seperate HDD for my OS

[comp builder]

hi im thinking of getting a another HDD just for my OS (win xp pro, will be home soon) and i was wondering if it is worth it and what are the benifits and also how hard is it to set up a slave and master drive as i have only ever had one HDD in my comp at any one time
thanks

 

[semi-pro waster]

Do you just want the hard drive for your OS or for OS and files? If it is just for your OS you probably only need 10-15gb max for XP. A second hard drive can speed up your system and can work well if you put the swap file on the second drive.

Your motherboard should offer SATA ports which totally negates the master/slave question as SATA only allows one drive per channel, you might still have to set the boot order in the bios though.

What is your budget for the drive and have you come close to filling your existing hard drive(and what size is it)? The reason I ask is that it might be in your interests to get say a 200gb Seagate 7200.10 to speed up Windows and then put the swap file on the older hard drive.