Adding a 2nd Hard drive..(Noob help)

Jamesdavid3 · 28 Jan 2010 at 08:58

Adding a 2nd Hard drive..(Noob help)

Hi

I want to add a second HDD to my system below.

Titan Goliath

Intel Core i7 920 2.66Ghz Overclocked to 3.40GHz!
Gigabyte EX58-UD3R Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel
Corsair TX 650W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU
ATI 4870 X2 2Gb
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM

I brought this sytem last April from OCUK.

I'm looking for a Hard drive which i can use as storage for my movies and music and games a 1.5 or a 2 TB would be perfect.

Now i have no idea how to add it myself, i have heard of these RAID setups and these Master and Slave setups. All i want to do is just have this new extra drive appear in My Computer, then just select the new drive and just drag and drop files into it that way for storage, if thats possible.

I dont know if i can install games onto that other drive and still play them from there if thats even possible?

Thanks in advance.

Admiral Huddy · 28 Jan 2010 at 09:01

RAID is out of the question unless your prepared to format all the drives and re-install windows but the good news is that you can just pop in a SATAII drive in to a spare slot and just connect a SATA cable to any spare SATA connector on the mobo. No need to worry about Slave and Master (this is PATA drives).

Once the SATA connector is in place, just hook up to a spare 15 pin Serial ATA power connector (shown below) and the pysical side is done.

When you reboot, you should see the snew drive in the POST script.. When in Wondows, head into systems manager and disk management, format the drive and it instantly becomes available for use for game installs, files, music.. what ever you want.

When installing games (or any other application for that matter), make sure you select "Custom" install and change the target path from once prompted, replace the "c" with the new drive letter.

rpstewart · 28 Jan 2010 at 09:04

It's pretty simple. Physically fit the new disk into the case, connect the necessary power and data cables then power up the machine. At this point the new drive will not appear in My Computer, you need to go into Disk Management and format it first. Right click on My Computer and pick Manage then pick Disk Management from the left hand tree view.

Once Disk Management starts it'll probably ask you if it can write a signature to the new disk, say yes to that. You'll then be able to see all the disks attached to your system, the new one will show as unallocated, simply right click on it and select "new volume". Leave the defaults as is but check the "quick format" box and then click OK. The drive will then probably be assigned as drive E:, if you want you can leave it as that or swap letters with the DVD drive so that the new disk is D: and the DVD becomes E:

Ignore RAID for this application and the concept of Master and Slave no longer exists in a SATA context.

Installing and playing games from the new disk is entirely possible - just choose a location on the new drive when you install them.

Jamesdavid3 · 28 Jan 2010 at 09:28

Ok thanks guys for the information, I think i might do a reformat on the 500Gb drive im using at the moment to just start out fresh so should i still ignore the RAID setup?

Some people are saying i shouldnt use PATA but use SATA instead as its faster?

Also dont i have to install a operating system onto that new hard drive to make it work?

Admiral Huddy · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:11

You only need one OS installed regardless of the number of drives (unless you want to use two different Windows versions) and you certainly don't need to do a reinstall. Windows will quite happily recognise you have a second drive installed but you may have to go into the Disk Manager to set the partition and format.

I wouldn't worry too much about RAID to be honest. Must people have multiple disks in non raid set-up refereed to as JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks). The advantage of this you can keep a copy of your volatile data on the "C" drive on the second drive "D", which acts as a first line of backup should you need it.

rpstewart · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:13

If you don't fully understand the implications of using RAID I would suggest not using it.

You'll struggle to find a PATA drive these days and any you do find are older technology, the current generation of SATA drives are quicker (although not due to the interface).

The OS only needs to be installed on a single drive - in fact you should only have a single drive fitted when you install the OS so that you ensure it's contained only on the one drive.

EDIT: Gah! Beaten by Huddy AGAIN!

rz30 · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:18

I disagree go for a raid 0 setup, it will be satisfying for you when you get it all setup and your motherboard supports it so why waste you raid. We will walk you through.

Jamesdavid3 · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:31

Thanks for all the input.

I understand that if i want a RAID setup i need 2 Hard drives the exact same, however in this case i am just buying a new Drive to use as storage for movies, games etc.

All i am going to use this new HDD for is for general backup, storage of HD movies and games tyipcal drag and drop backuping so im guessing theres no real need for RAID?

Could anyone spec me up a 1.5 or 2TB HDD on OCUK's website? Not sure which ones are good for just what i need.

icedbullet · 28 Jan 2010 at 10:52

I have a similar disk setup to you. I'm not into all this raid stuff because I don't have the patience to set it all up really. I have a Seagate Barracuda 500GB 32MB cache (ST3500320AS) and a Samsung Spinpoint 1TB (HD103UJ) for all my movie/media storage, drag and drop backups etc. The Samsung F1 is a very good disk, it runs so quiet and stays very cool (19 Degrees in an antec 1200 case)

This setup works very well for me and by the sounds of what your after something similar should work nicely for you.

I am adding a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint f3 this week (no idea why really I just impulse bought it, it is supposed to be an amazingly fast disk so I guess I wanted to see for myself)...I'll let you know if the Samsung F3 lives up to the hype...

Admiral Huddy · 28 Jan 2010 at 11:00

Jamesdavid3 said:
Thanks for all the input.

I understand that if i want a RAID setup i need 2 Hard drives the exact same, however in this case i am just buying a new Drive to use as storage for movies, games etc.

All i am going to use this new HDD for is for general backup, storage of HD movies and games tyipcal drag and drop backuping so im guessing theres no real need for RAID?

I would never discount RAID but given what you have just said and on the backend to what rpstewart says, i would say it's better in your case to have a backup on a seperate physical dive because if one drive fails, then you still have the data on one or the other. The only exception to this is RAID 1 (mirror) but you'll loose the capacity of one drive. A RAID 0 (stripped) setup means your data is spread over two drives as if they are one. If one drives fails, you have no backup.

I hope that clears things up a bit. I always have a single disk in a machine for instant backups. I have RAID 0 + 1 single disk..

I trecommend the Sammy F3

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-082-SA&groupid=701&catid=14&subcat=1279

Lightening speed at a good price imo.

Jamesdavid3 · 28 Jan 2010 at 11:00

icedbullet said:
I have a similar disk setup to you. I'm not into all this raid stuff because I don't have the patience to set it all up really. I have a Seagate Barracuda 500GB 32MB cache (ST3500320AS) and a Samsung Spinpoint 1TB (HD103UJ) for all my movie/media storage, drag and drop backups etc. The Samsung F1 is a very good disk, it runs so quiet and stays very cool (19 Degrees in an antec 1200 case)

This setup works very well for me and by the sounds of what your after something similar should work nicely for you.

I am adding a 1TB Samsung Spinpoint f3 this week (no idea why really I just impulse bought it, it is supposed to be an amazingly fast disk so I guess I wanted to see for myself)...I'll let you know if the Samsung F3 lives up to the hype...

Did you install that new extra disk like the above posts have said? Just plug it in and goto disk managment and sort it out from there then it just appears in My Computer as its own drive? Can you also install games onto it and they would run from there fine?

Edit: Are you going to do the same process for your F3? just setting it up as normal with no Raid etc?

icedbullet · 28 Jan 2010 at 11:12

Yeah installing the disk was simple. You just have to plug in the sata cable and the power cable (as I saw was posted above). Secure the drive back in place then go to disk management, format it then assign a drive letter (or take the auto assigned one). Once you have done it you will realise how easy it is!

Yeah I installed dragon age on my Samsung F1 by accident (don't ask LOL) and it runs fine (the Seagate is the main OS drive). I am planning to just do exactly the same with the Samsung F3, just plug it in and go, no raid or anything special.

Jamesdavid3 · 28 Jan 2010 at 11:48

icedbullet said:
Yeah installing the disk was simple. You just have to plug in the sata cable and the power cable (as I saw was posted above). Secure the drive back in place then go to disk management, format it then assign a drive letter (or take the auto assigned one). Once you have done it you will realise how easy it is!

Yeah I installed dragon age on my Samsung F1 by accident (don't ask LOL) and it runs fine (the Seagate is the main OS drive). I am planning to just do exactly the same with the Samsung F3, just plug it in and go, no raid or anything special.

awesome cheers,

I'm tempted to buy 2 Samsung F3's then, dont know if ill bother with RAID with them both.

Or I might just get the 1 for the time being and see how that goes then add the other one down the line

**Edit** F3 Ordered

icedbullet · 29 Jan 2010 at 23:31

I got my F3. Its a very good disk, well worth the money! Makes windows 7 feel faster and installs things faster too. Haven't tried a game on it yet, i will later tonight once I get my main applications re-installed

icedbullet · 30 Jan 2010 at 13:40

UPDATE: I'm transferring my steam app files folder (so I don't have to reinstall/redownload all my games) to the new F3 hdd from my old seagate barracuda (ST3500320AS) . I'm getting transfer speeds of 40MB/s, I was getting 100MB/s for a few minutes then it just fell to 40MB/s. Its disappointing, I was expecting more.

The folder size is 70GB maybe that has something to do with it?

rpstewart · 30 Jan 2010 at 14:14

The transfer rate you see will be dependent on the size of the files being transferred (1Gb worth of small files takes a lot longer than a single 1Gb file) and whether there is any other activity on either the source or target drive.