Should I do this?

kittysacattack · 02-22-2008, 12:41 AM

I have an old computer that really sucks. I want to take out its 80gb IDE HD and put it in my other computer with a 200gb SATA1 HD and dedicate it just for music files. Will i be able to access these files from my operating system and will it be slow? Is there even any real advantage to this, or should i just put all files on my original HD and not do this? Thanks for any suggestions.

PC eye · 02-22-2008, 01:02 AM

If the current partition is NTFS you shouldn't see any problems "except" if you have to reinstall Windows for some reason. If you forget to unplug it the Windows installer will see that first and place the boot information there being an ide over sata default.

A second larger capacity sata drive would be another thought to use for storage and backup while you won't see any great slowdown. Gee? Let's see Vista is on a 350gb ide drive at the moment with XP on the first of two 500gb sata drives with the second currently used for storage and backup.

The next sata will see the 250gb ide drive gone with Vista then on the second 500gb sata with an even larger 750gb or even 1tb drive as the main storage device. Splitting the 200gb sata there into two partitions allows for storage along with OS primary.

If the 200gb should fail at some point? you would then lose everything except for bringing the drive in to a data recovery service for a price. Here if one drive should go doa I won't be down long!

StrangleHold · 02-22-2008, 01:31 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kittysacattack

I have an old computer that really sucks. I want to take out its 80gb IDE HD and put it in my other computer with a 200gb SATA1 HD and dedicate it just for music files. Will i be able to access these files from my operating system and will it be slow? Is there even any real advantage to this, or should i just put all files on my original HD and not do this? Thanks for any suggestions.

Yeah you can do that, just make sure your Sata drive is set as the boot drive. Install the 80gb IDE, after windows boots go into Disk Management and format the drive and use it as space for your music, movies, what ever type of files you want to store on it.

kittysacattack · 02-22-2008, 05:40 AM

if i create a partition in a hard drive, and reformat, will the entire hard drive be written over, or will the files on the partition be spared.

kittysacattack · 02-22-2008, 05:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by StrangleHold

Yeah you can do that, just make sure your Sata drive is set as the boot drive. Install the 80gb IDE, after windows boots go into Disk Management and format the drive and use it as space for your music, movies, what ever type of files you want to store on it.

how do i format the drive, By the way an os is already on it. I have acronis disc director, will i be able to do everything with that program?

PC eye · 02-22-2008, 07:18 AM

When you create a new partition you first format not reformat it to make it ready for use. Reformatting will simply wipe a drive clean where anything presently on it will no longer be seen except with a specialized data recovery tool.

What OS? For Fat 16/32 XP will easily read and copy files as well as copy to that type of partition. For another OS like Linux the drive will be invisible to XP where a live for cd distro like Knoppix or ubuntu would then be used to see files copied over to the MS drive.

In XP and Vista alike to see an MS no other partition reformatted you simply locate it in the Disk Management tool where now Vista has the ability to resize any partitions other then the C primary as well as create, delete, and format them. You simply right click on the drive/partition to select the format option while there.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000 or http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/harddrive.htm

kittysacattack · 02-22-2008, 07:57 AM

i want to delete the os. I only want to put files on it.

PC eye · 02-22-2008, 09:27 AM

Half the folders like the Windows directory and the new DocumentsandSettings as well as the boot folder will see "access denied" errors appear right from the start when attempting manually remove them. Vista now sees the users folder while the old "docs+settings" is now a form of archive for the system restore.

The only tool to overcome that would likely be the TakeOwnership tool that adds a new item to the right click menu after the read only box is unchecked in the properties. The easy way however is first backing up what you want and simply deleting the current primary to insure all traces are gone.

That would also see the loss of files you may want to keep tucked away in the users folder>user name there. The free tool is found at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...menu-in-vista/ That works in XP as well as it does in Vista.

02-22-2008, 12:41 AM	#1 (permalink)
kittysacattack Silver Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 201	Should I do this? I have an old computer that really sucks. I want to take out its 80gb IDE HD and put it in my other computer with a 200gb SATA1 HD and dedicate it just for music files. Will i be able to access these files from my operating system and will it be slow? Is there even any real advantage to this, or should i just put all files on my original HD and not do this? Thanks for any suggestions.

02-22-2008, 01:02 AM	#2 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,512	If the current partition is NTFS you shouldn't see any problems "except" if you have to reinstall Windows for some reason. If you forget to unplug it the Windows installer will see that first and place the boot information there being an ide over sata default. A second larger capacity sata drive would be another thought to use for storage and backup while you won't see any great slowdown. Gee? Let's see Vista is on a 350gb ide drive at the moment with XP on the first of two 500gb sata drives with the second currently used for storage and backup. The next sata will see the 250gb ide drive gone with Vista then on the second 500gb sata with an even larger 750gb or even 1tb drive as the main storage device. Splitting the 200gb sata there into two partitions allows for storage along with OS primary. If the 200gb should fail at some point? you would then lose everything except for bringing the drive in to a data recovery service for a price. Here if one drive should go doa I won't be down long! __________________ What The Data Miners Are Digging Up About You http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Tec...6355541&page=1 Making an Old Brain Young http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Hea...6371136&page=1

02-22-2008, 07:18 AM	#6 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,512	When you create a new partition you first format not reformat it to make it ready for use. Reformatting will simply wipe a drive clean where anything presently on it will no longer be seen except with a specialized data recovery tool. What OS? For Fat 16/32 XP will easily read and copy files as well as copy to that type of partition. For another OS like Linux the drive will be invisible to XP where a live for cd distro like Knoppix or ubuntu would then be used to see files copied over to the MS drive. In XP and Vista alike to see an MS no other partition reformatted you simply locate it in the Disk Management tool where now Vista has the ability to resize any partitions other then the C primary as well as create, delete, and format them. You simply right click on the drive/partition to select the format option while there. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000 or http://vlaurie.com/computers2/Articles/harddrive.htm __________________ What The Data Miners Are Digging Up About You http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Tec...6355541&page=1 Making an Old Brain Young http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Hea...6371136&page=1

02-22-2008, 09:27 AM	#8 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 20,512	Half the folders like the Windows directory and the new DocumentsandSettings as well as the boot folder will see "access denied" errors appear right from the start when attempting manually remove them. Vista now sees the users folder while the old "docs+settings" is now a form of archive for the system restore. The only tool to overcome that would likely be the TakeOwnership tool that adds a new item to the right click menu after the read only box is unchecked in the properties. The easy way however is first backing up what you want and simply deleting the current primary to insure all traces are gone. That would also see the loss of files you may want to keep tucked away in the users folder>user name there. The free tool is found at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...menu-in-vista/ That works in XP as well as it does in Vista. __________________ What The Data Miners Are Digging Up About You http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Tec...6355541&page=1 Making an Old Brain Young http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/Hea...6371136&page=1

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02-22-2008, 05:40 AM	#4 (permalink)
kittysacattack Silver Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 201	if i create a partition in a hard drive, and reformat, will the entire hard drive be written over, or will the files on the partition be spared.

02-22-2008, 07:57 AM	#7 (permalink)
kittysacattack Silver Member Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 201	i want to delete the os. I only want to put files on it.