Storage forum: Two Hard Drives, Now What?

"Where should I put files?"

Where you can find them.

"Should I keep XP on the 20GB and move all my data and programs to the 120GB? Or vice versa? Any ideas on this?"

I just did something similar. I used Ghost2002 to copy a system from one drive to another, removed the older slower drive as a backup and made the newer faster drive as the master and wher the OS is and files are. Much nicer and no big questions.

"One thing I will be doing is putting old Hi8 tapes through my camcorder (via firewire) so I can convert them to DVD. I would assume I am best off transferring these to the 120GB as it is faster and larger."

You'll answer this soon enough since for each 2 hour home movie (which is best limited to 1 hour, your choice), I see my temp workspace to be about 20 to 30 GB. This question will sort itself out as you will soon realise.

"But should I move anything off my old slower 20GB HD; would my system performance increase by moving EVERYTHING over to the new drive?"

Your choice. But what I did.

"Oh, and how would I do any of this? "

I used Ghost 2002. But the drive may have come with software and instructions to do this move. Try that.

Bob

"I will move everything over to the new drive, and then make it the Master. Is there a need to change anything in BIOS, or do I just switch the jumpers around and let the system boot up?"

Too dependent on the machine in question. The last time I did this, the BIOS settings were on AUTO and not even a jumper was moved because 80 conductor IDE cables use the drives in CABLE SELECT mode.

"As far as transferring data, the new drive is a Western Digital and came with Data Lifeguard Tools, which should do the trick, I believe."

I've used that. Seems to work for most.

"I will then use the old drive as my back-up drive. Is it okay to just leave the old drive in as a Slave, and back-up to that on occasion? Or is there a chance that if the system crashes, both drives could be obliterated?"

I removed the drive for various reasons.
- The drive was smaller and slower and created too many questions about where to store files.
- I didn't want to upgrade the power supply or worry about cooling issues.
- Yes. Data on writeable devices is at risk during any disaster.

Bob

And thanks for the tip about preferably limiting movie files to 1 hour."