Multiple Hard Drives for Separating OS

[Katlan]

When I had my computer built for me I never thought about having 2 HD's (one for everything else & one for the OS), but this was the first thing my friend criticized me for lol.
My single HD is: 1 TB HARD DRIVE [Serial-ATA-II, 3Gb, 7200 RPM, 16M Cache]

I want to go get another HD but have no idea if I should be looking for something specific or if anything will do (unless I should keep my current one for the OS and use the new one for all the other stuff). So looking for advice on what I should get... Thanks!

[Cephius]

Typically you want a smaller,faster drive (with redundancy if possible) to house your operating system, and then a large drive to house your data.

The 120 gig 10k rpm raptors is what I like, but I'm sure others will have their own personal opinions on what's best.

[Ratatapa]

If he has money he could also host his OS on a SSD, SSD should be fine to work with a normal HDD for data transfer.

[Katlan]

w/would be better, a SSD or a 10k rpm HD? Price difference is negligible so really depends on w/is better. Though I heard SSD's aren't fully compatible w/ windows 7?

[Furtwangler]

I haven't heard of 7 having any problems anymore, and via this (or many other from google) page, the SSD will beat the crap out of the 10k rpm hdd. SSD is the way to go imo.

[fishstix]

I'm also considering going with an SSD setup, but my wallet is screaming no D:

[Minions]

I'm also considering going with an SSD setup, but my wallet is screaming no D:

Raid 0ing any HD's is honestly fast enough for pretty much any task(s). I've yet to see slow down doing anything. I do however like how you can go into msconfig > boot > advance > set it to use 8 cores to boot up. As far as I can tell it makes a difference. I never timed not messing with it vs. changing it.

[Isiolia]

I'm considering an SSD for when I shift over to Windows 7 (have it via work already). They have pros and cons, and you do have to do your research before buying (a good start).

Far as splitting things up, there are multiple reasons to do so.

Obviously, yeah, it's far more affordable to get a smaller high performance drive for system/apps only, and as mass storage is by far the biggest bottleneck for a lot of tasks, it's something to pursue. A good SSD (particularly) is supposed to be one of the more significant performance upgrades you can get currently.

A secondary benefit is that if you do wind up having issues, it's a lot easier to go for the "nuke from orbit" approach to fixing it if most/all of your data is already on another drive. With a larger data drive, you could feasibly even have a backup image ready.

[Octavious]

For those that currently use a SSD for their OS, how large would you go? I currently run 2x 640 GB Raid0 for OS + 1 TB for Music Movies Etc. I've been debating purchasing an SSD and using the 2x 640 as my storage. My only main issue is I really don't want to spend over $150 for an SSD, so anything 128gb+ is probably out of the question.

[Kryssan]

How big is your OS, really?


Windows Vista Ultimate needs around 15GB, Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope requires 10GB for a 'comfortable' installation. So if you're running a 40GB SSD, I'd say you're easily covered.

[Isiolia]

Well, you want room for apps as well. IMO, 80-120GB is probably fine if you uninstall larger games n' such once you're done with them. Personally I'm running a 250GB array right now, which is more than enough - but I don't have a ton of 6-8GB+ game installs atm either.

[Katlan]

I only have that one HD (1TB 7200)... and I realized last night it has 0 partitions. If I got a 126GB SSD and put my OS on that, and then removed the OS it from my current HD and partitioned the 1TB into 3's.. would I lose everything and have to start over or is there a way to backup everything and restore to pretty much where I am after all the crap is done to the HDs?

It's a change I need to make (at least partition the 1TB), I just want to know if I can get around having to reinstall everything manually again -_-

[Cephius]

You can technically repartition hard drives without losing data, but it's incredibly dangerous and asking for trouble. I'd backup all your data first, then format the drive, then partition it how you want it, and finally load all your data back on it.

[Ratatapa]

at same time i was wondering this since i never bought a SSD.

Since SSD are using sata, can you Raid 1 SSD and 1 normal HDD if they are both SATA?


Pretty sure no due to difference, of technology, but doesn't hurt to ask

[Katlan]

You can technically repartition hard drives without losing data, but it's incredibly dangerous and asking for trouble. I'd backup all your data first, then format the drive, then partition it how you want it, and finally load all your data back on it.

But I can back everything up so I don't need to re-install / configure everything again? Or can I only backup data and not actual programs / settings? Thanks for all the help everyone

[Solefald]

at same time i was wondering this since i never bought a SSD.

Since SSD are using sata, can you Raid 1 SSD and 1 normal HDD if they are both SATA?


Pretty sure no due to difference, of technology, but doesn't hurt to ask

Maybe if you got an SSD and HDD of the same capacity, but I doubt it. It'd be incredibly dumb to do so anyway, you'd be slowing down your SSD to the speed of a mechanical HDD.