Multiple HD's and how to do it.

Lucky Cynic

Hey there guys, I have no idea what to do about multiple harddrives. I have this 7200RPM Seagate HD loaded up with Windows and everything, as well as with all of my games. The issue is, I want to get a 10,000RPM HD and use them both, preferably. Thing is, first off, I do not know how to designate which drive is the drive to be the bootup/game drive where as the other drive will just be used for storage. I assume this would be done when I install windows XP, it will ask which drive you want to install it on, yes? And will I have to reformat the first drive?

And my Mobo has like, 8 sata ports, how do I get two drives to work? Do I need a Raid card? And if so, what do I need to look for? Basically I want to upgrade and I have no idea as to how to do it. Though, if it does end up being more trouble than it is worth, I may just dump the drive I have now, even though it has bigger storage, I'd rather it not be a huge pain in my ass...

Pojaco

How do your 2 HDDs connect to your mainboard? Are they sata or pata (ide)?
Do you want to do a new install of windows or would you rather keep the one you have and just use your new 10k rpm HDD as backup storage?

If both are sata and you want to do a raid of some sort, then you'll need to do a fresh windows install with the added step of installing your mobo's raid drivers. If your 7200 Seagate is currently running windows and all you want to do is add your new hdd as extra storage, then plug it in to the appropriate spot and, when windows loads, go to Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. Your newly installed hdd should appear there and from there you must format the drive for ntfs and then change the letter of the drive should you desire.

Hope that helps.

Lucky Cynic

They are both Sata, and No, I want the faster drive to be the bootup/main drive while the other is the bitch drive.

Then I will have to reformat, but I do not know which ports to plug them into or how to designate them as main drive from slave drive...

Uncle Long

Your BIOS should be able to handle two hard drives. That being said you need to go into your BIOS and set the faster hard drive as "Master" and the slower as "Slave."

Also check your hard drive incase, for some godawful and backwards reason, they have any jumpers on the back, you'll need to set them correctly (just look at the documentation) if there are.

As far as connectors go, plug the faster hard drive into the end and plug the slower one into the middle connector if you're using the same cable.

Pojaco

Ok here you go:

1. Plug your boot/windows hd into SATA1, and plug the other into SATA2
2. Acquire the raid drivers for your mobo (should have come with it on a floppy)
3. Power up pc, go into bios, make sure SATA and RAID are enabled for the two SATA ports you're using.
4. Boot from windows cd like you do with any fresh install, but watch at the very beginning for the "Press F6 if you need to load additional SCSI components or drivers..." and press f6
5. Windows continues loading, eventually lets you select your raid drivers from the floppy, loads those, and continues with install.
6. Pick the partition/drive you want to install on, and finish.

Lucky Cynic

Pojaco wrote: »

Ok here you go:

1. Plug your boot/windows hd into SATA1, and plug the other into SATA2
2. Acquire the raid drivers for your mobo (should have come with it on a floppy)
3. Power up pc, go into bios, make sure SATA and RAID are enabled for the two SATA ports you're using.
4. Boot from windows cd like you do with any fresh install, but watch at the very beginning for the "Press F6 if you need to load additional SCSI components or drivers..." and press f6
5. Windows continues loading, eventually lets you select your raid drivers from the floppy, loads those, and continues with install.
6. Pick the partition/drive you want to install on, and finish.

Uh, my mobo only came with a CD. No floppies to copy. And do I need Raid? Someone else just told me that if I am using Sata links to the Mobo, I don't need to do anything with Raid.

Uncle Long

It depends, on a machine to machine basis, but, if your compy is new (and judging by the 7200 rpm seagate, it is indeed) then I really don't think you should have a problem; and should be able to set your hard drives with the BIOS as is. Hell, I just transplanted a 5 year old HD into a 3 year old eMachine so as to transfer files and for added storage and everything ran just fine with out the need for a RAID.

Lucky Cynic

I really ought to mention, I built my current computer myself...

Rook

The hdd with Windows on it will be the primary drive. With SATA, just plug the other HDD in, and voila.

And raid is a waste of time for most people, ignore it.

Lucky Cynic

Should I just opt to reformat the drive I use now, then install windows and get the computer up and running on the 10K RPM drive and later down the line add in the storage drive? Or would it be better just to do it all at the same time?

khain

Lucky Cynic wrote: »

Should I just opt to reformat the drive I use now, then install windows and get the computer up and running on the 10K RPM drive and later down the line add in the storage drive? Or would it be better just to do it all at the same time?

Plug them both in, go into the bios and set the faster one as the first one to boot off of and make sure that the very first boot device is your CD/DVD drive. Then put in the windows CD and install it on the faster drive and load it up. Once your in windows you have the option to reformat the old drive if needed, but make sure you copy anything you want first.

Lucky Cynic

khain wrote: »

Lucky Cynic wrote: »

Should I just opt to reformat the drive I use now, then install windows and get the computer up and running on the 10K RPM drive and later down the line add in the storage drive? Or would it be better just to do it all at the same time?

Plug them both in, go into the bios and set the faster one as the first one to boot off of and make sure that the very first boot device is your CD/DVD drive. Then put in the windows CD and install it on the faster drive and load it up. Once your in windows you have the option to reformat the old drive if needed, but make sure you copy anything you want first.

Capital, Spank you very much guys. I really was wanting the new drive and could have really used that Reformat.

=3

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DrFrylock

I'm not sure what with all the SATA driver madness, but if you do it carefully you really don't have to reinstall. Correct me if I'm wrong, guys:

1. Install new drive and drivers for it in current Windows install. It will show up as drive E or F or Q or something like that.
2. Use ghost or Acronis or some program to image drive C to the new drive. Use a GParted LiveCD to expand the partition on that drive.
3. Swap the drive cabling physically so the new drive is now drive C, and drive C is now drive E/F/Q/whatever.
4. Windows boots fine. Format old drive from within Windows.