need some views from the pro's about HDD

[Ishtim]

Over the last 15 years I have owned many WD drives when 3GB Caviar was the BOMB! NEVER a problem. (luck? )

At work our PC builder used Maxtor (when 40 GB was mainstream) and they dropped like flies. As of recent (last year or so) at work we have had 2 drives bomb... both Maxtor.

Another note, Toshiba drives I have never had a problem with but there is no software suppot (i.e. no low level format, etc..)

[jasperchc]

guys, i have a problem with attaching a second PATA HDD (data only, no OS) to my system. My OS (winxp) is installed on the SATA HDD, but when i tried to attach the PATA HDD to the IDE, my system will give the below error message during bootup,

"NTLDR is missing..."
"Please pres ctrl-atl-del to restart"

I tried changing the pin at the PATA hdd to master, slave, select, all to no effect. I went into bios as well and change all the setting that i think need changing, and to no avail as well. I was able to set up the SATA and PATA drive to work togather a few years back, but now i cant, what did i do wrong? did i miss out on something?

[1031982]

Sounds like the PATA has an active partition. That would make it look for the NT Loader there first. You just have to mark is as inactive. Using something like Partition Magic would take care of it quickly.

[Adrian Wong]

Yeah, alternatively, go into the BIOS and select to boot up using your first hard drive. Then make the second drive inactive in Windows.

[SkylineRemix]

Just another question, how much would i need to partiton for windows XP?

I have 2 drives, one 250GB and 500GB. 250GB will be the OS drive. I'll install a copy of Windows in 500GB just in case if the 250 doesn't work (so that at least i could save my files). What would be more recommendable? will 10GB be enough?

[1031982]

Originally Posted by SkylineRemix

Just another question, how much would i need to partiton for windows XP?

I have 2 drives, one 250GB and 500GB. 250GB will be the OS drive. I'll install a copy of Windows in 500GB just in case if the 250 doesn't work (so that at least i could save my files). What would be more recommendable? will 10GB be enough?

If you want all your programs on the XP partition as well, then I would think about 150 to 200GB would work just fine. I have a 74GB Raptor I use for Windows, and I don't have an issue with it's space.

[Adrian Wong]

Yeah, 150GB or so will do just fine but it really depends on what you want to install. My Windows Vista installation alone takes up 6GB.

[SkylineRemix]

erm... that partition for 500GB is just installing windows only lah... neccesary to put till 150GB meh?
I still have the default XP that i'll be using in the 250GB oh...

[Adrian Wong]

Originally Posted by SkylineRemix

erm... that partition for 500GB is just installing windows only lah... neccesary to put till 150GB meh?
I still have the default XP that i'll be using in the 250GB oh...

That's the thing.. It depends on what you intend to install.

The best person to decide how much space you want to allocate is you.

[1031982]

Originally Posted by Adrian Wong

That's the thing.. It depends on what you intend to install.

The best person to decide how much space you want to allocate is you.

And that's why when making a suggestion I prefer to know what they are going to do with the HDD. If I don't know, I take the better safe then sorry approach. For me, I could work with a Windows partition of about 50GB total and be good for a LONG time. I have a data drive for non programs. Documents, music, ect all go there. If someone said they wanted to play a lot of new games, I would say give Windows about 150-200GB. It will give enough space for “full” installs of games and do some DTP or video editing, have all the applications needed for other stuff, and you don't have to worry about running out of space for a while. Just games, about 100-150. Just video editing, I would say about 150 flat. Just basic usage (Office suite, Internet, and some picture stuff) I would say about 75GB with another drive for storage if needed.
Each time it changed, because the needs are different. These are rough estimates to. Overall, if I can I take the time to learn about the persons usual habits. Some people just remove a game after playing it, so I would suggest a smaller drive probably. Very dependent on usage.