Best way to setup my new HD

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

Fr0dders

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Ok just ordered a Western Digital WD7500AAKS Drive last night. Comes tomorrow.

A couple of questions

1) does it make any difference if i set the drive to ACHI or IDE mode ?
2) whats the best way to format. Quick format or full format ? full format seems pointless given that its an empty drive
3) any tips on how to get the best out of the drive. I usually just bang it in a SATA port and hope for the best. Allthough this works, its probably not the way to get the most out of your system !
 
1) Not really, just make your mind up before you start because swapping between is difficult without a reinstall.

2) Quick, a full format of 750Gb will take forever.

3) Unless you want to get involved in partitioning etc then it is pretty much just a case of plugging in the drive and cracking on.
 
Personally I would do a FULL format on a new HD as it will tag any faulty sectors and use ones in the reserve pool. A quick format does not do this!
Also if it's going to be used as an OS drive then your really should partition it tbh.
 
:eek:

Thats a huge C: drive!

Personally I use a 5-10Gb C: drive, that way i can restore my ghost image whenever i install something I don't like and all my other data remains untouched.
 
C4EVA said:
:eek:

Thats a huge C: drive!

Personally I use a 5-10Gb C: drive, that way i can restore my ghost image whenever i install something I don't like and all my other data remains untouched.
Click to expand...

Windows XP with all the updates takes near 5 GB .... how do you manage with only that as a C drive?

My C Drive is 250GB about 60% used with game installs etc.

AD
 
reason i have such a huge C drive is so i can fit all of my pictures / movies / music in my documents folder

ive got a 74gb raptor at the moment and have had to move it all off, prefer it on my C:\ drive.

but anyway, ive got a 250gb drive spare that will be used as my Backup drive. its got 230gb usable space so should be plenty for me to image my whole C: drive to.
 
Ross1234 said:
install games in d obviously
Click to expand...

But what is the point in that?

Seek times will be slow if you have a C: drive confined to a small part of the disk and the remaining data is in the rest of the space.

In addition, if you loose the OS, you loose all the registry links to the games installed on the D: drive so you have to reinstall anyhows.

Sure keep documents and downloads on a seperate drive or partition so you can reformat the OS drive but you might as well let all your aps, games and the OS play nicely together on the same partition.

AD
 
decto said:
Windows XP with all the updates takes near 5 GB .... how do you manage with only that as a C drive?

My C Drive is 250GB about 60% used with game installs etc.

AD
Click to expand...

Well I only use SP1 (+ a few security hotfixs)
Also my Default Windows install directory is on D: Programs instead of C: (This is done with the superb nLite program)
and I also move my Documents And Settings onto my E: partition by editing the registry and using a PRE-Installer to setup.

This is how I setup all the computers I build for customers (Except I use 10Gb C: drive). That way if they manage to fudge up the OS they can simply boot my custom made restore DVD and the system will be back up and running in a matter of a few minutes.
Unlike the tripe restore setups most other PC's come with because I have moved their Documents and settings all personal files, e-mails, bookmarks, desktop files... etc ...etc are still their when the system is restored :D

My XP install is 1.12Gb (Without Pagefile obviously)

88640262js3.png


This is the best way to setup an OS imho as it is far less likely to slow down over time as very few new files are written to the C: drive so that fragments at a much slower rate. It's also great for data integrity as you can restore from a fudged OS without having to backup any files what-so-ever as the only files being overwritten are generic OS files.
 
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C4EVA said:
:eek:

Thats a huge C: drive!

Personally I use a 5-10Gb C: drive, that way i can restore my ghost image whenever i install something I don't like and all my other data remains untouched.
Click to expand...

I used to think the same, but the second you start to unpack very large files, the need for more room on the C: becomes apparent.

Minimum I would use these days is 25GB, and I install my games on other partitions.
 
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