Re installing Windows Help

[MattyHeal]

I currently run windows 7 on a 1TB Harddrive but after a year or 2 it's just got so much crap on it I'm re installing and want to wipe everything.

I have a 2nd Internal Harddrive which is identical, and I've only ever used the 1TB for storage, video's pictures etc.

What is my best option to get the most out of both Hard Drives when re installing Windows 7, Can I combine the 2 drives to act as 1?

Thanks

 

[Geoff]

If your motherboard supports RAID (most somewhat modern systems do), you can combine both in RAID 0 which combines them both into a virtual 2GB disk, however if either drive fails, all your data is gone.

I would recommend using one 1TB drive for the OS and applications, then another 1TB drive for all your data. You can right click on your documents, pictures, videos, and other folders and change the location from C:\ to the second drive. This way when you save something to one of those folders it will use the second drive, and if your OS becomes corrupt your data will still be intact.

 

[MattyHeal]

If your motherboard supports RAID (most somewhat modern systems do), you can combine both in RAID 0 which combines them both into a virtual 2GB disk, however if either drive fails, all your data is gone.

I would recommend using one 1TB drive for the OS and applications, then another 1TB drive for all your data. You can right click on your documents, pictures, videos, and other folders and change the location from C:\ to the second drive. This way when you save something to one of those folders it will use the second drive, and if your OS becomes corrupt your data will still be intact.

Thanks for your reply, I was mostly just curious, if I went with Raid 0 would it make my system run quicker?

 

[johnb35]

It would be a little quicker but like said, if one drive fails then you lose all your data.

 

[Geoff]

Thanks for your reply, I was mostly just curious, if I went with Raid 0 would it make my system run quicker?

As John said, it will make your system a bit quicker as read and write speeds will increase, but you double the chance to lose all your data. If you do go with a RAID 0 setup, you definitely want to have a backup of your data.