Hard Drive Dilemma!

I have a 500 Gig SATA drive that I just bought along with an old 80 GIG IDE drive (installed) and they cannot be mixed to run RAID. Would you return the 500 gig and but two smaller SATA one's or just use that drive for media and buy to smaller drives? I am almost broke after this new system build.

C2 Duo 6600, Asus P5W Dx, Corsair 2 DDR 800.

I would keep what you have. Use the 500GB drive, partition it into 2 partitions, one ~60-80GB and the other with whats left. Install Windows on the 60gb partition and store your data on the other partition. Then use the 80GB for more storage and pagefile.

bchur83 said:

I would keep what you have. Use the 500GB drive, partition it into 2 partitions, one ~60-80GB and the other with whats left. Install Windows on the 60gb partition and store your data on the other partition. Then use the 80GB for more storage and pagefile.

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How is thi done if you don't mind I am only a rookie?

When you install windows, when it askes what drive you want to install on, select the 500GB one and tell it to partition into a 60-80GB size. Leave the rest alone until after Windows is installed. Once you isntall windows on it, go into the Computer Management and Disk Manager and partition the remaining size as a primary partition. Move the Pagefile to the 80GB one via the System control panel.

bchur83 said:

When you install windows, when it askes what drive you want to install on, select the 500GB one and tell it to partition into a 60-80GB size. Leave the rest alone until after Windows is installed. Once you isntall windows on it, go into the Computer Management and Disk Manager and partition the remaining size as a primary partition. Move the Pagefile to the 80GB one via the System control panel.

Click to expand...

Can you run RAID then or does it matter?

duffer, forget RAID, you cannot set up an array with the two drives you have. Just use the 500.

If you absolutely must have a RAID array, then bring back the 500 and get two smaller SATA drives. You will not be able to put the 80 GB drive into the array if you use Matrix RAID, so just use it as an extra storage drive.

Not to steal someone else thread, but i am running to 80 sata drives in raid, i have 25 gigs for windows, can i put the page file on the rest.

I'd get a 74GB Raptor and set it as your boot drive for OS and programs, then put all your other data on the 500GB. Use the 80GB drive to backup important data.

Just my preference. Over the years I've built up a collection of music, pictures, digital video, etc. When I only had one drive, the OS, programs, and data had to go on one drive. Everytime I needed to reinstall windows for whatever reason, I'd have to go through a time consuming backup process. With seperate boot and data drives, I can mess with the OS drive as much as I want and the data drive stays safe and untouched.