Installed a 2nd HD but stuck on what partation to use?

Hi
Just installed a 2nd Maxtor 200GB HD as i want to use it for capturing from my Camcorder. At present I have a 120GB HD that is NFTS and its not partitioned or anything. What i have done with the new one is put it as the Primary Slave (on the same ide lead as the 120gb) my PC has recognised it but do i now give it a Letter (ie my other HD is 'C') and also when i go into Disc managment its asking me to Format it but i dont understand all these terms :confused: ie Primary, Extended, Basic!
Plz Help :) ..Remember its only for Capturing from my Non linear Camcorder!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wannabgeek

Primary, Extended, Basic!

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(From a Windows perspective...)
Primary partitions can hold a single drive letter/area, and can be bootable. So they are good for the OS!
Extended partitions can hold multiple drive letters/areas, but aren't bootable. So they are good for data, split into several areas if desired, to aid organisation.
Basic means "not dynamic". Dynamic disks are more complicated setups, e.g several disks in RAID configuration. You don't need to worry about those.

Just set up the new drive as a Basic, Extended partition, allocating all the space to one drive letter (D: or whatever takes your fancy.) Use the NTFS file system. (*)

This is where you find out that Windows has made your CD drive D: and things get untidy. You can just accept things as they are, or take control while you're in Disk Management. You could make the optical drive Z: to tuck it neatly out of the way. Or make it R: (for Reader or ROM) or W: (for Writer). Again, choose whatever works for you. Then you can go back and change the drive letter of the disk you just formatted.


This link might help.

(*) EDIT> Setting up the drive is a 3 step process:
1) Create extended partition.
2) Create logical drive (letter)
3) Format the logical drive.

When formatting, you are asked if you want to do a quick format or not. If you are just experimenting, use the quick option. A full format can take a loooong time. But once you're decided on your setup, do the proper format. This will intitialise the data area properly while scanning for defects, so it is "a good thing."