Want new hard drive, but what do i do with it?

[Guest]

Hello,

Correct me if I am wrong but if I add another hard drive to my computer
(slave) should my computer run faster? The thing is, is that my current
computer which has 40gb needs more space and I am thinking of getting a
bigger hard drive. But Windows is installed on 40gb. Would windows run faster
if it were moved over to a new hard drive, say 250gb? If so what would be the
best method of doing so?

Or would you recommend moving stuff across to the new hard drive and just
using the 40gb for windows and backup? If so would you recommend putting a
disk usage limit on the 40gb hard drive?

How much disk space should you use before you start seeing a performance
reduction? 75%?

With both hard drives I want them to run windows as fast as it can but also
idealling use the 40gb as backup if poss. Sorry for all the questions but
your help would be appreciated.

Luke

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

See below.

Hello,

Correct me if I am wrong but if I add another hard drive to my computer
(slave) should my computer run faster? The thing is, is that my current
computer which has 40gb needs more space and I am thinking of getting a
bigger hard drive. But Windows is installed on 40gb. Would windows run faster
if it were moved over to a new hard drive, say 250gb? If so what would be the
best method of doing so?

Your new disk has a greater storage density, hence the
read heads have to move a shorter distance when accessing
data. This makes it appear faster.

Have a look at the item "Changing hard disk", posted here 24
hours ago. It has a lengthy discussion about disk cloning.

Or would you recommend moving stuff across to the new hard
drive and just using the 40gb for windows and backup?
Yes.

If so would you recommend putting a
disk usage limit on the 40gb hard drive?

How much disk space should you use before you start seeing a performance
reduction? 75%?

Your disk does not get slower because it is nearly full. However,
it may get slower if it is heavily fragmented.

 

[Jonny]

May not run faster. A clean install of XP on a formatted partition is best
at cleaning all the mess up.

I would move all my personal files to the new hard drive myself, on the
original hard drive remove the original partition/and install a new one, do
a clean install of XP on the original hard drive, then install the 3rd party
apps at their default install locations.

My thinking is the OS would run best on the original hard drive, doesn't
need that much space. At face value of your post, your personal
(non-OS/non-application) files seem to take most of the space. Keep them on
the larger capacity hard drive.

If you don't have enough RAM for the OS and all running tasks, you're
spinning your wheels with a bigger hard drive for performance sake.

If shopping for a new hard drive for performance, check out the specs on
throughput and compare. Cache performance (the ATA reference number 100/133
is seldom used in everyday use).

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Correct me if I am wrong but if I add another hard drive to my
computer (slave) should my computer run faster?

No. How much disk space you have has no bearing on the speed of your
computer.

The thing is, is that
my current computer which has 40gb needs more space and I am thinking
of getting a bigger hard drive. But Windows is installed on 40gb.
Would windows run faster if it were moved over to a new hard drive,
say 250gb?

This is a different question from the one above. Yes, it might run faster,
because the newer drive would likely be faster than the older one.

If so what would be the best method of doing so?

Use a disk cloning program. Many hard drives come with software to do this,
but if you need to buy one, Acronis True Image is a good choice. You can
also use that to do your backups.

Or would you recommend moving stuff across to the new hard drive and
just using the 40gb for windows and backup?

No. I would move everything, including Windows, to the new drive, again
because it's likely to be faster.

Regarding backup, I don't recommend backup to a second non-removable hard
drive because it leaves you susceptible to simultaneous loss of the original
and backup to many of the most common dangers: severe power glitches, nearby
lightning strikes, virus attacks, even theft of the computer. If you want to
use your older drive for backup, I recommend buying an inexpensive ($25-40
US) USB enclosure for it, and using it as an external drive.

If so would you recommend
putting a disk usage limit on the 40gb hard drive?

Please explain exactly what you mean by that.

How much disk space should you use before you start seeing a
performance reduction? 75%?

As I said above, how much disk space you have free has no bearing on the
speed of your computer.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for your reply.

So i was wrong about the free space speeding up windows. Although I do need
some storage I want my computer to run faster as well. I have 512mb ram which
is capable of having 2gb. I have a 2.6 processor, so I am guessing I need to
boost my RAM. I just thought that the free space would boots it performance.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thanks for your reply.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

So i was wrong about the free space speeding up windows. Although I
do need some storage I want my computer to run faster as well. I have
512mb ram which is capable of having 2gb. I have a 2.6 processor, so
I am guessing I need to boost my RAM. I just thought that the free
space would boots it performance.

Increasing the amount of RAM you have *may* help performance, but unless you
run particularly demanding apps, probably not. You get good performance if
the amount of RAM you have keeps you from using the page file, and that
depends on what apps you run. Most people running a typical range of
business applications find that somewhere around 256-384MB works well,
others need 512MB. Almost anyone will see poor performance with less than
256MB. Some people, particularly those doing things like editing large
photographic images, can see a performance boost by adding even more than
512MB--sometimes much more.

If you are currently using the page file significantly, more memory will
decrease or eliminate that usage, and improve your performance. If you are
not using the page file significantly, more memory will do nothing for you.
Go to http://billsway.com/notes_public/winxp_tweaks/ and download
WinXP-2K_Pagefile.zip and monitor your pagefile usage. That should give you
a good idea of whether more memory can help, and if so, how much more.

 

[Guest]

Okay, so if i run my calculator on my computer which has 512mb and i assume
does not use the page file and then run it again on the new upgraded computer
which has 2gb, am i going to see a difference in speed? I take it from what
you are saying, if it is not using the page file then it will not. (my
calculator is running fine by the way).

Is there any way to speed up the running and opening of the calculator? I am
just interested in what determines the speed of my computer.

I am running dreamwevaer and fireworks alot and i know that 1gb will help.
What about my proccessor + processes is there anyway that will help improve
speed? My processor is 2.6

Thanks Ken

 

[Guest]

Okay, so if i run my calculator on my computer which has 512mb and i assume
does not use the page file and then run it again on the new upgraded computer
which has 2gb, am i going to see a difference in speed? I take it from what
you are saying, if it is not using the page file then it will not. (my
calculator is running fine by the way).

Is there any way to speed up the running and opening of the calculator? I am
just interested in what determines the speed of my computer.

I am running dreamwevaer and fireworks alot and i know that 1gb will help.
What about my proccessor + processes is there anyway that will help improve
speed? My processor is 2.6

Thanks Ken

 

[Patrick Keenan]

Okay, so if i run my calculator on my computer which has 512mb and i assume
does not use the page file and then run it again on the new upgraded computer
which has 2gb, am i going to see a difference in speed?

Probably not at all.

I take it from what
you are saying, if it is not using the page file then it will not. (my
calculator is running fine by the way).

Is there any way to speed up the running and opening of the calculator? I am
just interested in what determines the speed of my computer.

Aside from the basic system construction, it's the stuff that is loaded and
running.

I am running dreamwevaer and fireworks alot and i know that 1gb will help.

For those, yes.

What about my proccessor + processes is there anyway that will help improve
speed? My processor is 2.6

Turn off any unneeded applications and services. Look through what is
loading and decide what's critical and what is not. MSCONFIG can help you
with this.

The specific model of processor also has an influence - smaller or
nonexistent caches will be slower.

Hard disk space can impact system performance, but only if the drive is very
close to full or is heavily fragmented. If neither of those conditions
apply, adding space will not affect performance.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Okay, so if i run my calculator on my computer which has 512mb and i
assume does not use the page file and then run it again on the new
upgraded computer which has 2gb, am i going to see a difference in
speed?

Highly unlikely.

I take it from what you are saying, if it is not using the
page file then it will not. (my calculator is running fine by the
way).

Right, but it's not just whether a particular program is using the page
file, it's whether the computer is using it at all. Real memory (RAM) is
electronic and theings happen very quickly when it's electronc. But the page
file exists on a disk drive, which is a mechanical device. Mechanical
devices are much slower than electronic ones, so any time you have to read
or write to the page file, it slows you down.

Is there any way to speed up the running and opening of the
calculator? I am just interested in what determines the speed of my
computer.

There are many things that affect the speed of your computer. In no
particular order:

The speed of the processor
The speed of the RAM
How much RAM you have (up to the point of not paging any more)
How much cache it has
The speed of your video card
The speed of the hard drive
What programs you are running in the background
Whether you are infested with malware
The speed of your internet connection

Which of those is more important at any given time depends on what you're
doing. For example, the speed of the video card may be very important if
you're trying to redraw complicated graphics images in a game, but doesn't
matter at all if you are recalculating a speadsheet. That's why it's very
hard to compare the overall speed of two differently-configured machines;
one may be faster in one respect but slower in another, and which is more
important depends on what you're using the computer for at any given time.

I'm probably leaving out several factors, but those are some that quickly
come to mind. Others may want to add other things to my list.

I am running dreamwevaer and fireworks alot and i know that 1gb will
help.

I know little about either, so I won't comment on how much memory they make
use of.

What about my proccessor + processes is there anyway that will
help improve speed? My processor is 2.6

A faster processor will of course increase speed, but again, it depends on
what you're doing. If you're typing an E-mail message in Outlook Express,
the chance of your seeing any difference in speed if you change processors
is very slim.

In general there are several things that can slow you down in what you're
doing--those are the things I mentioned above. But at any given time, only
one of them is the bottleneck for what you are doing. If you are trying to
load a web page and you have a slow connection, that's the bottleneck and it
doesn't much matter how fast your processor or disk drive is. The problem is
that what the bottleneck is keeps changing as you do different things with
the computer, and it isn't always to figure out what it is at any given
time. Moreover, the mix of things that you do with your computer is
different from what I do with mine, so an upgrade that might substantially
increase my speed might do very little for you, and vice-versa

I don't know what you mean by "+ processes."

Thanks Ken

You're always welcome.

 

[Plato]

Correct me if I am wrong but if I add another hard drive to my computer
(slave) should my computer run faster? The thing is, is that my current
computer which has 40gb needs more space and I am thinking of getting a
bigger hard drive. But Windows is installed on 40gb. Would windows run faster
if it were moved over to a new hard drive, say 250gb? If so what would be the
best method of doing so?

It's not the size of the drive, but the speed of the drive. For example,
if your 40 gig runs at 5,200 RPMs and your new 250 gig runs at 7,200
RPMs then if you put windows on the 7,200 drive you will SURELY notice a
difference in speed.