Setting up a second harddrive

magicroundabout · 6 Oct 2009 at 15:41

possibly a noob question and possibly a very simple answer but cos i've never done it before i thought i'd ask.

I've just purchased a Samsung PB22-J 128GB SSD. This will be used as my main drive for Vista and then win 7 when it arrives.

Currently have a Samsung 750gb F1 with all my apps on etc. i've backed up what i want onto a dvd ready to copy back.

Once i've swapped harddrives and installed all relevant drivers etc onto the samsung SSD. How do i go about connecting my old harddrive and formatting it so i can use it as storage etc.

Do i simply shut down - connect - boot - format? (how do i format?)

answers gratefully received

ubermoose · 6 Oct 2009 at 15:50

You're correct.

To format it you will find it in Disk Management ( start -> run -> diskmgmt.msc) then you can right click on the correct drive from the list and select format (a quick format should work fine i think).

If you install windows on your ssd then plug the old drive in again and boot up and it boots from the old drive still, you will need to change the boot order in the bios.

Hope this helps, (and works...)

magicroundabout · 6 Oct 2009 at 15:52

ubermoose said:
You're correct.

To format it you will find it in Disk Management ( start -> run -> diskmgmt.msc) then you can right click on the correct drive from the list and select format (a quick format should work fine i think).

If you install windows on your ssd then plug the old drive in again and boot up and it boots from the old drive still, you will need to change the boot order in the bios.

Hope this helps, (and works...)

this is what i was thinking i needed to do but wasn't 100%

thanks for the responce.

I was going to wait for win7 to arrive before installing the SSD but my fingers are itchy

droyden · 7 Oct 2009 at 00:35

Might be worth taking the opertunity to do a low level format with the manufacturer's tool, just to make sure everything is ticking over fine..

magicroundabout · 7 Oct 2009 at 06:25

i've installed my harddrive and formatted the old F1.

one question though. when i went to instal my SSD 128gb there was only 119gb of free space. is this common to have nearlly 10gb already used?

also what is the best tool to check performance of the SSD

magicroundabout · 7 Oct 2009 at 10:08

used hdtune this morning and averaged 198mb which is pretty good.

but still concerned as to where this 10gb went too. anyone have any answers for this

Paul11 · 7 Oct 2009 at 10:09

yes, thats normal

hard drives manufactures quote the space rounded up, so its never what you actually get.

magicroundabout · 7 Oct 2009 at 10:15

ah ok. i thought as much.

cheers

unknownsock · 7 Oct 2009 at 12:49

Paul11 said:
yes, thats normal

hard drives manufactures quote the space rounded up, so its never what you actually get.

Some how they think its an easier way for the consumers :rolleyes:

ubermoose · 7 Oct 2009 at 20:42

It's not that they round up the size (since when is 128 119 rounded up?), it's because of the way manufactureres advertise capacities.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Capacity_measurements

128 decimal gigabytes = 119 binary gigabytes.

Paul11 · 7 Oct 2009 at 20:52

ubermoose said:
It's not that they round up the size (since when is 128 119 rounded up?), it's because of the way manufactureres advertise capacities.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Capacity_measurements

128 decimal gigabytes = 119 binary gigabytes.

it was just a simple way of explaining it