HTPC Drive Set-up

DJMK4 · 9 May 2008 at 18:55

Is it advisable in a HTPC set-up to have a single drive and 2 partitions?

Or is it best to get 2 drives, one for the OS and one for the Media drive?

Guardsmon · 11 May 2008 at 19:45

well unless you're looking for speed, which in a HTPC, I don't see why you would need it, then a single drive would do. But of course if you use 2 drives, you can fit more in and if you have a problem with one you havent lost either the OS or your files.
I think if you have the money and the room, i'd go for 2 drives, but its personal opinion more than anything.

Tony Williams · 12 May 2008 at 11:31

Personally I would go for 2 drives but at a budget and if you've little to store on the O/S drive then you could partition it.

DJMK4 · 15 May 2008 at 12:07

Also, would it be a crime to go with an IDE drive, or is SATA an absolute must?

Guardsmon · 15 May 2008 at 13:31

can't see why would be a crime. you're just limiting your transfer speed and airflow. If you really want to go IDE - go kick some ass!

jonshaw_uk · 27 May 2008 at 09:51

i went for 2 drives in my htpc
one for media the other for the OS

lsg1r · 27 May 2008 at 11:42

I'm going to be a little different.
I would go 2 drives in a mirrored array (partitioned for os and files), especially if the media is stored on the system. Yeah y

a1ex2001 · 27 May 2008 at 15:19

Ideally I'd go for a single drive from a laptop (SSD if I could afford it) and only install the OS locally on it, I'd then stream the media over the LAN from a 'server' box as that way you can have three or four big noisy drives in a nice safe raid array with plenty of cooling and not mess up you living room.

In the real world, if it the only place you media will be stored I urge you to get two disks and mirror them and then partition for OS and data. IDE will not really hamper you at all despite what the nay sayers will tell you in a HTPC application I'd be surprised if you'd notice the difference allthough the drives maybe older and noisier.