Hard Drive setup primer

jkipk

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OK so I'm putting together a barebones system, nothing special (amd 1.2g) but dang cheap, and I'm playing around to learn before I spend a lot. What I'm looking for is advice on a non-RAID hd setup. I've purchased a 60g WD 7200 ata 100, and am to believe that adding another hd, and putting a pagefile at the front of it would be a good thing. Any comments on 1 hd vs 2, partition setup, optimal size for the second hd (I was thinking 40g, with a small partition for pagefile and then a larger one for general storage), and/or what to put where within the partitions? I'll be running xp home, mostly for internet access (att cable modem), but I'm an amateur photographer just getting into digital photography and look to play with graphic applications more and more. Thanks in advance for any comments or suggestions.

kip
 
can put in a second drive all is fine.... if want to speed up paging then load it with ram instead (which is not too expensive and can make overall performance better) that will cut down on overall paging all together the drive is good, id personally spend money on ram before the second drive to control paging myself
 
thanks for the reply. I'm still pretty new at this large overhead stuff, I'm used to squeezing the most out of underpowered equipt.!!! I plan to be using 1g pc133 sdram, and would happily forego adding a 2nd drive for the moment. I must admit I am a little confused about installing a pagefile in ram. In the old days the pagefile was used to augment ram, when there wasn't enough available, a poor man's ram on disk. Now I'll be dedicating ram in a pagefile for when I don't have enough ram !?! oh well, I'm giving myself enough of a headache for one night. thanks again

kip
 
I think what spikemic is trying to say is that you get enough ram you won't really have to worry about paging, and you should be fine with 1gb or ram. You can set XP to not page at all if you want and this will increase performance.
 
yes enough ram paging is kept to a minimum the page file will still be there on drive but not used as much with lots-o-ram...
 
Originally posted by jumpy
I think what spikemic is trying to say is that you get enough ram you won't really have to worry about paging, and you should be fine with 1gb or ram. You can set XP to not page at all if you want and this will increase performance.

If he is a photographer he is probably going to be using Photoshop. This applicataion requires a paging file in order to run.
 
True, getting rid of the pagefile completely wouldnt be the best of ideas if you were photo editing. Though Xp pagefile management is fairly efficient, the best thing you could do would to put your pagefile on a separate disk.
 
right. Only now I have a new question. Here's what I'm planning:

ide ch. 1 primary=60g wd 7200, 3 partitions, xphome on 1st part.
ide ch. 1 secondary=32x cdrom

ide ch. 2 primary=48/16/48 cdrw
ide ch. 2 secondary=40g hd, 2 partitions, pagefile on 1st part.

Is this the best setup? My cdrw manual says to install it on a secondary channel, and I would primarily be using the 60g and the cdrw (the cdrom I'm putting in just cause I have one sitting around, might use it some). I know that it's kind of splitting hairs, and that performance is not going to change by leaps and bounds regardless. Just wondering what is the "standard" setup?

thanks for all of your replies,

kip

ps great board I may have to look for an avatar!!!
 
My suggestion would be to put the two hdd's on one channel and the cd-rom and cd-rw on the other. When you put an optical drive on the same channel as a hdd it can limit your hdd speeds and you might run into problems.
jumpy
 
Yep, both hdd:s on the primary channel. CD and CDRW on the secondary.
 
thanks guys. That's what I would do too, but was fooled by the instructions with the cdrw to put it on a second channel. Sure makes it easier to plug in, too (doh). I just checked fed ex tracking, and my barebones box was loaded onto a local truck for delivery at 4:30 pm (it's 6pm now) so if I'm not booting up tonite, I should be by tomorrow!!!

ps it's a pc chips mobo/amd 1.2g combo in a box w/ a 420w power supply, onboard ac 97 audio/onboard 128bit 64mb video ($99 + 39 shipping = $138)

I bought a io magic 48/16/48 cdrw for $29 after rebate
a wd 60g 7200rpm hd for $59 after rebate
a nec 1.44 floppy for 12.50 at the computer surplus store (new)
and 256mb of pc133 ram for 12.99 after rebate (I've got 128mb laying around for 384 total to start, enough for win98se. I'll drop 2x 512pc133 in when I switch to xp home, after I get things up and running, and another paycheck in me!)
Still got to pick up a 40g hd (waiting for the right price!)

adds up to $251. Not a great box but haven't seen a better price (by a long shot) anywhere

kip
 

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