RockyRan Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 So I'm going to re-install Windows but here's the deal: currently I'm operating pretty much entirely out of one hard drive even though I have two. One hard drive has pretty much nothing, but the other has all system files, games, documents, etc. along with the Windows install. Naturally, I see this as a waste and would like to see if there's anything to be gained by having a Windows install on one of the drives and all my files on the other. I'm also wondering if it would affect gaming (e.g., loading times)to have such a setup. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P4: Gritty Reboot Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Unless the drive is getting dangerously full, then no, it wouldn't really affect gaming times assuming both drives are the same speed. I sometimes like to have that setup just for the organization factor, though, so all your docs are separate from system files and installs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockyRan Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Well, the drive that's just sitting there is a 7200 rpm drive, while my "primary" is 5400. Before you "lolwut", I used to only have the 7200, but it crapped out in like a month and I sent it back to Samsung as per my warranty. Bought the 5400 so I could use the computer but got too lazy to reformat and transfer all my files yet again when I got the Samsung drive back So if anything I'll at least "gain" the use of the 7200 drive as my primary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 It's like having two partitions except it's actually two physical drivers. No big deal. Install your OS and games on the faster one, and keep your data (music, movies, docs, pics, etc) on the slower one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockyRan Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 I'll probably end up doing that. I don't like having everything mashed together in one drive and music/movies/docs/pics can be just about anywhere. Thanks for input, fellas Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 My current set-up has 3 1TB drives. that's 2 internal and an external for back-up. My two internals are 7,200RPM. Splut up into a few partitions. A main one for Windows, most of the programs and main documents. Another partition for music/videos/pictures (woot for Win 7 Libraries) one for steam, and one for just storing large files/acting as scratch. In your case I'd say split your 7,200 drive for Windows and one for Steam (you don't want your games on the slower drive). That way when you re-install Windows or whatever then you won't need to re-download all your games. (make sure to give it enough room to grow) then on the slower drive stick things like media, less important files, back-ups/duplicated of important files etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockyRan Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 OK, this probably going to sound very dumb and/or noobish, but I'm not totally familiar with Windows' rules for installing so how do I go about doing this? I know Windows doesn't like to have two separate Windows OS's (especially the same OS, like Windows 7 in my case) on two separate internal drives on the same computer. I'm going to format and install W7 on my 7200 drive, but I need my 5200 drive (that already has W7 in it) for my files. Let's say I take out the 5200 HDD from the PC (which I may not have to do, but just to be safe) and install W7 on the 7200 drive. If I put the 5200 back in afterward, is my computer going to boot or will it freak the fuck out because it has two HDDs with two W7 installs? Or maybe I'm just overthinking this like a dumbass Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WTF Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Firstly is your 7200 currently connected to your PC? If so under Administrative Tools you should have create and format hard disk partitions. Now make sure it is the drive of your new hard drive and from there you can delete volume. Once you've done that it should be unallocated space. At that point you can create partitions. Just specify the size of each partition that you want till you've made enough partitions to use up drive space. If you haven't done this then just remove your 5400 for the timebeing and install windows 7 on your new drive. When you're going to install windows it should give you the option to create and delete partitions. Just specify the size of each partition and then choose which partition you want to install windows on. Now whichever way you go, when you have both hard discs inside each time your computer starts it'll ask you which hard drive do you wish to boot from (unless you've specified a specific boot sequence). It's best to specify that you wish to boot from the most recent install since that's what you want. Once you've done that boot up and transfer the data you want from your 5400 to your 7200 and then format the 5400 completely and follow the procedure to create new partitions. I hope that's clear? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted June 28, 2011 Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Yeah they might freak. Do you have the space to move the content s of the 5400RPM drive to the 7,200RPM one? Then you can just wipe the 5,400RPM drive n voila no issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RockyRan Posted June 28, 2011 Author Report Share Posted June 28, 2011 Thanks, Dean and WTF. I think I know how I'm gonna do this. To answer the questions: yes I have my 7200 drive installed, and yes it's virtually empty. I'm thinking of doing WTF's option 2 and taking out my current drive, partitioning/installing W7 on the 7200 drive, putting it back in, booting up the new W7 install, transferring everything, wiping the 5200 clean, and transferring back the loose files I wan to put on the slower drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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