2 HDDs, one for windows, one for games etc..

coopsjc21

coopsjc21

coopsjc21

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Hi,
As it stands I have 1 hard drive (Samsumg SP F1 320gb). I like to format my hard drive every 12 months or so and wipe everything off to do a complete re-install of Windows, I find it keeps it running nice and fast. Its a bit of a pain in the a--- though having to re-install all my games and stuff though, so what I wanted to do was buy a 2nd HD (say an 80gb one) just for installing windows on.

So I'd have win7 on my 80gb drive, everything else installed on a separate 320gb drive. My question is, when I format the 80gb drive and re-install windows, will the games and apps still work and run as normal?

I mean don't games & apps often install .dll files and stuff to the windows directory, which would be wiped wouldnt they?

Does this make sense?
 
Seems like a lot of hassle to be honest. Why don't you take a disk image of your drive when you do a clean install and just use that to restore as and when needed? I've found Windows 7 doesn't seem to suffer the same slow downs over time as we used to see with Windows XP. As I say I would use the built in image creation tool to make life easier :)
 
philtorrens said:
Seems like a lot of hassle to be honest. Why don't you take a disk image of your drive when you do a clean install and just use that to restore as and when needed? I've found Windows 7 doesn't seem to suffer the same slow downs over time as we used to see with Windows XP. As I say I would use the built in image creation tool to make life easier :)
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Sounds a lot easier, tell me more :) Will this not overwrite the whole drive though, including wiping off all my games and installed applications?

Yeah I've found win7 suffer less slow down that previous versions, but I've still noticed a drop in performance over the past year or so.
 
If you re-install windows then you will need to re-install all your applications again anyway, apart from one or two that are not keyed to your previous Windows install and don't depend on dlls and what not.

Unless you go SSD there's not much point in a 80GB drive these days. For example I just bought a 1TB HDD for £44 (Samsumg F3) and an equivalent 80GB (WD) costs £32. That's £10 for an extra 920GB.
 
Tealc said:
If you re-install windows then you will need to re-install all your applications again anyway, apart from one or two that are not keyed to your previous Windows install and don't depend on dlls and what not.

Unless you go SSD there's not much point in a 80GB drive these days. For example I just bought a 1TB HDD for £44 (Samsumg F3) and an equivalent 80GB (WD) costs £32. That's £10 for an extra 920GB.
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Yeah this is what I figured. Yeah, I would've gone for an ssd btw :)

I'll take a look at philtorrens disk image suggestion. Thanks guys!
 
At OP, I'm not sure why you need to reformat so often. Seems very drastic. I only ever formatted when installing new HDD or on a major upgrade. All you need is some regular housekeeping exercises which you should be doing anyway; Ccleaner, Defrag etc

However, I used to have a similar set-up but invariably did ever games or applications work after a windows re-installation. Office was one culprit.

I now have 3 partitions on 1 HDD:

C: OS and apps
D: Games
F: Files

I've changed all the user folder locations to the F drive. Then the entire F drive is backed up to a separate HDD using SyncBackSE but you could use Fbackup which is free.

Simple redundancy and housekeeping solution.
 
I have something close to what your doing

80GB SSD for windows and FF1V ;)
320GB Sam F3 with all my games and steam folder on.
2TB sammy for all my DVD's

I did a reinstall yesterday on my 80SSD once i did the mobo drivers and gfx cards it was business as normal and no need to re install anygames :)
 
philtorrens said:
Why don't you take a disk image of your drive when you do a clean install and just use that to restore as and when needed?
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That's what I was thinking, I used GHOST in the past but have been using Acronis True Image from a bootable CD-ROM or USB stick . . . a fresh backup taken after Windows + drivers + applications/games is standard issue . . . particularly handy for those that partake in ragged-edge overclocking where there is a risk of bOrking the O/S! :D

Tealc said:
If you re-install windows then you will need to re-install all your applications again anyway, apart from one or two that are not keyed to your previous Windows install and don't depend on dlls and what not
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Indeed? . . . I don't understand why anyone still installs games to a seperate disk? . . . I thought everyone installs Applications & Games to the same Disk/Partition as their O/S? . . . and use a separate Disk/Partition for data like music/pictures/videos etc . . . all independent of the O/S so if you need to restore your O/S all the data is just still sitting there?

I'm waiting for the price of a decent 64MB to dip well below £100 before biting . . . would prefer a 128GB unit for loads of room for games + apps but can see I will be waiting a long time before they hit sub £100! :p
 
coopsjc21, as some people have said before, reinstalling that many times isn't necessary (anymore). Just keep your computer clean... I can imagine that after Windows 98/ ME / 2000 / XP and maybe Vista you have the feeling that you need to reinstall every 6 months but that is no longer necessary if you keep it tidy.
 
I've made a windows partion for years now. Means it only takes me a few hours to do a reinstall (I'm sure it'll be a lot faster once I get an SSD! :P) rather than a few days... (due to backing up).

Now when I want to format, I just dump my files onto another partion and away I go :)
 
SirCanealot said:
Now when I want to format
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What files do you need to dump onto another partition before you format? . . . and why do you still format when you could just restore a pro backup? . . .

SirCanealot said:
I just dump my files onto another partion and away I go :)
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why are your important files not already on another partition/disk? :confused:
 
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