2 Hard drives

[dreyfus]

I have a 400mz k6-2 PC which came with a 4gb HD I have just fitted a 20 gb hd. The 20gb is set as master with the os on it W98se,?? I have been advised to use the 4gb as master with the os on it and use the bigger disk for storage,I only use the pc for general stuff at home, I'm a 44ya new'boy' at this stuff and would like general advice pls,should I format 1 or both discs, my pc seems to be faster running off the bigger drive.Also can I put a 128 dimms in with the 32 dimms it came with, I have done this, my pc recognises it all but will it use the full 160ram or run off the 128ram, My PC is 14 mths old, help gratefully appreciated.

[Reid]

I always go with the larger and faster drive as the C: drive. You will have more space for programs and the swap file, besides being faster. You could set up programs to use the D: drive for storing temp files, but possibly other than reducing C: drive fragmentation, it probably would not help performance.

If you see the correct memory total as the computer boots, it should be using it all.
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reido@my-deja.com

Friends don't let friends install Windows ME

[This message has been edited by Reid (edited 03-23-2001).]

[sleddog]

Definitely install the 20gb as C. Put the 4gb as master on the second IDE channel, not as slave to the 20gb. Make your CDROM slave on the second channel.

I also just at installed a 20gb (with Win2000). I partition it like this
:
Primary partition: 4gb (OS and programs)
Extended partition:
- Logical drive 1: 500mb (temp files, browser caches, etc.)
- Logical drive 2: 7.3gb (my data)
- Logical drive 3: 7.3gb (my data)

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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)

[dreyfus]

Thanks to sleddog and Reid for the advice, I,ll take it and keep the os on the big drv. Does a 20gig drv always show as 19.1.Think I'll partition it into 4 as suggested.Tried to copy the contents of C dr to D dr but get internal error warning after it has copied 1.18gb out of total of 1.38gb that I want to transfer in total, tried twice same prob, I'm using drive 2 drive software, any idea's please.

[sleddog]

Regarding drive size... the nothing wrong with the 19.1gb figure. As I understand it (admittedly not well) harddrive manufacturers calculate the space differently than does the Windows OS. 1gb=1000mb instead of 1gb=1024mb (? - that's open to correction).

On the copy errors... I'm not familiar with the software you're using. If you're in Windows (running on drive C) then perhaps it's having problems copying files that are in use? System files, or maybe the swap file?

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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)

[BigBlue66]

Hi,

By 'drive 2 drive' software, I assume that you're using the disk manager software that came with the 20gb harddrive? That software is usually trouble free, when copying the contents of one partition to another partition. Is that what you're doing, or are you trying to copy physically from one harddrive to another?

In either case, I would run some disk utilities on the target drive to make sure it's OK.

If you're not using the disk manager software, give it a try. Other than that, prior advice about trying to copy files in use is a good starting point. Note what with the DM software, the copying is done without going into the operating system. Just boot to the floppy disk, and you should find an option to copy partition to partition, or view the readme.txt file to find out for sure how to get to that option. Additionally, if you are indeed using the DM software, but from within Windows, you will no doubt get the error messages.

Post back with success stories, or more questions.

Good luck.

Big Blue 66


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You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you in a court of law.

[dreyfus]

This was my intention, to copy everything from C drv, which is unpartitioned, to D drv, then partition C drv into 4, then copy it all back, I have no experience of partitioning, so any advice would be welcome. The drive2drive software was a free trial download, today however I have got hold of partition magic 6.0 and norton ghost, never used em before so any advice as always gratefully received, Thanks so far,

Dreyfus

[sleddog]

Haven't used ghost, but I do use Partition Magic frequently (v. 4). There's a DOS-mode version included, a single executable called pqmagict.exe (least it was in v.4). Boot to a DOS prompt (not in Windows) and run pqmagict.exe. Then follow the instructions... pretty straightforward.


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sleddog
[sleddog.f2s.com] (http://www.sleddog.f2s.com)