HDD problem and question

[xxxchris03xxx]

i've got 2 HDD's. 1 x 130GB WD(ide) and a 250GB SATA. i just installed XP on the 130gb one and then put the sata one in my computer. I get into windows and it says the 130gb is only 6GB big and i have 100MB of space left. To my understanding RAID will just take those 2 HDD's and make them one big one. Will RAID 0 or 1 be better for me?

 

[unhappy_mage]

It sounds like you've got it partitioned strangely. Open "Computer management" (under Admin tools) and make sure you've got one partition over the whole disk.

 

[xxxchris03xxx]

where is admin tools?

 

[unhappy_mage]

under "control panel" or on the start menu if you enable it.

 

[unhappy_mage]

I found computer management. how do i tell if its partioned correctly?
Thanks
-Chris

Click on Disk management
look for the drive on the bottom half of the interface

• if it's one long partition with a label like "C: 130 GB" then it's right
• if it's one small partition with a label like "C: 6GB" and then blank space to the right it's wrong and you can add another partition to take up the rest of the space.
• If it's one small partition and then there's another one, it's right, but you can't get any more space out of the drive.
  
  

 

[xxxchris03xxx]

it says
disk 0
"C: 112GB FAT32
healty (system)"

disk1
"HP_RECOVERY HP_PAVILLION
D: 8.01GB FAT32" E: 224.6GB NTFS"

(C: is the one where it only says i have 5GB of space)

i have windows installed on C: (an older HDD) then put the HDD i was using untill i had to install XP in, and its D: and E: Would RAID solve my problem? and will raid still work if one of those is PATA and the other one is SATA?

 

[unhappy_mage]

I'd run chkdsk on the C: drive, and if possible to reinstall (eg there's nothing else on there) do so with NTFS. Much more stable file system.

 

[xxxchris03xxx]

i figured it out. i was installing windows 98 and it was formatting my drive to FAT32. i found a copy of 2000 and installed that, then installed XP. works fine now!