Geek stuff HDD Partition

[oldguy]

OK I decided to add another HDD to my PC which is currently running a Western Digital 250 GB SATA which has 2 partitions of equal size.
I have now add a new Western Digital 500 GB, 32 MB Cache, SATA 3 Gb/s HDD
which is only going to be used as storage for all my valuable files :msn-wink:
the thing is can anyone explain what the jumper settings mean enable/disable SSC, do I need to worry about it. At the moment its all plugged up and running, just Unallocated.
So should I partition the drive, and if so what size.:done:

[scracha]

Yeah, 1 big 500gb partition. Use the western digital tools to transfer the old drive contents to the new one. Recommend removing the old drive and putting it in an esata or usb enclosure and just using it as a backup (you did say your photos etc were valuable). Try Macrium Reflect free or dixml (Runtime software) for backup - both free.

Leave the jumpers alone

[p.dath]

I'm guessing you bought the extra drive to accomodate some need. That will probably make the answer clearer.

[oldguy]

Yeah, 1 big 500gb partition. Use the western digital tools to transfer the old drive contents to the new one. Recommend removing the old drive and putting it in an esata or usb enclosure and just using it as a backup (you did say your photos etc were valuable). Try Macrium Reflect free or dixml (Runtime software) for backup - both free.

Leave the jumpers alone format the new drive, as one big drive and transfer OS and all files to new drive ? and use the older small drive as a portable backup? sound scary, im self tort this is the biggest PC Ive ever built.


I'm guessing you bought the extra drive to accomodate some need. That will probably make the answer clearer.

Yep running out of space

[p.dath]

Yep running out of space

You said you have two partitions already. Which is running out? OS or Data?

[Gremlin]

You don't have to worry about jumpers on sata, just plug it in and format.

Depends how you want to use it, you could make multiple partitions, otherwise, one big volume is fine. Right click on the unallocated space, and go create partition, or create simple volume, or something like that.

Wizard will walk you through the steps. The default size is all the unallocated space, but you can choose something smaller if you like. It will ask for a bunch of other things, but keep it all pretty much standard (easiest for you). You might want to change the volume label, and I prefer the first format of a drive to be full (longer than a quick format - quite a bit longer).

[Gremlin]

You said you have two partitions already. Which is running out? OS or Data?

Looks like all of them :lol:

[Slyer]

Remove from the jumper on the hard drive, it halves the connection speed for more compatibility, but if it works in your pc without leave it out.

[oldguy]

You said you have two partitions already. Which is running out? OS or Data?

Disk 1 has the OS drive letter C partition size about 96GB other partition E new volume, the remainder of the drive 250GB HDD.

[p.dath]

You can either plug in the new drive as an additional, and copy the old partition across, then re-size the original 'C' drive (which would give you the most space [750GB]), or do simply replace the current drive, and copy everything across.

I've used the free tool gparted:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
many times. It can copy, move and re-size partitions fairly easily. Just download the ISO, burn it to a CD, and then boot from it. Has a nice GUI. Just queue up what you want to do, then tell it to do it.

EDIT: ps. Backup everything first if you can.

[The Stranger]

format the new drive, as one big drive and transfer OS and all files to new drive ? and use the older small drive as a portable backup? sound scary,

Not as scary as losing all your data in a drive crash.
My question is why would you want a 500GB drive?
Often it's for music, photos or video. The idea of photos and video is preserving a memory isn't it?
When your 500GB drive crashes - and it will - if you don't have your photos on another drive or DVD etc what's the point of taking or storing them in the first place?

So yeah, use the 250 as a backup of your vaulable data.

That said, SATA drives are sooooo cheap, get 2 and mirror them at least

[oldguy]

Not as scary as losing all your data in a drive crash.
My question is why would you want a 500GB drive?
Often it's for music, photos or video. The idea of photos and video is preserving a memory isn't it?
When your 500GB drive crashes - and it will - if you don't have your photos on another drive or DVD etc what's the point of taking or storing them in the first place?

So yeah, use the 250 as a backup of your vaulable data.

That said, SATA drives are sooooo cheap, get 2 and mirror them at least
The idea was to use the New drive for storage only, the theory that if a drive was going to fail, it would be the one that has the OS install on it. I don't really know,:( as I said I have never had any training, just always had an interest in computers, :)


cheers John

[p.dath]

Maybe you could mount both drives in the machine, use gparted to copy everything to the new drive (and resize partittions to create more space).

Then wipe the original drive once you know everything works, and then do backups to that original drive using something like Windows Backups.

Obviously the original drive is smaller, but you could choose to backup your most important 250GB of data.

[The Stranger]

The idea was to use the New drive for storage only, the theory that if a drive was going to fail, it would be the one that has the OS install on it. I don't really know,:( as I said I have never had any training, just always had an interest in computers, :)


cheers John

It's russian roulette.
Actually, you can narrow the odds down a bit.
If it lasts beyond the first 3 months you should be safe for anything from 2yrs for a seagate or 3 for most other brands to up to 5yrs. Sure many last beyond that but you are on borrowed time.
Though of course, that doesn't stop problems with the OS, virus, power, humans etc from cropping up at any time
My experience with SATA drives in general is that they really aren't lasting too well.

Backups are good.

[CookMySock]

The idea was to use the New drive for storage only..Then the solution is very simple.

Plug in new drive, reboot, format it as one big partition, and move some stuff onto it. Simple! Kinda like getting a new shed actually.

Steve

[scracha]

format the new drive, as one big drive and transfer OS and all files to new drive ? and use the older small drive as a portable backup? sound scary, im self tort this is the biggest PC Ive ever built.

Yep running out of space
Pretty much. Leave original drive alone for a couple of weeks. I'm not as familiar with WD as Seagate but they have good tools on their website to "wizard" you through all of this. Even works within Windows and tells you when to connect and disconnect your new drive. Almost idiot proof.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en


Keep backup drive at work or a mate or relatives' house.

Sure RAID1 mirroring is useful (use drives from 2 different batches) but prioritise backup to external drive first. Most data loss is due to user stupidity, theft, virus or OS shitting itself. RAID1 won't help with that.

Avoid gparted unless you know what you are doing and have backed up. It can sometimes render the OS unbootable.