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New Harddrive question

R

Romulan

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 1, 2006
Messages
86
Hi I need to buy a new Harddrive for gaming, So far I have two old IDE's one is 160 the other 120 and I am running dangerously low on space.


My question is:

I really would prefer not to have to reload Windows so can I set up my new harddrive as a master drive (to take advantage of the speed for gaming) and still boot up using my other harddrive? Pretty much I want to buy a new drive and continue using the other two as well. My motherboard has plenty of SATA ports so not an issue there.

Is this stupid to do? should I just remove one or two of the other old harddrives and just use the new one? Not sure which one to buy yet.

Thanks for any input guys!














Manufacturer:
MSI
Processor:
AMD Phenom(tm) 9850 Quad-Core Processor, MMX, 3DNow (4 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory:
3072MB RAM
Hard Drive:
160 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT
Monitor:
SyncMaster 206BW(Digital)
Sound Card:
Realtek HD Audio output
Speakers/Headphones:
Keyboard:
USB Root Hub
Mouse:
USB Root Hub
Mouse Surface:
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3
 
You'd definitely benefit from a new hard drive, as many of today's HDD models perform as well as the last-gen Western Digital Raptor X. One of the best bang-per-buck performance HDDs available are the WD Caviar series dual-platter 640GB HDDs (either the Caviar Blue WD6400AAKS or the Caviar Black WD6401AALS); each one is only 10% slower than the WD VelociRaptor in most applications/benchmarks.

Of course, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention solid-state drives (SSDs), which outperform even the VelociRaptor. However, the better models (or, the ones that are often recommended here) have a significant price premium. With a limited budget, you may be better off with either of the above mentioned HDDs.

However, to take full advantage of the speed and performance one of those HDDs provides, you have to make it the primary drive. That means that you'll have to reload/reinstall Windows onto that drive. May I ask why you're unwilling to do so?
 
Bite the bullet and reinstall windows on the new drive, then migrate your Documents and Settings folders over.
 
Ok thanks a lot guys for the quick response! time to find my win xp cd...
 
Of course you can add a drive and still boot from your existing drive, but I'd want my OS on the speedier drive. If you don't want to reinstall everything there are many free software apps that will clone your old drive's data to a new one...then just wipe the old one and use it for whatever. You'll have your OS on the new drive with plenty of additional room for games & apps.
 
Ohh really??? I didnt know about these apps that clone your old drives data? do you have any names or links? thanks again for the ideas.
 
Romulan said:
Ohh really??? I didnt know about these apps that clone your old drives data? do you have any names or links? thanks again for the ideas.
Click to expand...

Acronis TrueImage

But I highly recommend doing a reinstall anyway so that you know for sure that the system is as speedy as possible.
 
I agree Danny, I like to reinstall to rid my system of built-up junk in the registry and system folders that are left from old programs...but I can't assume that matters to everyone and if you have a lot of apps installed cloning is the easiest/fastest way to get your system back up and running just like you had it (even if you don't get the speed boost of a fresh install). But cloning his drive to a faster one like a WD 640GB will provide a nice speed boost in itself.

TrueImage isn't free AFAIK unless you catch a promotion, but I've used it with success in the past.

Romulan, I can't name them all but here is a good start:

http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/backupandimage.shtml

http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htm

Ease of use ranges from novice to experienced user, with some even requring Linux knowledge. Not all though, there are several good ones for Windows. DriveImageXML is pretty popular but I've also used Macrium Reflect, PING (not recommended for an extreme novice), and several others.

One of the best free options is to check your hard drive manufacturer's website. Most of them offer free hard drive utilities to assist you with cloning your old data to a new drive. I'd probably start there...if you need help finding the software, let us know.
 
Between these two drives (only 10 dollar difference) which should I purchase?


Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822136319
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy



$74.99

select item 2 quantity of item 2


Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5

Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822148433
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy
 
I was on the Seagate bandwagon for a while but I sold them off and haven't looked back. I've had less WDs fail and Seagate's fiasco with the 1.5TB drives made me a bit cautious of them. Haven't thought about purchasing another Seagate since they purchased Maxtor and reduced the warranty of their drives from 5 yrs to 3. That said, I still think they make some nice drives but we all have to make choices for ourselves based on information we've reviewed, as well as personal preferences, and my choice is WD at this time. There are a lot of Seagates, Samsungs, Hitachis, etc. out there running just fine but WD has always been solid for me since I purchased a 1.6GB drive in the mid 90s. :) I've seen some WDs fail at work, probably mostly due to heat issues from our SFF Dell cases. Haven't had any fail on me at home (yet) but I know it's probably only a matter of time. But I've seen all brands of HDDs fail and can say that from MY experience, WD drives are generally reliable, good performing drives. I suppose anyone here could say that about any manufacturer, but I like what I know and know what I like. :D

Regarding the 640GB drives, I own two Blacks and two Blues -- all have been great. Fast and reliable, as any good modern HDD should be. Given the small price difference I would purchase the Black because of the larger buffer and 5 year warranty.
 
Good enough for me thanks. Ordering a black, now all I need is to locate my damn Xp disk lol.
 
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