Hard drive

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Hi i have just been told about a pc with 3 different hard drives in it but in
one eg "c" for the os and then "d" & "e" for downloads etc to make the pc
faster and not as easy to crash.
Is all this correct and how good is it?
Thanks Niall
 
Niall said:
Hi i have just been told about a pc with 3 different hard drives in it but in
one eg "c" for the os and then "d" & "e" for downloads etc to make the pc
faster and not as easy to crash.
Is all this correct and how good is it?
Thanks Niall
Click to expand...

Your post is a bit confused, but what I think you're saying is that
someone has told you about partitioning. You can partition a hard drive
to keep some things separate, but the reason is not to make the computer
faster. Depending on the size of the hard drive, many people use two
partitions - one for the operating system (Windows) and programs and a
second partition for data. This makes it easier to reinstall the
operating system and programs without touching the data. It will not
make the computer faster. However, if you have your operating system and
data on one physical hard drive and that hard drive fails, your data
will not magically survive. You always need to have a backup strategy.

For desktop machines, I like to have two physical hard drives - one for
the operating system and programs and one for the data. Data is also
backed up to DVD-R regularly in that case. Where this isn't possible, I
like to have the two-partition scheme with data backed up to an external
hard drive and also burned to DVD-R.


Malke
 
Hi Malke
What would the smallest size hard drive be for the partition and is it a
good idea?
thanks Niall
 
Also.... Microsoft used to suggest putting the page file on a different
drive than the System drive (location of the OS), if another drive was
available - for improved performance.

The logic being; the OS is going to create quite of I/O, and so does the
page file. Keeping them separate would be more efficient, in theory.
 
Okay so is:
1 worth it
2 whats the smallest size hard drive for it
3 is it a new thing and would you have it for a family pc?

Thanks Niall
 
Hard drives are cheap (in the U.S. anyway).... but I wouldn't go with
anything smaller than 40gb.

Having more than one drive is definitely a good idea. Like the other poster
said.... use one for the OS and the other for data.
Sounds like a good PC for the family to me. I'm not sure what you mean by
"is it a new thing". If by "new thing" you mean having more than one drive;
the answer is "No". That's been a good idea for a long time :)
 
sorry so if this hard drive is just one drive, but with this partition thing
would this be okay and what size would you say to have?
Thanks for your time
 
Hi JohnB
I have just found out that it is two hard drives and the combined power is
140GB is that good enough for what i need?
Thank you Niall
 
I would go with 2 physical HD...........say 120gig each.Each HD can then be
partitioned into 2 60gig partitions.Each partition would have its own drive
letter..C,D etc
Placing the OS on one partition..say C and all programs on another
partition...say D .....same drive
You can then proceed to use the 2nd HD...one partition for the page
file...IE cache...Outlook Mail Cache as well as saving all personal work to
this partition and use the 2nd partition of the 2nd HD for backup purposes.

Creating all of this depends upon what you presently have for Hardware as
well as version of XP
peter
 
Hi i have just been told about a pc with 3 different hard
drives in it but in one eg "c" for the os and then "d" & "e"
for downloads etc to make the pc faster and not as easy to
crash. Is all this correct and how good is it?
Thanks Niall
Click to expand...

PCs generally have only 2 HD bays, so your seller may be talking
about one HD with 3 partitions on it, C:\, D:\, and E:\. This is
definitely a good idea, IMO, as it allows you to separate your data
from Windows and your apps. Thus, chances of a Windows crash or
other bad thing taking your data with it are reduced. Also, it
allows you to more easily organize your data logically and prevent
some disk fragmentation on C:\. Finally, it may let your PC run a
little faster since it doesn't have to flog through all your data
to get to what it wants from Windows or apps. You can kinda guess
that this is exactly how I have my PC set up.
 
Hi Jerry
That is exactly what i am trying to say and the combined power thing is 140
gb is this good enough for the family pc.
Thank you very much Niall
 
=?Utf-8?B?TmlhbGw=?= added these comments in the current
discussion du jour ...
Hi Jerry
That is exactly what i am trying to say and the combined
power thing is 140
gb is this good enough for the family pc.
Thank you very much Niall
Click to expand...

Glad my perspective was helful.

My current PC is running fine for what I use it for, but it is
getting short on HD. With no data I create on C:\, I have it
limited to 35GB, of which less than half is in use. D:\ is 88GB,
only 10 free. E:\ is 97GB, 20 free. E:\ is the biggest because of
my very large picture collection both my own and downloaded. That
all adds up 220GB, not all that much more than you have. Whether
that is or is not enough for a "family" PC obviously depends on
what the "family" intends to do with it. e.g., if E-mail web
surfing, some digital pictures, and other things that aren't
terribly large, 140 is more than enough. But, if one or more
people are collecting MP3, AVI, or movies, you'll burn it up
fast. Ditto if you're collecting large, high res graphics
pictures.

Good luck with all of this.
 
A very big thank you to all of you for your help.

You're most welcome, Nial. Glad I could be of help to you.
 
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