Adding 2nd HD , best setup is ?????

hotshod · **8th August 2007, 02:22 PM**

I am just about to add a second hard drive to my box ,..... opps rig .

I know nothing about RAID setups so whats the G O .

My OS is on an unpartitioned 320 gb HD, and the system is running just fine , I daren't say p_rfect , but I'm happy .....

Should I just add the 500gb to it and give it a drive letter ...???
Or do I do a RAID configuration on it ...???
Or do I have to do a new install to do the RAID...???

This HTPC has had a couple of updates and is running very well now with 3800 X2 and Dvico dual4.
We hardly ever use MCE , mostly just the Dvico application

Don't have clue whats the best , but I read about RAID here all the time.
Thanks

logifuse · **8th August 2007, 02:49 PM**

Whether or not you use RAID depends on what you want to do. If you want it to appear as a single massive drive, you set up a RAID striped set. If you want to mirror everything, then you get a hard drive the same size or larger (no point being larger) & you set up a RAID mirrored array & it appears in windows as a single drive the size of the first drive.

Personally, I don't see the benefit in either of the above for what I do. I fact, I see it as an advantage in having multiple stand alone drives. I have a system drive. I have an everything else drive (downloads, stored drivers, etc). And I have a 500GB TV drive (with the recorded TV set to a folder on it with TweakMCE). This gives me the flexibility to move things around as needed, but there's no redundancy, so if one of the drives fails, that's that. I'm ok with that.

Now, if you want to go to RAID, yes it will mean a new install if the RAID array involves your system disk (which it will). If you just want to add the drive, then just add the drive & after windows boots, it will recognise & install it & ask you to initialize it. Once done, give it a letter & decide what you want to do with it.

If you go for RAID, then you set up the type in the BIOS (or the RAID BIOS) & then you need to have the drivers ready for the install.

Justin

hotshod · **8th August 2007, 02:59 PM**

I think I'll go basic .....

And look into more during or before next re-build.....

Thanks

Percul8or · **8th August 2007, 03:04 PM**

Agree with logifuse. Would just add the drive and use it for all your "data"

Good idea however to partition the 320Gig drive with say 20gig for system. Can get away with 12gig with XPMCE.

This way you can create a back up image of your system partition of only 20gig rather than the whole 320gig.

Acronis Partition Magic and True Image is what I use. http://www.acronis.com/

An image restore is a hell of a lot easier than a rebuild.

nikko1974 · **21st September 2007, 11:11 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by hotshod

I think I'll go basic .....

And look into more during or before next re-build.....

Thanks

I agree that RAID really isn't worth it until you have 3-4+ HDD's.

What I WOULD recommend you do though is set up the first partition on your 2nd HDD and make it about 3gb in size and then move your pagefile over to it.

This is a very well known and safe system tweak that adds a noticeable advantage in speed and also saves fragging of your OS partition.

VERY easily done too.

Google move pagefile and you will get all info you need.