Setting Up New PC - HD ConfigurationQuestions

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jim McGowan
  • Start date Start date
J

Jim McGowan

New PC will be ready in a couple weeks.

I want to configure it so that the OS (XP Pro) and programs files are
on one drive, leaving the other two drives (Yes, there are three) for
file storage. I have read that this is a better way to run, as the
main drive will not get near as fragmented as it would if all the data
files were continually being written there.

Does anyone know of a good resource or resources I can read that
covers this type of setup? I'm looking to get as knowledgeable as I
can prior to doing this.

Thanks!
 
There is nothing that you need to configure to do this. Simply install XP
on the C: drive. Once installed, simply create or copy all of your files to
either one of your other two drives...
 
Well, actually, there are some things to get into and to know
that help an awful lot. In particular the system folders such as
My Documents, etc., which are very handy once you get used to
using them, but cannot be simply copy/pasted and then the
original deleted.

I cannot find the links I wanted, but here are a couple of lesser
ones that might get you started in the right direction.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_09.htm - Good site.

http://www.pcmus.com/hardrive.htm
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=54751

A couple of things in particular:
-- If you decide you want multiple operating systems, they must
be installed OLDEST one first.

Research into using XP's formatting/paritioning features;
there -might- be issues with three hard drives, but they're
manageable, I'm sure. It's refreshing to see someone who wants
to RTFM first rather than figure there's always time to "do it
over later".

You've planned a pretty decent setup: there are many advantages
to the separate physical hard drives beyond just the
fragmentation you mentioned. For one thing, they can make
archiving and backing up a LOT easier to work with and there are
many other reasons, too.

Best of luck,
Pop
 
Could not find anything on the web, but I have a three drive PC and what I
would do is put the pagefile on drive 3, applications on drive 2 and Windows
on drive 1 (actually identified as drive 0). Since the pagefile will not be
all that large, most of the third drive will be free for file storage.

Also some photo application also allow you to specify where their
scratch/temp files is will be located.

As far as defragmentation goes almost all applications will install some of
their file on the C drive (Norton AV as an example) and updates will end up
causing fragmentation.

You might also using drive 2 or 3 from storing image backups of the C
drive/partition.

Question: What is your third drive connected to? (PCI card or second IDE on
motherboard)

JS
 
So....... your going to use 2 hd's for data, where will your backups reside?
To move My Documents, rt click desktop icon, properties, move (You will have
to do that for all users)
Individual apps may have an option for their data path
 
Well, actually, there are some things to get into and to know
that help an awful lot. In particular the system folders such as
My Documents, etc., which are very handy once you get used to
using them, but cannot be simply copy/pasted and then the
original deleted.

I cannot find the links I wanted, but here are a couple of lesser
ones that might get you started in the right direction.

http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_09.htm - Good site.

http://www.pcmus.com/hardrive.htm
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=54751

A couple of things in particular:
-- If you decide you want multiple operating systems, they must
be installed OLDEST one first.

Research into using XP's formatting/paritioning features;
there -might- be issues with three hard drives, but they're
manageable, I'm sure. It's refreshing to see someone who wants
to RTFM first rather than figure there's always time to "do it
over later".

You've planned a pretty decent setup: there are many advantages
to the separate physical hard drives beyond just the
fragmentation you mentioned. For one thing, they can make
archiving and backing up a LOT easier to work with and there are
many other reasons, too.

Best of luck,
Pop
Click to expand...
Thanks for the links and advice, Pop. This is what I'm looking for.

Much appreciated.

BTW, the system is being built by Falcon Northwest. They primarily
make high-end gaming machines, but I'm not a gamer - I will use this
mostly for digital imaging and video editing. Pretty much had it with
HP and Dell - very limited in upgrades, since very few new components
will fit the tight compartments.

Falcon hand-builds a very high quality machine w/ all of-the-shelf,
high-end components. Cooling system and silencer system. Gamers use a
real good liquid cooling system, but I think mostly due to
overclocking the CPU. I need cooling for burning DVD's - I've had my
present HP MCE shut down due to overheating while burning a lot. Also,
the second and third HDD's are Seagate 500 GB - digital images and
particularly digital video eats up the storage space quickly!

Falcon makes a very high quality PC so I went with them even though
this is not a gaming machine.

Thanks again for the help!
 
Could not find anything on the web, but I have a three drive PC and what I
would do is put the pagefile on drive 3, applications on drive 2 and Windows
on drive 1 (actually identified as drive 0). Since the pagefile will not be
all that large, most of the third drive will be free for file storage.

Also some photo application also allow you to specify where their
scratch/temp files is will be located.

As far as defragmentation goes almost all applications will install some of
their file on the C drive (Norton AV as an example) and updates will end up
causing fragmentation.

You might also using drive 2 or 3 from storing image backups of the C
drive/partition.

Question: What is your third drive connected to? (PCI card or second IDE on
motherboard)

JS
Click to expand...
Thanks JS.

Sounds interesting - this is why I want to learn the right and wrong
ways before I load them up!

The third HD will be connected to a second IDE. Falcon is building it
with the capability of four HDD's total, but I'm throwing a few extra
optical drives and filling up the case quickly!

I presently use Diskkeeper 9 Pro for defragmenting, but I kew there
were ways to minimize the fragmentation in the first place. This helps
a lot.

Again, thanks!
 
So....... your going to use 2 hd's for data, where will your backups reside?
To move My Documents, rt click desktop icon, properties, move (You will have
to do that for all users)
Individual apps may have an option for their data path
Click to expand...

Hi DL, and thank you for the reply.

Backups will most likely be on the third HDD - a Seagate 500 GB drive,
same as the second. Main drive is a Western Digital 80 GB - smaller
than the other two 'cause I don't plan to store any data there at all.

If it looks like I need additional space for backups or media file
storage, I plan to use my existing HP Pavilion. It has a total of 410
GB in hard drive space, and will be hard-wire networked to the new PC.

Plus I have a few Maxtor external drives that till now have housed a
lot of my video files but most of those projects are now complete and
have been moved onto DVD's for archival purposes.

I also act a little overzealous with backups - I do a monthly full
backup of all active media files and drop them off at my bank - got a
free safe deposit box with my account and had never used it before. A
friend had a fire at his house - really just a lot of smoldering - and
though he kept very thorough backups, the firefighters who checked out
the house soaked down his entire home office - ruining his drives AND
also destroying his DVD backups. Yikes!! Talk about unexpected
failure!

Sooo, since I had the unused safe deposit box available and gathering
dust, I guess, I decided to make an extra DVD copy (I should say
DVD'S! - eight each month) and drop them off at the bank box monthly.
Probably never need it, but you really never know.

Thanks again!
 
Jim McGowan said:
Thanks JS.

Sounds interesting - this is why I want to learn the right and wrong
ways before I load them up!

The third HD will be connected to a second IDE. Falcon is building it
with the capability of four HDD's total, but I'm throwing a few extra
optical drives and filling up the case quickly!

I presently use Diskkeeper 9 Pro for defragmenting, but I kew there
were ways to minimize the fragmentation in the first place. This helps
a lot.

Again, thanks!
Click to expand...

Is there a reason why you are getting a new computer without SATA drives?
 
Jim McGowan said:
First, why do you ask?

Secondly, who said that I was?
Click to expand...

You said the third drive would be on a IDE port.
You didn't really say where the other two drives were connected.
I was just wondering if being a high end machine meant SATA drives.
 
You said the third drive would be on a IDE port.
You didn't really say where the other two drives were connected.
I was just wondering if being a high end machine meant SATA drives.
Click to expand...

OK, I think I understand, now. Sorry, I didn't know exactly what you
were asking me, and I didn't want to try to infer and put my foot in
my mouth - where it is often resting very comfortably!

It looks like I misspoke on a previous post. This PC has the capacity
for four hard drives total. I asked the tech at Falcon for
advice/recommendations on the hard drives; I told him that I wanted
the OS and program files on one drive, and then I need 750 to 1000 GB
for storing media and data files, plus backups. The Falcon explained
to me what RAID drives are and how they work. I didn't see a
particular advantage to me using RAID and he agreed.

As I understand the setup - and I probably don't fully understand it
yet - four drives can be installed, and if I were getting RAID it
would have to be two RAID, and then two... other? Non-RAID? IDE?
SATA? Here's where my kowledge falls a bit short. When the other
poster asked, I thought IDE was how the drives connect. Plus, the
RAID setup would effectively prevent me from storing any files on the
second RAID drive, as it would be a mirror of the first RAID drive.
Nice for backups, but I didn't want/need to devote an entire 500 GB
drive to backups, as I already have a backup routine that works well
for me.

Anyway, here's what hard drives will be in the box when I get it:

1 - Western Digital Hard Drive, 80 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA II 8 MB cache
2 - Seagate Hard Drives, 500 GB each, 7200 RPM, SATA II, 16 MB cache

I'll have to research IDE after I post this.

Thanks!
 
Jim McGowan said:
OK, I think I understand, now. Sorry, I didn't know exactly what you
were asking me, and I didn't want to try to infer and put my foot in
my mouth - where it is often resting very comfortably!

It looks like I misspoke on a previous post. This PC has the capacity
for four hard drives total. I asked the tech at Falcon for
advice/recommendations on the hard drives; I told him that I wanted
the OS and program files on one drive, and then I need 750 to 1000 GB
for storing media and data files, plus backups. The Falcon explained
to me what RAID drives are and how they work. I didn't see a
particular advantage to me using RAID and he agreed.

As I understand the setup - and I probably don't fully understand it
yet - four drives can be installed, and if I were getting RAID it
would have to be two RAID, and then two... other? Non-RAID? IDE?
SATA? Here's where my kowledge falls a bit short. When the other
poster asked, I thought IDE was how the drives connect. Plus, the
RAID setup would effectively prevent me from storing any files on the
second RAID drive, as it would be a mirror of the first RAID drive.
Nice for backups, but I didn't want/need to devote an entire 500 GB
drive to backups, as I already have a backup routine that works well
for me.

Anyway, here's what hard drives will be in the box when I get it:

1 - Western Digital Hard Drive, 80 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA II 8 MB cache
2 - Seagate Hard Drives, 500 GB each, 7200 RPM, SATA II, 16 MB cache

I'll have to research IDE after I post this.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Generally speaking when talking about ide drives and their bus system, its
considered PATA. SATA is a different animal, different physical data and
power cable.

In my uses, XP is installed on the first partition of the first hard drive.
As are all applications. In your case, that seems to be the 80GB.
I ignore any prompt for "My documents" for saving and point to wherever my
data files are stored. These are broken down by user-named folders and
subfolders for my own ease of use.
Used NTFS file system for XP installed hard drive. Others are FAT32.
 
Generally speaking when talking about ide drives and their bus system, its
considered PATA. SATA is a different animal, different physical data and
power cable.

In my uses, XP is installed on the first partition of the first hard drive.
As are all applications. In your case, that seems to be the 80GB.
I ignore any prompt for "My documents" for saving and point to wherever my
data files are stored. These are broken down by user-named folders and
subfolders for my own ease of use.
Used NTFS file system for XP installed hard drive. Others are FAT32.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jonny.

I'm curious - why FAT32 for the other drives instead of NTFS?
 
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