Quick Question

[Ghuraba]

Hi there

I would like to know if I have two hard drives can I just install Windows XP on one. Then format the second drive and copy, for example, games onto it. Then can I load the games from this hard drive and they will work by using software programs, like sound or graphics drivers, from the hard drive with Windows installed on it?

I have no knowledge of having 2 hard drives and how you can use them so forgive me for the beginners question. I am trying to get my head around why two hard drives is good.

Thanks

Michael

 

[ChrisLX200]

Yes, one of the drives will be your 'Operating System' or Boot disk, this contains system files necessary for the computer to start, and the Windows program files. By default, when you install new programs they will be placed in C:\Program Files, but usually there is an option during the installation to install in another location. This can be on a separate hard drive, so if it's a game (for example) you can create a folder on the second drive called 'Games' and get the installer to place the files there. Some files necessary for Windows to work with the game will still be placed in reserved locations on the C: drive (temp files, shared files, common files, possibly drivers). However, the bulk of the data files will be placed in the folder you selected on the D: drive. You cannot simply move files for a game that's already installed on C: over to D: - there will be registry entries which tell the program where it's files were installed so it would fail.

Some programs (like graphics drivers, sound drivers, Windows components) have to be installed into the Windows folders which are on drive C:. However, even if you have the main program files located in C: you can quite often have associated data files located on the second drive (for example, Video Encoding software is installed on C:, but it works with files on D: and uses that for temporary files, scratch disks, rendering and so on).

If the second drive is as fast or faster than the C: drive, there is some advantage to having the PageFile (swapfile) located on it. System speed will improve due to it reading temporary files from D: whilst still able to do normal file reads/writes on C: (one drive can't do two things at once, so that's where the improvement comes from).

 

[D D Danneh]

So would it be better to put the main OS, apps, games etc onto one disk, and then storage on the other disk? Or would it be better to have just the OS on one disk and then everything else on the other?

 

[ChrisLX200]

It's better to have the OS in a modest, compact partition on it's own - with enough space to hold all the program files you're likely to install (programs which really have to be on the C: drive rather than elsewhere), plus an overhead of at least 20%. That size will vary from around 80GB to 120GB for most people. Some apps really need to be in the OS partition, but Games (which frequently include GB's of data files) can usefully be placed in a separate partition, possibly on a separate drive. Same goes for music apps which can include GBs of WAV files (as an example).

The point is - you will want to be backing up the OS partition regularly, and it's far easier and more convenient to do that if it's all contained in a small partition which can be 'imaged' using Acronis or Ghost or similar, and the disk image saved onto a separate drive. All those game data files, those music sample files, maybe FlightSim scenery files - whatever - aren't going to change and you don't want to be continually backing those up together with your Windows installation. If the worst happens, re-installing the game is not too bad, but having to install Windows from scratch and configure it is a major job.

A lot depends on how you use your computer and how bothered you would be if you lost it all and had to re-install. So many people seem to stuff a 1TB drive in (or even better, RAID0 two 1TB drives), never partition it at all, blithely install everything onto it, update drivers, survive program crashes, never run a backup, and think no more about it.