SOLVED Adding additional HDD

Gh0sT-NoVa · Apr 29, 2014

This could be a very " noob " question ,at first I thought adding additional HDD will be just plug and play, but I went and check online. There are articles on How to Do It , but they are rather old , back in Windows 98 , 2000 and XP ones.

Two things Im unsure of when installing additional new HDD.
After installing it into my system, will I need to do any settings at the BIOS ? What I read is if installed properly the BIOS will able to read your new HDD at least , then there's something about Primary then being Master/Slave then Secondary Master and Slave...this really confuses me , should I bother wit this ?

Another thing , many of the articles I read kept mentioning that I should format my new HDD before using....must I ? Where do I do this , at Disk Management ?

PS : The new HDD Im adding will ONLY be for all my games , nothing else.
My OS is on another HDD my first , this will be my second now.

Automata · Apr 29, 2014

Master/Slave settings haven't been a thing since IDE. SATA does not have this. The only BIOS setting you may have to change is the boot order. Make sure your existing drive is still first so the OS loads correctly. It will still work with the wrong order, but this makes sure you won't run into any issues.

Once the OS is up and running, you will need to format the drive using Disk Management before using it, yes.

Gh0sT-NoVa · Apr 29, 2014

thideras said:
Master/Slave settings haven't been a thing since IDE. SATA does not have this. The only BIOS setting you may have to change is the boot order. Make sure your existing drive is still first so the OS loads correctly. It will still work with the wrong order, but this makes sure you won't run into any issues.

Once the OS is up and running, you will need to format the drive using Disk Management before using it, yes.

I see ok , that basically not much problem then.
Will the format be long or be rather quick ??
Any reasons to it why I need to format ?

EarthDog · Apr 29, 2014

A regular format is long. A quick format, like the namesake describes, is not. I believe thideras already alluded to why you need to format it (so it will work).

Automata · Apr 29, 2014

Gh0sT-NoVa said:
I see ok , that basically not much problem then.
Will the format be long or be rather quick ??
Any reasons to it why I need to format ?

Do a quick format. No reason to do a long one.

A format is required because the disk will have nothing on it when it arrives. The format puts a file system on the disk, which allows the operating system to manage files on it.

Gh0sT-NoVa · Apr 29, 2014

thideras said:
Do a quick format. No reason to do a long one.

A format is required because the disk will have nothing on it when it arrives. The format puts a file system on the disk, which allows the operating system to manage files on it.

I see , tks for the explanation. Well my HDD arrives 2morrow , will have it install during Thursday , will have to leave this thread active ATM , just in case if I ran into any problems. But I doubt It.

EDIT : Hey guys , so I got my HDD yesterday, installed it into my system and everything seems to run fine so far. I've download 1 game for now into the new HDD to test it out , works fine so far.
Though Im curious , what do you guys usually do to test out a new HDD you just installed ? To make sure everything is in proper working order.
Also , does connecting to SATA II and SATA III have any big difference ?? I have it connected to SATA III , all I know II is 3GB/s and III is 6GB/s also we will need a 6GB/s SATA Cable to run at 6GB/s.
Im using Bitfenix's Alchemy SATA Cable , will manufacturer tend to false advertise SATA cables being a 3GB/s and they advertise it as 6GB/s instead ?

wingman99 · May 4, 2014

Standard HDDs only get up to 100MB/s for data, so you can connect it to any port and it will perform at it's max speed.

Gh0sT-NoVa · May 4, 2014

wingman99 said:
Standard HDDs only get up to 100MB/s for data, so you can connect it to any port and it will perform at it's max speed.

Really ?? So even SATA II and SATA III doesn't make any difference ?
Well I tried , yeah it's about 100 - 110 Mb/s or so.
But W.D rated 130 Mb/s max , how you even achieve that ?
How much are SSD btw Im curious.

wingman99 · May 4, 2014

Gh0sT-NoVa said:
Really ?? So even SATA II and SATA III doesn't make any difference ?
Well I tried , yeah it's about 100 - 110 Mb/s or so.
But W.D rated 130 Mb/s max , how you even achieve that ?
How much are SSD btw Im curious.

SATA II is 300 MB/s SATA III is 600 MB/S, new SSDs Average 550MB/S

With a hard drive the data runs fastest on the outer edge of the disc because it's spinning fastest. So with little amount of data on the disc you should be able to hit the max speed.

There is a small amount of memory on HDD and it will Buffer fast like SATA 1 150 MB/S

Gh0sT-NoVa · May 4, 2014

wingman99 said:
SATA II is 300 MB/s SATA III is 600 MB/S, new SSDs Average 550MB/S

With a hard drive the data runs fastest on the outer edge of the disc because it's spinning fastest. So with little amount of data on the disc you should be able to hit the max speed.

There is a small amount of memory on HDD and it will Buffer fast like SATA 1 150 MB/S

Wao...I felt like such a huge idiot thinking I will always need SATA III lol...so basically SATA III it's more for SSD I see...
I should have done some research on this more lol , tks for the info really

Do you have any experience with W.D Black vs , Blue vs VelociRaptor
On paper, WD Black does seem slightly faster but exactly how much IRL in seconds Im not sure.
Specially VelociRaptor it seems amazingly faster

EarthDog · May 4, 2014

Plenty of reviews out there!

Some of the fastest hdd are now easily over 100mb.. I think the caviar black is even, as well as the raptor... Raptor hits over 200mb even.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5729/western-digital-velociraptor-1tb-wd1000dhtz-review/2

Gh0sT-NoVa · May 4, 2014

EarthDog said:
Plenty of reviews out there!

Some of the fastest hdd are now easily over 100mb.. I think the caviar black is even, as well as the raptor... Raptor hits over 200mb even.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/5729/western-digital-velociraptor-1tb-wd1000dhtz-review/2

The " Sequential Write and Read " it's the one that we transfer file from one place to another in the HDD right ?

I barely understands what Im looking at lol ! :shock:

Even after reading it lol.
Want to be sure , the SSD used in this review, it's only 3GB/s right least it's written there and it's already pretty fast already even beating the VelociRaptor
If that's the case a 6GB/s will be enven faster :shock:

Technology can be scary sometimes :chair:

MisterEd · May 4, 2014

Gh0sT-NoVa said:
The " Sequential Write and Read " it's the one that we transfer file from one place to another in the HDD right ?

I barely understands what Im looking at lol !
Even after reading it lol.
Want to be sure , the SSD used in this review, it's only 3GB/s right least it's written there and it's already pretty fast already even beating the VelociRaptor
If that's the case a 6GB/s will be enven faster Technology can be scary sometimes

Don't get caught up in the speed of the interface. Drive normally don't come close to those speeds.

There are 3 SATA interface speeds. They are the maximum transfer speeds from the drives's internal memory buffer to the SATA interface.
SATA 1.0 = 1.5 Gbits/sec (150 MBytes/sec)
SATA 2.0 = 3 Gbits/sec (300 MBytes/sec)
SATA 3.0 = 6 Gbits/sec (600 MBytes/sec)

The most important speed is the transfer rate from the buffer to the drive itself. This is less than the interface speeds. No matter how fast the interface speeds you are always limited by how fast the data can be transferred to and from the drive itself.

A mecahanical hard drive is limited by many factors. A few examples are:
The head has to move in and out to the selected track. The drive must than wait for the spinning platter to move the selected data underneath the head. The rotational speed is very important also. Generally the faster the rotational speed the faster the drive can transfer data to and from the drive.

In the examples below notice how the SATA 3.0 drive's maximum transfer rate (126 Mbytes/sec) is still less that the SATA 1.0 interface speed (150 MBytes/second).

===========================================
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX (1TB)
Buffer to host SATA = 6 Gbits/sec (600 MBytes/sec)
Host to/from drive (sustained) = 126 Mbytes/sec
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS (750GB)
Buffer to host SATA = 3 Gbits/sec (300 MBytes/sec)
Host to/from drive (sustained) = 125 Mbytes/sec
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3300620AS (300GB)
Buffer to host SATA = 3 Gbits/sec (300 MBytes/sec)
Host to/from drive (sustained) = 72 Mbytes/sec
===========================================

A site had sequential read/write tests for hard drives.
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB read/write = 131/130 MBytes/sec
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB read/write = 133/133 MBytes/sec

SSDs can do even better because they do not have the mechanical limitations of hard drives.
I saw a speed test where the popular Samsung 840 EV0 256GB was tested.
The read/write speeds were 500/300 MBytes/sec

wingman99 · May 5, 2014

Here is a picture of the speed of a Samsung 840 EVO SSD in the link.

View attachment 143587

Gh0sT-NoVa · May 5, 2014

MisterEd said:
Don't get caught up in the speed of the interface. Drive normally don't come close to those speeds.

There are 3 SATA interface speeds. They are the maximum transfer speeds from the drives's internal memory buffer to the SATA interface.
SATA 1.0 = 1.5 Gbits/sec (150 MBytes/sec)
SATA 2.0 = 3 Gbits/sec (300 MBytes/sec)
SATA 3.0 = 6 Gbits/sec (600 MBytes/sec)

The most important speed is the transfer rate from the buffer to the drive itself. This is less than the interface speeds. No matter how fast the interface speeds you are always limited by how fast the data can be transferred to and from the drive itself.

A mecahanical hard drive is limited by many factors. A few examples are:
The head has to move in and out to the selected track. The drive must than wait for the spinning platter to move the selected data underneath the head. The rotational speed is very important also. Generally the faster the rotational speed the faster the drive can transfer data to and from the drive.

In the examples below notice how the SATA 3.0 drive's maximum transfer rate (126 Mbytes/sec) is still less that the SATA 1.0 interface speed (150 MBytes/second).

===========================================
Western Digital Caviar Blue WD10EALX (1TB)
Buffer to host SATA = 6 Gbits/sec (600 MBytes/sec)
Host to/from drive (sustained) = 126 Mbytes/sec
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST3750528AS (750GB)
Buffer to host SATA = 3 Gbits/sec (300 MBytes/sec)
Host to/from drive (sustained) = 125 Mbytes/sec
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3300620AS (300GB)
Buffer to host SATA = 3 Gbits/sec (300 MBytes/sec)
Host to/from drive (sustained) = 72 Mbytes/sec
===========================================

A site had sequential read/write tests for hard drives.
Western Digital Caviar Blue 1TB read/write = 131/130 MBytes/sec
Western Digital Caviar Black 2TB read/write = 133/133 MBytes/sec

SSDs can do even better because they do not have the mechanical limitations of hard drives.
I saw a speed test where the popular Samsung 840 EV0 256GB was tested.
The read/write speeds were 500/300 MBytes/sec

I can't argue the fact SSD is truly the best now. But still even after price drop it's too expensive for me. Unless just to use for OS boot up , but I find it isn't worth it for now.
Hopefully in future I can finally enjoy a taste of playing games in SSD lol , but there definitely be something faster than SSD then if so...

EarthDog · May 5, 2014

There wasn't any arguing on the subject for years. Prices now are better than they have ever been as well.

There is always something faster around the corner... welcome to being a PC enthusiast.

Gh0sT-NoVa · May 5, 2014

EarthDog said:
There wasn't any arguing on the subject for years. Prices now are better than they have ever been as well.

There is always something faster around the corner... welcome to being a PC enthusiast.

I mean just as an expression lol , O Im an Enthusiast alright , but I do't have the cash lol...but within less than a Year of my current PC , I've already swap out parts enough to build another brand new PC.....I must stop this addiction it's so bad to my life and future lol :bang head

EarthDog · May 5, 2014

and instead of swapping out other parts, maybe get your self an SSD... looking forward to THAT thread... let me tell ya...

Gh0sT-NoVa · May 5, 2014

EarthDog said:
and instead of swapping out other parts, maybe get your self an SSD... looking forward to THAT thread... let me tell ya...

Well even so I think the most I get be only a 120GB for my OS , I will consider it , maybe somewhere when I plan to change out my Mobo and new CPU since my current Windows 7 is OEM....so you know...no matter what at that time I definitely have to format and re-install Windows again , that might be the best time to install a SSD if I plan to

Is there actually someone rich enough to get 1 TB for all their games lol ?? I have quite a library of games thus why I had to get another 1TB HDD lol

But...sadly AMD's not planning on releasing anymore CPU at the moment....neither Intel's CPU is getting any huge performance boost from the last.....except the new Chipsets on their Mobos pack lot more new features which I don't think have much of an affect for a gamer like me :bang head

Speaking of re-format and re-installing OS , if I were now to format my OS section of the partition , and re-install the OS again , will my games still run fine after so ? Of course I will have to re-install back all my Drivers , Direct-X and such , I always worry it will cause some complication by doing so.
But I haven't experience it before though , back then I always format the entire PC , such a pain to install EVERYTHING again...

EarthDog · May 5, 2014

Most people go 120/256GB... The 120 is plenty for an OS and a few games.

Speaking of re-format and re-installing OS , if I were now to format my OS section of the partition , and re-install the OS again , will my games still run fine after so ? Of course I will have to re-install back all my Drivers , Direct-X and such , I always worry it will cause some complication by doing so.
But I haven't experience it before though , back then I always format the entire PC , such a pain to install EVERYTHING again...

You would need to reinstall the games. THAT said, if you point the install path to where it currently is, it will simply verify the installation (take a lot less time) and will re associate the shortcuts and registry entries.

SOLVED Adding additional HDD

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