Are programs slowed down at all when ran off a different HD than the OS?

PESolution

PESolution

PESolution

Soldato
Joined
13 Oct 2004
Posts
2,774
Location
Teesside
As stated in topic, is there a performance hit on applications/games that are installed on a different HDD than your OS? By habit i always install the most demanding games/apps on the windows HDD and everything else on a media drive, but does this actually affect anything?

thanks in advance
 
I always use an 80GB HDD for OS & programs n never had a problem with speed..
Others will put ALL programs onto another HDD..Both will still Install to the REG.
Others will buy a large HDD n Partition it n put Games etc., onto the other half..
Whichever way you choose, remember that if OS on HDD gos n you gota Redo (format)
Then you Still gota DELETE ALL Programs from other HDD or Partition because New Formated HDD with Newly installed OS will not recognise progys as they not in REG..
That's why I use same HDD....
Others are gona tell you different..
 
RussD said:
I always use an 80GB HDD for OS & programs n never had a problem with speed..
Others will put ALL programs onto another HDD..Both will still Install to the REG.
Others will buy a large HDD n Partition it n put Games etc., onto the other half..
Whichever way you choose, remember that if OS on HDD gos n you gota Redo (format)
Then you Still gota DELETE ALL Programs from other HDD or Partition because New Formated HDD with Newly installed OS will not recognise progys as they not in REG..
That's why I use same HDD....
Others are gona tell you different..
Click to expand...

i dont really get your "advantage" to a single HD. Both ways you still gotta install all the proggy's... lol

I have a main HD and then another HD just for games :)
 
jonnylaris said:
i dont really get your "advantage" to a single HD. Both ways you still gotta install all the proggy's... lol

I have a main HD and then another HD just for games :)
Click to expand...


whats hes saying is if your os disk fails then you have to do a reinstall all your games as they wont be in the new os's reg so just put it all onto one disk.



just backup your saved games onto your storage disc


instead of formating two discs and reinstalling you just format one :)
 
PCDave said:
whats hes saying is if your os disk fails then you have to do a reinstall all your games as they wont be in the new os's reg so just put it all onto one disk.



just backup your saved games onto your storage disc


instead of formating two discs and reinstalling you just format one :)
Click to expand...

if your that worried about redundancy just use raid 1 :p (or raid 5 :))
 
I have 6 partitions accross 4 disks...... but there is a purpose.

I have an 80GB SATA2 drive partitioned in half to make a 40GB XP drive and a currently empty 40GB drive for any other OS I decide to install.

I then have a 320GB SATA2 drive labeled 'Data' that has all my data stored on it. My Documents folder maps there, along with all my downloads

I then have a 500GB SATA2 drive. This is partitoned into a 300GB 'Entertainment ' drive that contains all my games installs, and the rest is a 200GB 'Backup' partition that contains a backup of all the important information on my Data drive (My Documents, etc)

The final drive is a 120GB external 2.5" USB drive that is labeled Media, that contains all my Music, and anythign I like to tranport around. This drive is also backed up onto the Backup drive.

Ideally the Backup drive should be its own drive, but space needs forced me to shuffle around. If I run out of space ill get a new one to take the backup.

Having my OS on a totally seperate HDD means if it fails, all i loose is my Windows install, which takes me an hour and a half to install using an nlite disk. Also, if any of the other drives fail I dont loose my OS, so my PC is still fully functional. If either the Data or Media drive fails (my original Media one did) then there is a backup on the Backup drive. The Entertainment drive is the only thing not backed, but its all games which can be reinstalled if needed. The only issue there is saves which im reluctant to worry about. Its the toss up between loosing some saves, or having to backup 300GB and increasing of games data.

But basically, the point is, I have lots of space, without messing about with raid, and any single drive failure is no big issue. There is also no issue with running OS and apps on different drives.
 
Last edited:
If you wana Play then this is what I actually got---1x80GB for OS n Programs---1x500GB for Photography.---1x500GB External for Photography--1x320GB External for bits n pieces---1x80GB for Office n scaned paper work. 1x200Gb in a Caddy for standby...
In other PC that's Broken down I have 3x internals + 2x Externals but 3 are IDE drives..
Next>>>>But Why Format 2 drives when it's easier to do just one..
 
RussD said:
I always use an 80GB HDD for OS & programs n never had a problem with speed..
Others will put ALL programs onto another HDD..Both will still Install to the REG.
Others will buy a large HDD n Partition it n put Games etc., onto the other half..
Whichever way you choose, remember that if OS on HDD gos n you gota Redo (format)
Then you Still gota DELETE ALL Programs from other HDD or Partition because New Formated HDD with Newly installed OS will not recognise progys as they not in REG..
That's why I use same HDD....
Others are gona tell you different..
Click to expand...

:/ How do you use an 80GB HDD in this day and age, two games and thats gone, or a music folder, or installing Vista to it :p
 
installing an OS in one drive and games in another is fine. even after an os reinstallation, your games will work, just might need 1-2 .dlls to be put into the windows folder.
 
It's pointless really just install all apps and games on same drive as OS, everything else especially deleting done on seperate drives.
If there is a difference in having apps and games on sepearate drives or partitions I for one cannot see it.

I have tried OS on a small partition and games on the other and cant see any difference so I don't bother anymore.
I tend to reformatt a few times a year anyway as I like it nice and swift.
 
Last edited:
C64 said:
It's pointless really just install all apps and games on same drive as OS, everything else especially deleting done on seperate drives.
If there is a difference in having apps and games on sepearate drives or partitions I for one cannot see it.

I have tried OS on a small partition and games on the other and cant see any difference so I don't bother anymore.
I tend to reformatt a few times a year anyway as I like it nice and swift.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but I wouldnt fancy deleting 300GB of games, backing up all my saves, backing up all my 300GB of data, reformatting my machine, putting all my data back, and reinstalling 300GB of games 'a few times a year'.

There may be no performance increase, but in terms of speed and ease of OS reformat, and safety should a drive fail, multiple drives have massive advantages.

Plus, to have what I have on 1 drive it would be a 1TB drive, which didnt exist when I built my PC 2 years ago.
 
Thankfully most games are well written enough to not depend on registry, so a seperate games partition isnt usualy a problem. Apps unfortunatly did very deep into the registry so generaly need reinstalling. Wont lose any work though as long as installing to the same place as before.
 
It is actually better to have things on multiple drives. Aside from less risk frmo a drive failure, having your games on one drive while your OS is on another can make things faster, as you can be loading parts of the game from one drive while other things such as drivers and what-not load from the first drive. You get to use both drives' bandwidths.

I did this myself, only problem I had is when XP decides to change your drive letters for no reason, then nothing works until you put them back manually :)
 
Good Job i Don't Waste Money on Games then, seeing as i don't play games..
So Buy a 500GB or a 1TRB if you Like Huge Games.
As far as I know (n i don't know much) Everything uses the REG.
Save ya Game to another HDD but keep the Games themselves on the OS drive. (if that's possible)..
 
Personally this is how I do my disks

Disk 1 = OS
Disk 2 = Apps and Games
Disk 3 = Data and CD/DVD Images for Virtual CD

This way the OS Access, Games Loading and the Games CD image are all seperate and can be accessed at the same time.

Definitely quicker then loading everything onto one disk and searching through 1 disk to get to all of the parts.
 
I just have 2 drives, the first has the OS and all apps and games installed on it, and the second drive is for storage.
 
This is me:

2x250gb samsung in RAID1, 50gb partition for vista then the rest for 'data' apps/games etc.
1tb all for HD Movies
500gb Music/Films
500gb TV

zim zimmer
 
RussD said:
Good Job i Don't Waste Money on Games then, seeing as i don't play games..
So Buy a 500GB or a 1TRB if you Like Huge Games.
As far as I know (n i don't know much) Everything uses the REG.
Save ya Game to another HDD but keep the Games themselves on the OS drive. (if that's possible)..
Click to expand...

Uh... what?

I know the last thing id want to do is have a single 1TB drive with everything on it!

Have one drive for OS and only apps that require decent intergration (such as office maybe) and then have everything else on different drives.

Its the way decent servers should be setup. A drive soley for the OS, and then everythign else elewhere.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom