ADDING A NEW HARD DRIVE

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rick
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R

Rick

I just upgraded to XP from Me and find my system is rather slow. I
have 512 ram so shouldn't be a problem there. Someone told me to
upgrade the hard drive. Right now I'm running a 20 gig hard drive. I
want to go to a 80 giig. When I do how do i move XP to the new drive
instead of reloading?
 
Rick said:
I just upgraded to XP from Me and find my system is rather slow. I
have 512 ram so shouldn't be a problem there. Someone told me to
upgrade the hard drive. Right now I'm running a 20 gig hard drive. I
want to go to a 80 giig. When I do how do i move XP to the new drive
instead of reloading?
Click to expand...

You have been told wrong.

Generally a new hard drive is not going to speed up anything. However
there are times. How much free space is on your hard drive right now? For
many people 20 gig is a large drive. Some drives are faster than others,
but again since we don't know why your perceive your system as slow, we
can't judge if that would be the case, and if it is, just adding a new hard
drive will not help. Some Files will need to be moved.

For some uses 512 meg of RAM is plenty for others it is small.

Let's get some information.

What is your processor speed?

How much free space on that hard drive?

Why do you think your system is slow?

What programs are running slow?

What part of the process seems slow (loading programs, processing
files etc?)

What TSR's are you running (most will show up as Icons down at the
bottom right next to the clock)?

Do you have up to date virus protection?

When was the last time you updated and ran it?

When did this slowness start showing?

Did you computer come with XP or did you upgrade?

Have you ever done a clean install of XP?

Have you updated XP and all your other programs and drivers?

I am sure I have left out a few things, but this list can be a start.
 
A system is only as fast as the slowest component.. bear in mind that XP is
a much 'heavier' OS than its 9x predecessors.. video memory, or lack of it,
has a surprising effect on Windows.. lack of available space on a hard drive
for a decent pagefile affects speed.. a PIII Celeron is not the best option
unless it is one of the faster types..

Try running Adaware and Spybot to remove spyware/adware that slows down
operation..

Spybot is available at http://www.spybot.info/en/index.html

Adaware is available at http://lavasoft.element5.com/software/adaware/

Both programs have free versions..
 
Sorry, Joseph, I disagree with you saying Rick has been told wrong.
Most 20Gig drives run at 3600 revs, whereas the 80 Gigs usually are 7200 -
giving a greatly noticable decrease in seek time.

For starters, the first sequential steps should be -
1. Disk Cleanup
2. Defrag
3. Install, update & run AdAware -
http://www.lavasoft.nu/
4. Install, update & run Spybot Search & Destroy -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
4. Defrag again & see whether the speed improvement is acceptable.

It will improve doing the above, Rick, but if you're still not happy, then
think about changing drives.
Unfortunately, you will need some 3rd-party software such as Drive Image to
do that.
If you do go that way eventually, use DI2002, NOT D.I. version 7.0,
irrespective of what Symantec advises.
 
johnf said:
Sorry, Joseph, I disagree with you saying Rick has been told wrong.
Most 20Gig drives run at 3600 revs, whereas the 80 Gigs usually are
7200 - giving a greatly noticable decrease in seek time.
Click to expand...

If you read my whole message you would have seen:

"Generally a new hard drive is not going to speed up anything. However
there are times. ... Some drives are faster than others, but again since
we don't know why your perceive your system as slow, we can't judge if that
would be the case, and if it is, just adding a new hard drive will not help.
Some Files will need to be moved."

We need more information to determine where his hold up is. If it is
seek time, then I agree a new drive may help, if the files are put on the
new/additional drive.
 
3600 rpm drives , are you serious ? Size has nothing to do with the speed of
the drive . 7200 rpm drive are just as common on drives under 20 gigs than
over 20 gigs. Jym



johnf said:
Sorry, Joseph, I disagree with you saying Rick has been told wrong.
Most 20Gig drives run at 3600 revs, whereas the 80 Gigs usually are 7200 -
giving a greatly noticable decrease in seek time.

For starters, the first sequential steps should be -
1. Disk Cleanup
2. Defrag
3. Install, update & run AdAware -
http://www.lavasoft.nu/
4. Install, update & run Spybot Search & Destroy -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
4. Defrag again & see whether the speed improvement is acceptable.

It will improve doing the above, Rick, but if you're still not happy, then
think about changing drives.
Unfortunately, you will need some 3rd-party software such as Drive Image to
do that.
If you do go that way eventually, use DI2002, NOT D.I. version 7.0,
irrespective of what Symantec advises.
Click to expand...
 
I think it is more likely that the drive runs at 5400 rpm's rather than
3600.

JAX

johnf said:
Sorry, Joseph, I disagree with you saying Rick has been told wrong.
Most 20Gig drives run at 3600 revs, whereas the 80 Gigs usually are 7200 -
giving a greatly noticable decrease in seek time.

For starters, the first sequential steps should be -
1. Disk Cleanup
2. Defrag
3. Install, update & run AdAware -
http://www.lavasoft.nu/
4. Install, update & run Spybot Search & Destroy -
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/spybotsd/index.html
4. Defrag again & see whether the speed improvement is acceptable.

It will improve doing the above, Rick, but if you're still not happy, then
think about changing drives.
Unfortunately, you will need some 3rd-party software such as Drive Image to
do that.
If you do go that way eventually, use DI2002, NOT D.I. version 7.0,
irrespective of what Symantec advises.
Click to expand...
 
As my other post, I should have said most 20Gig drives run at 5400.
I don't know where you get your figures from, if you bother to check
properly you'll find that none og the older ATA100 types run at 7200.
Quantum Fireball up to 40GB - 5400
Seagate (all) 4200-5400
Maxtor DiamondMax - up to 80GB - 5400

Now, do you have something constructive to say to Rick?
 
I'm really not one to belabor a point , but when something this ridicules
(3600 rpm drives) get posted I need to correct the obvious error. Since most
drives being manufactured now are over 20 gigs it is a pretty mute point.
But I have a 5 year old 15 gig Maxtor and is a ATA 66 running at 7200 rpms.
These drives are quite common. Your information on the Maxtor drives are
completely fabricated , ( see below) , this information was pulled off the
Maxtor site. People in this newsgroup are going to call you when you make
things up John. Jym
http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/M...8&channelpath=/en_us/Products/ATA Hard Drives

DiamondMax Plus 8


a.. Only 7200 RPM single head/single platter drive with Ultra ATA/133
interface on the market
b.. Capacity 40GB
c.. Optimized for best total cost of ownership
d.. Designed for value-class performance users
DiamondMax Plus 9



a.. Formatted capacity: 60, 80,120, 160 and 200GB
b.. Average seek time: =9.3
c.. Rotational speed: 7200 RPM
d.. 2MB or 8MB cache buffer
 
Jym, it appears you're missing the 'belaboured' point.
Firstly, Rick only has a 20Gig drive & that was what the initial query was
about, why are you quoting specs for 40 upt to 200Gb drives?

Secondly, why quote this? -
"DiamondMax Plus 8 - ONLY 7200 RPM single head/single platter drive with
Ultra ATA/133 interface on the market"
(notice it says it's the only one on the market?)

Also, I resent your categorical comment "Your information on the Maxtor
drives are completely fabricated"
Here a few cut & pastes direct from the Maxtor website (would you like the
links?) -

DiamondMax 16
Maximum Capacity of 160.0 GB
Ultra ATA/133
2MB Cache Buffer
Quiet Drive Technology
5400 RPM

DiamondMax 80 ATA 100
Maximum Capacity of 81.9 GB
Fast ATA/Enhanced IDE compatible
Ultra ATA/100 Data Transfer Rate
2 MB SDRAM Cache Buffer
Model Number Actual Cyls Max Cycls Hds Sect Size Speed
96147H6 16 63 61.4GB 5400RPM
98196H8 16 63 81.9GB 5400RPM

DiamondMax 30 VL Ultra ATA 100
Maximum Capacity of 60 GB
512 KB Cache Buffer
5,400 RPM

DiamondMax 20 VL Ultra ATA 66
Maximum Capacity of 40.9 GB
Supports Ultra Mode 4 for up to 66 MB/sec data transfers
512 KB Cache Buffer
5,400 RPM

DiamondMax 17 VL Ultra ATA 66
Maximum Capacity of 17.4 GB
Supports Ultra Mode 4 for up to 66 MB/sec data transfers
512 KB Cache Buffer
5,400 RPM
 
Well it seems like you have missed the point that I have made in explaining
to you that you are incorrect in stating that the size of the drive
determines the speed of the drive . Of course drive manufactures still make
drives that run at a slower speed of 5400 rpms (not 3600) as you have
corrected "after" I posted. This thread is going endlessly but I believe
the examples that I have given you will help you to understand that you are
in error. No insult was insinuated in my post , my intention was to help
make you more knowledgeable about hard drives. Jim
 
Jym, nowhere did I say the drive size determines the speed per se.
Examples you gave me? The ONE example you posted completely refuted your
comments.
Seeing you've dug yourself into a nice big hole here, it may be an idea to
terminate this thread before it develops into a one-sided flame-war.
 
Thanks for all the answers. My current drive is a 7200 RPM. I'm also
running Norton 2004 Antivirus . My availble free space is about 8
Gigs. I run a 1.5 GHZ pentium 4 processor
Well it seems like you have missed the point that I have made in explaining
to you that you are incorrect in stating that the size of the drive
determines the speed of the drive . Of course drive manufactures still make
drives that run at a slower speed of 5400 rpms (not 3600) as you have
corrected "after" I posted. This thread is going endlessly but I believe
the examples that I have given you will help you to understand that you are
in error. No insult was insinuated in my post , my intention was to help
make you more knowledgeable about hard drives. Jim
Click to expand...
 
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