help with hard drives plz!!

jasonbourne · Sep 20, 2005, 08:46 PM

i have a 80 gb hard drive and a 40 gb , i moved my page file to my 40 gb and im running windows on my 80 gb .i still have loads of free space on both hard drives ,should i have some page file on my 80gb hard drive as well? should i install my games on my 40 gb ???is it better to leave windows running in one hard drive and games on the other one???

swimtech · Sep 20, 2005, 10:18 PM

I did some reading here about setting up multiple hard drives from Judas, PangingJr., and others - long story short...

Leave your second 40g drive configured as is with the paging file and so forth, and use that 40g drive for your downloads and backups. Keep using the 80g for Windows, installed games and other applications. I would assume (?) it is the slower of the two drives as well.

Sounds like you've already set yourself up to balance the mechanical load on the drives and access of the paging file during gaming and application execution pretty well...

PangingJr · Sep 21, 2005, 05:54 AM

thanks for mentioning the names Swimtech.

and hi jasonbourne, you're not going to like my answer in general, so i'll give you the answer that gets you going with the setup you are having and please remind me if i forgot anything.

Most of the time the best paging file (PF) setting is "System managed" and/or by configuring the "Custom size" setting using the amount of PF space that offers by Windows. the pro/con for these two settings are minimal IMO. but most people (include myself) may want to use Custom size setting cause it may improve Windows boot speed since it can cut down the initialize time at the Windows boot up.

below PF setting is most likely to provide you some of performance gain for your Windows system,
and is apply to either both main hard drive and secondary hard drive are using same controller or using different controllers.

on the main hard drive (80 GB) that accommodates the Windows OS, set the system PF up using 'Custom size' settings..
like this.. Initial size = 1/4 to 1-1/2 times the amount of your RAM installed. Max size = 3 times RAM installed.

note-- sometimes the one in the Windows drive will be just a reserved and never be used, or has been equally used in some cases. but in all cases it's always best to have the PF space on the drive. If you have heard before (from anywhere) that your system does not need to have the PF exist in the C drive, that's another urban myth and please do not believe the suggestion.

and at the same time, set another PF on the secondary hard drive (40 GB), also using the Custom size settings. this second PF will have and be on its own hard drive's partition space. but, first and before you can have this PF you'll need to partition the hard drive, create a free hard drive space on a certain place (prefer front end of the hrad drive - when viewing the hard drive with most partitioning program or disk manager programs). the size of this partition is depending on the size of your preferred maximum PF size (plus around 300-500 MB unused space - if the PF will be set to 1024 MB, the size of the partition that you'll need to prepare would be 1024 + 300 MB). after you have the partition space, size this PF to Min=Max (1024/1024). and, if you add more hard drive to your system in future, create another PF on the third, fourth, and so on drives using the same setting and method as the second drive. Windows will continue to do whatever works best for the system virtual memory, it'll get to use the fastest ones. it's just that you have added more choices for it (them) to use and to choose from.

note-- please note that for the above Custom size settings, the Initial size of the PF setting determines fragmentation under normal use.
if you don't mind giving the hard drive space for setting up the PF, nor you don't have time to determine the best PF size (after all this is Only for saving hard drive space) you can choose to use the largest number (which is the 1.5 times the amount of your RAM installed.)

as for which drive should be use for holding your application, programs/games files.
if the setup program or the program installer provides you with an custom install option, then i'd say it makes no difference in most of cases where you want the files to be installed. there are not so many but they do exist that the best place for program to be installed is C drive. but then you will know when installing or using them, then all you have to do is to remove them and reinstall them to the C drive. in case you have to do this do not worry about the Windows registry, Windows will reset them.

swimtech · Sep 21, 2005, 01:03 PM

I'll have to remember that one, some Paging File space on the C: drive with Windows is best then - thanks!

jasonbourne · Sep 21, 2005, 03:36 PM

ok thanks alot guys!!

Sep 20, 2005, 08:46 PM	#1
jasonbourne DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: great yarmouth uk Posts: 1,082 Rep Power: 0	help with hard drives plz!! i have a 80 gb hard drive and a 40 gb , i moved my page file to my 40 gb and im running windows on my 80 gb .i still have loads of free space on both hard drives ,should i have some page file on my 80gb hard drive as well? should i install my games on my 40 gb ???is it better to leave windows running in one hard drive and games on the other one??? __________________ http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...asonBourne.jpg

Sep 20, 2005, 10:18 PM	#2
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	I did some reading here about setting up multiple hard drives from Judas, PangingJr., and others - long story short... Leave your second 40g drive configured as is with the paging file and so forth, and use that 40g drive for your downloads and backups. Keep using the 80g for Windows, installed games and other applications. I would assume (?) it is the slower of the two drives as well. Sounds like you've already set yourself up to balance the mechanical load on the drives and access of the paging file during gaming and application execution pretty well... __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Sep 21, 2005, 05:54 AM	#3
PangingJr Member Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 5,989 Rep Power: 71	thanks for mentioning the names Swimtech. and hi jasonbourne, you're not going to like my answer in general, so i'll give you the answer that gets you going with the setup you are having and please remind me if i forgot anything. Most of the time the best paging file (PF) setting is "System managed" and/or by configuring the "Custom size" setting using the amount of PF space that offers by Windows. the pro/con for these two settings are minimal IMO. but most people (include myself) may want to use Custom size setting cause it may improve Windows boot speed since it can cut down the initialize time at the Windows boot up. below PF setting is most likely to provide you some of performance gain for your Windows system, and is apply to either both main hard drive and secondary hard drive are using same controller or using different controllers. on the main hard drive (80 GB) that accommodates the Windows OS, set the system PF up using 'Custom size' settings.. like this.. Initial size = 1/4 to 1-1/2 times the amount of your RAM installed. Max size = 3 times RAM installed. note-- sometimes the one in the Windows drive will be just a reserved and never be used, or has been equally used in some cases. but in all cases it's always best to have the PF space on the drive. If you have heard before (from anywhere) that your system does not need to have the PF exist in the C drive, that's another urban myth and please do not believe the suggestion. and at the same time, set another PF on the secondary hard drive (40 GB), also using the Custom size settings. this second PF will have and be on its own hard drive's partition space. but, first and before you can have this PF you'll need to partition the hard drive, create a free hard drive space on a certain place (prefer front end of the hrad drive - when viewing the hard drive with most partitioning program or disk manager programs). the size of this partition is depending on the size of your preferred maximum PF size (plus around 300-500 MB unused space - if the PF will be set to 1024 MB, the size of the partition that you'll need to prepare would be 1024 + 300 MB). after you have the partition space, size this PF to Min=Max (1024/1024). and, if you add more hard drive to your system in future, create another PF on the third, fourth, and so on drives using the same setting and method as the second drive. Windows will continue to do whatever works best for the system virtual memory, it'll get to use the fastest ones. it's just that you have added more choices for it (them) to use and to choose from. note-- please note that for the above Custom size settings, the Initial size of the PF setting determines fragmentation under normal use. if you don't mind giving the hard drive space for setting up the PF, nor you don't have time to determine the best PF size (after all this is Only for saving hard drive space) you can choose to use the largest number (which is the 1.5 times the amount of your RAM installed.) as for which drive should be use for holding your application, programs/games files. if the setup program or the program installer provides you with an custom install option, then i'd say it makes no difference in most of cases where you want the files to be installed. there are not so many but they do exist that the best place for program to be installed is C drive. but then you will know when installing or using them, then all you have to do is to remove them and reinstall them to the C drive. in case you have to do this do not worry about the Windows registry, Windows will reset them. Last edited by PangingJr; Sep 21, 2005 at 08:07 AM.

Sep 21, 2005, 01:03 PM	#4
swimtech HardwareHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: North Carolina Posts: 4,040 Rep Power: 124 System Specs	I'll have to remember that one, some Paging File space on the C: drive with Windows is best then - thanks! __________________ It's not so much getting your way that matters or not - what matters is how you go about getting it.

Sep 21, 2005, 03:36 PM	Thread Starter #5
jasonbourne DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: great yarmouth uk Posts: 1,082 Rep Power: 0	ok thanks alot guys!! __________________ http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y28...asonBourne.jpg