Last Modified: 10/12/2008 11:32PM CST
This is where you will find all the Frequently Asked Questions that I've come across in the Storage thread. And yes, this is for Windows XP OS (for now).
If you know of some others, feel free to PM me and I'll add them. I'll be improving this FAQ section frequently, and will hopefully create screen shots and detailed runbooks on some of the most frequent tasks we run into when it comes to storage. For now, this will have to do.
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Q: "My drive is slower than usual, how can I fix it?"
A: See Troubleshooting a Slow Drive thread.
Q: "What is RAID?"
A: See RAID Explained thread.
Q: "How can I get the most out of my hard drives?"
A: See Hard Drive Optimization thread.
Q: "Why doesn't the amount of storage that says on the box not match what the OS is reporting?
A: See Binary vs Decimal thread.
Q: "What is SCSI, SAS, etc? I hear it's the way to go when it comes to high end storage."
A: See All About SCSI thread.
Q: "Why should I back up? What are some of the techniques/considerations I should know?"
A: See Backing Up thread.
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Q: "Why can't I see my newly installed drive in My Computer?"
A: You actually have to do 4 things before you can see the drive in My Computer:
- Define the disk (Basic/Dynamic/GPT)
- Carve up the disk (Partitions/Volumes/Partitions)
- Create a file system for your data to live on, typically NTFS
- It's recommend to NOT do a Quick Format. Yes it takes some time to do a full format but it could save you some head aches later down the road
- Map the new drive to the OS... aka assign it a drive letter.
You can do all of this in the LDM (Local Disk Manager). To get there, right click on My Computer and select "Manage".
Q: "Can I move a hard drive (with Windows on it) to another machine and boot it up?"
A: It may or may not work. When you install windows on the hard drive, it also installs all the drivers with it. If the drivers aren't generic, or if your hardware isn't similar enough, it may not boot up. If it doesn't boot up, then you can pop in the windows installation disk and do a repair install. While this is non intrusive, and your data won't be deleted, I highly recommend backing up your data anyways if it isn't already (which you should always have a backup of your data anyways).
Q: "10K or 7.2K RPM drives?"
A: 7.2K drives, properly set up, will beat the Raptors (a 3.5" drive that most people refer to when they say 10K drives). Two of these drives will beat these 2 Raptor's in RAID0 (source). Why? Because those Seagates have larger cache, NCQ'ing, and perpendicular recording working for them. And you can't beat the $/Gb.
EDIT: Velociraptors (2.5") might have closed the gap... will have to research
Q: "You say I should back up, what software should I use?"
A (Sidicas): If it's file level backups, a good (freeware) program is SyncBack Freeware Edition. If you want a complete image of your machine, try winDD (freeware) or the more popular (not as free) Norton Ghost.
Q: "What is SATA 150 MB/s and SATA 300 MB/s?"
A: Short version is that SATA 300MB/s (aka SATA 3Gb/s or slang "SATA 2") allows twice the amount of throughput than it's older counterpart and it better supports NCQ'ing. Since drives these days don't generate nearly enough throughput to saturate SATA 150, the biggest advantage is the NCQ'ing. The only way to saturate it is with a port multiplier and by putting 4 or more drives in RAID0.
Q: Should I put my OS on the fastest drive?
A: You must remember, software LOADS from disk and RUNS in memory. OS being on a fast drive will only improve the boot time... in which case afterwards it runs almost all in memory. The only situation will it will help you is if you don't have enough physical memory and you have to rely on a page (swap) file. You typically start/run applications more frequently than you reboot your OS so if you have a choice, put your applications on the fast one.
Q: What does a faster drive give me?
A: Similar to the previous Q, software LOADS from disk, so you get better loading times in gaming and faster reboot times. It will not increase your FPS (a GPU task), or help your lag. Disks is what data is stored on, not to be confused with CPU calculations. Moving large amounts of data (copying/moving data around) as well as all other kinds of disk intensive processes will be improved on faster drives.
Q: "What is SATA and what is ATA (aka PATA) and how does it relate to my motherboard?"
A: SATA and PATA are interfaces/technologies. SATA is the newer (smaller form factor) one, and has almost completely replaced PATA. SATA is usually a thin red cable like below (pix complements of wiki)
While PATA looks like a large flat ribbon:
PATA you can daisy chain (up to 2 devices) while SATA is point to point (unless you use a port multiplier). Make sure you have the right amount of ports on your motherboard available, and that your motherboard can support the drive you are installing!
Q: "Why does my system not recognize my new 160GB-1TB HDD?"
A (HOGHAULER): Some manufacturers stick a jumper pin on the back so it will be
recognized as a < 137gig HDD for sata 1.5. Just remove the jumper and it should work just fine!
"Oh Gravity, Thou Art A Heartless b***h"
-Sheldon