Best Hard Drive Configuration

[scottvsaunders]

Hi,

Whats the best hard drive configuration to have with a single 500GB drive? is it best to create a small partition to hold windows and then another to act as store or perhaps any other suggestions?

Many Thanks

Scott

 

[tlarkin]

i say have multiple drives. 1 for OS/apps and 1 for data. that way you can better manage your data, and if you need to wipe and reload your data is not touched. I also recommend another back up method as well on top of that.

HDs are so cheap it is way worth it to do this.

 

[TrainTrackHack]

is it best to create a small partition to hold windows and then another to act as store or perhaps any other suggestions?

Yes, that's the best way.

Unless you're willing to put some money in for a new HD, in which case tlarkin's suggestion would work out the best.

Though I myself have never installed enough programs and stuff to justify having an entire HD for my OS installation, even Windows. It depends on the usage, though... if you game a lot and install lots of BIG programs, it might be worth it, but for a more average user, somewhere around 100-150GB for C: should be plenty enough (for Windows).

 

[2048Megabytes]

I say have multiple drives. 1 for OS/apps and 1 for data. that way you can better manage your data, and if you need to wipe and reload your data is not touched. I also recommend another back up method as well on top of that.

HDs are so cheap it is way worth it to do this.

Interesting way to set things up. I have two hard drives in my system. One hard drive has my operating system and all other data. The other hard drive is strictly to backup valuable information that way I always have at least two copies of valuable data.

 

[Springy182]

i say have multiple drives. 1 for OS/apps and 1 for data. that way you can better manage your data, and if you need to wipe and reload your data is not touched. I also recommend another back up method as well on top of that.

HDs are so cheap it is way worth it to do this.

I'd say partitioning would be better, a HDD is still 60-100$ so it's not exactly cheap..

Yes, that's the best way.

Unless you're willing to put some money in for a new HD, in which case tlarkin's suggestion would work out the best.

Though I myself have never installed enough programs and stuff to justify having an entire HD for my OS installation, even Windows. It depends on the usage, though... if you game a lot and install lots of BIG programs, it might be worth it, but for a more average user, somewhere around 100-150GB for C: should be plenty enough (for Windows).

I've got about half of a 500GB HDD dedicated to OSes, the other half for data such as drivers, backup ISOs of my game CD/DVDs, basically everything I need for games since I lug my tower around from time to time and dont want to risk my other drives with the majority of my data. (LAN party anyone?)

 

[tlarkin]

I'd say partitioning would be better, a HDD is still 60-100$ so it's not exactly cheap..




I've got about half of a 500GB HDD dedicated to OSes, the other half for data such as drivers, backup ISOs of my game CD/DVDs, basically everything I need for games since I lug my tower around from time to time and dont want to risk my other drives with the majority of my data. (LAN party anyone?)

I bought a 1TB Samsung 7200RPM SATA 2 w/ 32MB cache drive for $80. Space is CHEAP!

I have 2 TB in one PC, 1TB in my G5 tower, 700gigs on my media center, and a NAS that has 500gigs. I have multiple back ups of files I don't want to lose all over the place. If half of my drives failed (due to a power surge or something) I would still have back ups.

 

[Springy182]

I bought a 1TB Samsung 7200RPM SATA 2 w/ 32MB cache drive for $80. Space is CHEAP!

I have 2 TB in one PC, 1TB in my G5 tower, 700gigs on my media center, and a NAS that has 500gigs. I have multiple back ups of files I don't want to lose all over the place. If half of my drives failed (due to a power surge or something) I would still have back ups.

Not everyone can call 80$ cheap though.

 

[vroom_skies]

Seems like you guys don't care to much about your data. Storage is cheap and if you don't think so, just try paying to get data back.

Tlarkin is right, you want to keep your OS and data separate and you want to have multiple back ups of data anyways.
Most people don't need more then 120Gigs for an OS drive, and you can find those for dirt cheap. So just spend $30 or so on a dedicated OS disk and then use the 500Gig disk for purely data. You're going to want to get a third drive so you can back it up at least once more anyways, but if you really can't afford a lot then just go with the two drives for now.

 

[tlarkin]

Not everyone can call 80$ cheap though.

1TB for $80, which means anything under 500GB will be most likely in the $30 range, which is even cheaper.

There are two kinds of people in this world when it comes to data, those that back up their data and those that wish they had.

Unless you don't use your computer for anything important then you can afford to lose everything then back ups aren't important I suppose.

 

[TFT]

Countless times have I read "all my photos are gone going back years, how can I get them back?". There is no price you can put on your data.
I myself have the OS and programs on one HD and another HD purely for data, the data is backed up again to DVD on a regular basis and I always have two DVD's stashed away.
It's to easy to be relaxed about this and if the worst happens I can re-install the OS and programs in a day and my data is still there ready to be used.

HD failure can happen whichever option you go with so go with another backup to DVD, external drive etc.

 

[2048Megabytes]

I think hard drive failure that has valued data on it is the worst component failure that can happen to anyone especially if their are no backups.

I also have an external hard drive in addition to my two hard drives that I back up data to about every 20 days. I am thinking about doing off site storage of my external drive just in case my apartment was wiped out by a fire.