Storage

First Build - Partitions, Format and Strategy Help

xclicks — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:22:25 GMT

So I will be building my first system next week (noob). I ordered one 750 GB SATA hard drive. After some research I sort of wish I would of ordered two smaller drives instead. Now I have 3 other hard drives on hand from older computers. For example, I have a seagate 80 GB 7200RPM IDE but I'm not sure I want to install an IDE drive due to performance. Note that this PC will be used for Business, Home Recording Studio and Entertainment all in one (I'm not a gamer). Will be loading vista with future upgrade to 7. I know my partitions are much larger than needed but hey I have 750GB!

But the main reason I am here is to ask for feedback regarding my plan to partition the 750 GB drive. The things I pondered regarding my partitioning plan are drive assignments, physical locations and size. I want my Operating System and Programs on the fastest (outer) partitions. I left out assignments for D, E and F because well, I like my DVD to be Drive D since that is what I am used to. E, F for flash drives and externals when I plug them in. Just what I'm used to thats all. My partitioning plan is below following my questions.

1) Is it a big deal or not ... to mix IDE with SATA in the same system?

2) After reading a bit I think I am on the right track to go with NTSF format across the board?

3) Should I just keep program files and Windows on the same partition? Most programs will prompt to install on C: by default anyway and I might run across some that will only install on C. I will likely at some point accidentally install on C and get disorganized anyway. I will not run multiple operating systems.

4) Does the physical location of the page file partition matter?

Here is my first stab at my partitioning plan:

Drive Description Physical Order

Drive B: NAME = BUSINESS 5

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 100 GB

USE = My home business Data

Drive C: NAME = WINDOWS 1

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 50 GB

USE = Windows Operating System

Drive D: (DVD Drive)

Drive E: (External)

Drive F: (External)

Drive G: NAME = GENERAL 4

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 250 GB

USE = General Data (main data drive)

Drive P: NAME = PROGRAMS 2

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 100 GB

USE = Programs and Applications

Drive S: NAME = STUDIO 6

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 100 GB

USE = Recording Studio Data (Application Plug Ins, Music, Projects, Data)

Drive X: NAME = SECURE 7

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 100 GB

USE = Secure Data (Stuff that I want separate and I can access)

Drive Z: NAME = PAGE FILE 3

FORMAT = NTFS

SIZE = 50 GB

USE = Page File

SSD for gaming?

BlkWolf — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:12:54 GMT

Can someone tell me how these work with games such as COD4?

If there is a benefit...how would I build my system to use it?

Thanks!

Floppy Drive for Dell with Windows 7

orangeman — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:54:26 GMT

I have many floppy disks with turbotax and quicken data. Also floppy with jpeg files. All these floppys were used with old Dell with XP.

Now have Dell with Windows 7; What external floppy device is recommended to transfer data to new machine?

6Gb/s SATA Controllers

products — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 20:17:43 GMT

What types of HDDs do you hook up to this to utilize the speed? Examples?

Sync two external hardrives...

kilbad — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 23:03:03 GMT

I want to encase two hard drives such that they are mirrors of one another. Restated, if I send files to the encasement, they are copied to both hard drives, all for backup purposes. If possible, I would like to use solid state technology. Does anyone know if this is possible? Do you have any good links you can share? Thanks in advance!

Samsung External Hard Drive Story Station Question

giroro — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 08:40:27 GMT

I am interested in purchasing a Samsung External Hard drive called Story Station (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152178). Because I will be using this both in U.S. and in a foreign country, I need to know whether this drive comes with a power supply that is capable of handling both 110V and 240V. I tried to get this information, but I couldn't find this information anywhere. If you have purchased this drive, could you please help me with this information?

Thank you.

Sony Vaio HDD replacement

LLBRADFAM — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 22:09:14 GMT

Hello all,

I need a new (NOT USED OR REFURBED) 2.5" HDD for my Sony Vaio VGNBX660p. I am hoping I can find at least a 40 gig HD for under 75$ here at newegg. I called sony and they quoted me at 170.00 for a replacement 40G HD. My current one is 80G and they wanted around 300.00. I can not afford that. I am not sure what exactly I need to replace the current one with but I provided a link I found on the net that outlines my current HD. If anyone can give me some guidance regarding what i need to buy for this I would be very appreciative.

Specs on my current drive as follows:

http://www.superwarehouse.com/Seagate_Momentus_5400.2_Series_80_GB_Ultra_ATA-100_2.5_Hard_Drive/ST98823A/ps/641727

Thank you all for your time.

Discussion: SSD vs Raid 0

Freebird — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:27:28 GMT

Now more and more mobo integrated with Raid controller but I see few builder here use Raid. Checked online, studied the difference between a SSD and Raid 0 @ 2 HD and take all factors into consideration, I believe Raid 0 takes more points for those who has limit budget but still need a good performance. We can not only save the budget and meanwhile get more capacity.

This is just one example, and also a wow example...

2 x Seagate 7200.12 ST3500418AS RAID0

Maybe there are other disadvs for Raid, here just want to discuss with you guys. I always want to offer suggestions on this as soon as I see a thread about what to do with specs.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-18, Need Help

Gtgitv — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 23:13:34 GMT

Hi,

I bought a used Panasonic Toughbook CF-18, I would like to upgrade the hard drive to a larger model and add ram memory. Can anyone help with choices?

Thank you

Dell Latitude D400 hard drive

TCCTurtle — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:55:34 GMT

I am looking for any opinions on upgrading my Dell D400 from a 30g Fujitsu drive with an interface of 1 x DMA/ATA-100 (Ultra). I found a 120g drive here which has an Enhanced IDE (ATA-6 or PATA) interface. Does anyone have any thoughts on changing up the hard drive? Would the new drive be compatible (-100 vs ATA -6)?

SSD on mini-PCIe -- but not EeePC/Mini

inaflash — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 18:32:13 GMT

I would like to put an SSD on mini-PCIe, like the Zotac Ionitx AU (replacing the wireless card). There's lots of mini-PCIe cards but many of them say they are specific to an EeePC or the like. Wikipedia says many ultraportables use a mini-PCIe connector but nonstandard signals and these mini-PCIe cards will not work with standard mini-PCIe. Are there SSDs available which work with standard mini-PCIe?

RAID confusion

ric5406 — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:09:27 GMT

I recently installed new OS on my machine and at the same time set up Raid0 which I goofed on by entering 500GB instead of 1000. So I figure I can do another set and clone the system to it or can I? Seagate disc wizard doesn't see the RAID0 so my question would be is there a way out of this short of starting all over? Is there a disc wizard type program for RAID sets that I just can't seem to find in my web searching? The windows disc manager I think will make a mirror of the RAID0, at least that's what my understanding of what I've read is. If I were to use it to make a mirror, then removed the first set would the machine still boot? There is a way to make a disc a MBR but I can't seem to find out the answers to my endless questions in the help and support pages. My understanding was flawed enough to start this whole thing though. Next question, if I just leave it alone then my 2 HDDs will show full when half full? So does any one know of a utility that will copy from one RAID to another? Is this even possible?

XP to 7 Partition Question

NarsilianShard — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:40:01 GMT

I'm just about to upgrade from XP to Windows 7. I have a 500GB HDD with 3 partitions, C=20Gb, E=200GB, F=280GB. The minimum requirement for Windows 7 x64 is 20GB and I'd rather not cut it so close (but still want the OS to be separate from my larger partitions). When installing the new OS, can I create new partitions or are the ones I made permanent?

Calvary Docs and 3TB Raid 0

DJL — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:42:51 GMT

I just picked up a Calvary SATA dock (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817821001&Tpk=calvary%20dock) and (2) 1.5TB WD drives. Problem I am having is getting them to span to 3TB, as soon as I flip the raid 0 switch it shows up as a 746.41GB Volume

Raid/sata HD

joshuaje07 — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 04:24:12 GMT

I bought a 500gb harddrive an can not figure out how to get the SATA drivers on it

because i donot own a floppy disk, i have the drive but cant find a floppy any where,

so windows only picks up 131gb. what do i do.

where are all the Intel SSDs?

alphaguardian01 — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:15:16 GMT

anyone out there have any idea/info on when the Intel X-18M G2 SSDs will be available again? I have been trying to find one for the past month and it seems to be out of stock everywhere. Thanks.

ssd c: drive

heldunder — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:38:48 GMT

any recomendations for a good OS drive. nothing big just for my os and a couple games I'm currently playing. just dont want anything that will fail on me.

RAID 5 Setup

rkstanfi57 — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:38:26 GMT

I am planning on running RAID 5 (software RAID) with Ubuntu. I currently have 2 1TB WD Caviar Green

Current Hard Drives

I need to buy 2 more 1TB hard drives and wondered what suggestions are out there.

Also, I need a smaller HDD to run the OS on, any suggestions for this?

Thanks.

used hard drive in new pc

mtiry1 — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 08:26:16 GMT

I am building a new pc for my daughters birthday. I have everything except a new hard drive. I have a used one with 30 gigs and windows xp installed on it. I'm wondering if it is a bad idea to use this hard drive with other pc configurations on it. Or does it not matter. I plan on ordering a new one but would like to get it up and running for now. I know if you have a flopy drive you can wipe everything out some how but I do not have a floppy.

Can I use this old hard drive without problems with bios etc.

Any info appreciated.

Morgan

periodic hd access spikes

richei — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:49:47 GMT

I recently upgraded my computer, and for a while, it was great, but now i get these unexplainable spikes. Its completely sata, i have a 1tb (brand new), and a 250gb hard drive, both western digital. I have the processes down to the bare minimum. None of the processor cores are getting anywhere near 100%. I've done a virus and malware scan - both negative. I've done everything i can think of, but now i'm just tired of it. It always seems to happen when i want to close a window, type something, or save something. I've already had 3 big spikes just typing out this paragraph. They last anywhere from a few seconds to 10 minutes or longer

It didn't seem to start until after i installed some updates from microsoft. I don't know what the heck is going on, but its getting really, really annoying. System stats are below

MacBook Pro Hard Drive Question

digitalslave — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 15:49:19 GMT

Question, will this laptop drive work on a MacBook Pro Laptop? I don’t know much about Mac’s and need a replacement hard drive for a friend. Thanks.

Seagate Momentus

500GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache

2.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374

Item#:N82E16822148374

Why do so many hard drives come DOA?

DarkLord — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 16:33:49 GMT

I am looking to upgrade my hard drive and when I read the reviews on newegg, at least a dozen people say that their hard drive came DOA. And its like that for virtually every hard drive. No other computer component I've seen on newegg has this high of a defective rate. Are hard drives in general just cheaply made, or is one brand better than the other?

Do SSDs need to be mounted?

Mongoose — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 02:18:32 GMT

I'm cringing at the idea of buying a 15-20$ adapter kit for a SSD when I fail to see the need for it. The little beasties don't even have moving parts or anything. Couldn't you just lie them on a flat surface? Or strap them on somewhere with ties or screw them on the outside of the drive cage by two holes or something?

HDD for Satellite A70-S256

philetus — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:33:33 GMT

I've been trying to find the answer to this since last night.

Can't even get an answer from Toshiba forums.

Will a 250 or 320 Gb hard drive work in my A70-S256?

Here are the specs:

Mobile Intel® Pentium ® 4 processor 532 supporting Hyper-Threading Technology 3.06 GHz, 15.4” WXGA, 1.5GB,
ATA-6,80GB (4200 RPM), DVD-CDRW, Modem/LAN/802.11g Wi-Fi, Windows 7

Help with eSata card

rschelhas — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:45:26 GMT

Hi Everyone,

I recently purchased a Lacie 2 gig external hard drive from newegg (love it!). I'm using firewire to connect but it has an eSata out and i would love to take advantage of it. I looked through the products and threads here and I can't figure out which one to get. I only need 1 port and I would like to stay cheap! Can anyone tell me which card will work?

My motherboard is an alienware NVIDIA nForce 590 SLI and the hard drive is the 2Big Quadra http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822154356

Thanks!

-Ray

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