Yay me!)
I have a 40GB that came with the system and just added the new one to the final open slot and connected it to the same IEE cable the original is running on. The fact that I’m posting this here means I didn’t hork anything in the process. Now I need a little advice on how to set this all up.
For simplification, the 40GB original is “C”, the 200GB will be “F”.
C:\ is running everything now. F:\ is physically installed but as yet unrecognized.
First, do I need to set the jumpers to make C the master and F the slave? Or can I configure it in the control panel?
Second, I need the extra space for all my games and other huge programs. Should I leave C as the boot drive with XP as the overall system and just install the games and stuff to F? I’m thinking the best bet is to have C run the system and keep the really important files on it, and use F for everything else. Also, can I run internet explorer from F, or do I need Windows installed on that drive as well? (I apologize for the elementary questions, but I’ve never run 2 HDDs before.)
Third, on the 40GB drive I’m currently using about 55% of it. Would I just be better off moving everything from it to F? If so, what is the best way to do it?
Fourth, if I keep the core programs (XP, Office, etc) on C, am I right in thinking using the F drive for downloads may be a bit more secure? I realize a virus can infect both, but would it lessen the chance? (Yes, I’m running both AVG and avast! as well as Ad-aware and spybot).
Thanks for any guidance and suggestions. I’ve just increased capacity by 500%. I need to go rub one out I’m so excited!
I also was thinking of copying everything from C to F and using C to run Linux. That way I can technically have a linux box, without worrying about screwing up all my Windows stuff. I assume 40GB is big enough to be able to get into some serious Linux tinkering?
Before you wild, let me tell you what you wish you would have done if you chose differently. I have done this lots of times so learn from my mistakes.
Leave C: alone. There is no benefit to screwing with it. Use that as your boot drive and to run the programs that are already there. Windows won’t be any happier with tons of empty space.
Your new drive should have already been recognized. You should have set the jumpers to slave and maybe just tinker with the BIOS to get it recognized. Use the utilities that came with it to partition how you want per below.
200 GB is a lot of space. You probably want to partition it into 2 or more logical drives so that you can use them for different things. Up to four logical drives could make sense. Its up to you.
Per number 3, one of those partitions can be used as a Linux install or anything else. Don’t screw with what is already working.
Use one of your new partitions to store new applications and bulky multimedia files. This will preserve your existing free space on C:. You can move some stuff from C: if you want, but don’t get overenthusiastic and make a mess. You want benefits, not extra headaches. Moving applications gets really screwy really fast so stay away from it unless you have a very good reason.
Here’s where I am now. The jumper on C is set to Master with Slave. The jumpers on “F” are set to Slave. I went into the BIOS and the drives are recognized as such. Checking hardware settings, both are listed and reported as working. The problem is, when I go to My Computer, the C drive is still the only one listed. I suspect is has to do with the drive not being formatted, but can’t figure out how to go about doing that. If it’s not that, I’m missing something.
So right now I have a second HDD that the system sees, but remains unusable by me. Any ideas what I’m missing here?
Click the Start Menu and choose “Run.” Type the following: compmgmt.msc
Press Enter.
From the resultant window, choose the “Disk Management” option on the left pane and it will show all of your physical drives, and which drive letters are associated with each device. Right click on your new drive and choose “Format” from the menu. Things should be fairly self-explanitory from that point. Make sure to choose the “Quick Format” option if you want to be up and using your drive in 30 seconds rather than two hours.
Since you only use about 10% of your system hard disk space now, I think a good idea is to create a backup partition for C: on the new drive. You could run a free backup utility on a schedule and always have a mirror of it in case C: ever goes south or, more likely, that you need to retrieve a file that something happened to.
Nope. $99 for 200GB I wasn’t looking for fancy-schmancy packaging or install disks. (I’ve been dealing with guy for over 11 years. I trust him by now)
The reason a follow up has taken so long is that it worked! I was able to stumble through enough files and options to find the disk management option and was able to format it there. Flight Simulator and Tiger Woods PGA Tour are instaled and working. Back to installing the rest. Thanks all for the advice and help. Much appreciated.
Tomorrow Linux begins the slow process of becoming my bitch.
I’ve got two physical hard drives in my system and I use a free utility call SyncToy (one of the Microsoft PowerToy utilities) for this. You set up folder pairs on the two drives and then you can easily synchronize them.
Sorry, I’m not mirroring the drive. All I’m doing is keeping a copy of My Documents and a couple of other folders on a second physical hard drive. Currently, I need to manually run the SyncToy program to update the copies of these folders, as I change files in the selected folders.
