What hard drive to use?

[r_j_k_p]

got the samsung hd501lj (500gb)
and the f1 750gb and 1tb edition.

now im doing a fresh format and reinstallation of the OS (vista premium 64 bit).

what i want to know is what hard drive to use the OS for and what hard drive to use for applications/games etc.
(the 1tb hard drive is solely going to be used as a storage device)

so that leaves the 750gb and the 500gb. From what i know they both run pretty well so it shouldn't really matter what hard drive the OS is on, but i was wondering:

1, If i installed the OS on the 500gb hdd, and then all applications and games on the 750gb. Would that be quicker than most other options.
i kind of didnt want to do this as there would be alot of wasted space on my 500gb hdd.
I was wondering if maybe a partition on the 500gb would do anything?




Many Thanks

[staffsMike]

I would put the OS and applications on the 500GB. The other 2 can then be storage.

[r_j_k_p]

thats what my current setup is atm, but i wanted something faster...
i would have thought putting apps and games on another hard drive would increase performance?

[staffsMike]

I doubt it would be a massive gain tbh. you could get another 500 and raid 0 them, that would certainly give you a boost or partition the drive to suit your needs perhaps.

I just could justify having a 500GB for an OS and 750GB for apps as that is a hell of a lot of wasted space which by your own rules and requirements you couldn't put much else on lol

[GoNz0]

search the forum for zaks partition theory, it should help.

[Lourdes]

The 1TB disk ues 334GB platters and is notably faster than the other two which use 250GB ones, although the 750GB F1 is still faster than the HD501LJ by a good 15%+.

[hermeticist]

As Lourdes says, the 1TB F1 would be my choice, it would be a shame to relegate that for storage - unless you want very quick access for storage - It`s by far the fastest drive.

[r_j_k_p]

so would you have the OS or the apps and games on the 1tb?

[shaithis]

Put your swapfile on the drive that's accessed the least as well.

[r_j_k_p]

swapfile :S?

[Mblaster]

swapfile :S?

AKA Pagefile or the space allocated on the hard disk for virtual memory.

Paging - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I'd partition the 1tb disk and use that for the OS and games, since it's the fastest disk. Also see Zak's partition theory as someone already mentioned to get the most from the disk.

[r_j_k_p]

so how much should i partition the drive to install the OS.
20gb?

[Vimeous]

750Gb for OS and system Apps
500Gb for Game Apps and general data
1Tb partitioned in 1: page file; in 2: Backup target and archival

The only test I've read so far with the F1's has the 750 out-performing the 1000 (CustomPC). Therefore I'm suggesting the most accessed files on that drive.
However the page file is best on a separate spindle as it's also accessed often and as the 1Tb is still damn quick it's ideal just there.
Because the 1Tb is fast and big it's an ideal target to backup your other drives to. Throw in compression and encryption and it should all fit and be nice and secure. It's also accessed rarely giving the page file all the spindle time it needs.
As for the 500Gb. It's a good drive and ideal for general use such as game installs and photo archival.

[Dreaming]

Personally for simplicity / practicalities stake, I would partition as so:

500gb disc
35gb - OS (and core / system apps, this can be smaller if you like, but you've got plenty of space)
100gb - Games (makes them run fast )
Rest - etc. [applications, downloads, documents, you name it] (on mine I have a 30gb docs partition too, but only because that's mirrored and can be backed up very easily by just copying a whole partition)

750gb disc / 1000tb disc - both just pure storage..

It's inevitable you will end up upgrading, and it will be the 500gb disc that would have to go. You could get a new 1tb disc, mirror the data from the 750 to the 1tb and then from the 500 to the 750 and be good to go.

Performance will be good in most situations, formatting like above will help. I would also recommend purchasing diskeeper (only about £20), I don't know what version they're on now, but it's an intelligent background defragmenter that moves frequently accessed files to the faster parts of the disk and so on.

[Lourdes]

750Gb for OS and system Apps
500Gb for Game Apps and general data
1Tb partitioned in 1: page file; in 2: Backup target and archival

The only test I've read so far with the F1's has the 750 out-performing the 1000 (CustomPC). Therefore I'm suggesting the most accessed files on that drive.
However the page file is best on a separate spindle as it's also accessed often and as the 1Tb is still damn quick it's ideal just there.
Because the 1Tb is fast and big it's an ideal target to backup your other drives to. Throw in compression and encryption and it should all fit and be nice and secure. It's also accessed rarely giving the page file all the spindle time it needs.
As for the 500Gb. It's a good drive and ideal for general use such as game installs and photo archival.

The 1TB is faster, much denser platters.

And compression?! Drive compression is the most pointless feature around.

[Vimeous]

The 1TB is faster, much denser platters.

And compression?! Drive compression is the most pointless feature around.

I will re-read the article before commenting on speed. However from memory the only drive to produce an overall performance faster than a Raptor X was the 750Gb variant of the F1. TBC

You will notice I mentioned compression alongside backup. By this I am referring to the process of data compression as part of a backup process such as that used to tape.
I am not referring to live data compression on hard drives which sigificantly slows data access although is reasonable for data archival.
My appologies for not explaining this more fully.