Running 2 Hard Drives

[dannol]

Hi,

I have 2 Hard Drives in my computer. My main one is a Maxtor 250GB SATAII 16Mb Buffer HDD. My second is a Maxtor 120GB ATA HDD (I think 4Mb Buffer).

I currently have Win XP installed and all my programs on my 250GB SATAII HDD.
My other drive is just used for storing backups, but I am thinking of transfering all those backups to another, slower drive which won't be used very often.

I am just wondering what the best setup is to have. I am going to reformat both drives soon and reinstall my OS. Which drive is it best to install my OS onto? (I am going to be dual-booting XP and Vista Ult.) Which drive should I install my programs onto?

I am just trying to work out what is the quickest way to run an OS and my programs, as I run some quite intense programs such as Maya, Photoshop and Pinnacle Studio.

I hope you understand my question,
Thanks, Dan.

[jbennet]

vista eats hard drive space for breakfast. Vista + office + updates etc.... will come to nearly 25gb

[bobbyraw]

install in the 250, use the 120G for backup, if you have a slower HDD connect it and us that too, as for the transfer process you can do it from within windows, (Prefferable in safe mode) i aslo suggest you do a copy instead of a move. you can also go the route of using the cd that came with the HDD to move your files to the other drive.

as for the heavy programs you are going to run HDD space is not your MAJOR concern, processor and memory power are, plus display setting,( i would assume you have a good display already)

here is the step suggestion, backup any thing you need from current operating system, to the 120G drive, then shut down, remove the 120G HDD, then format the 250G, install your operating systems XP+Vista. shutdown, connect the 120G, boot to XP, copy what you need from the 120G to a folder on the 250G then use computer management> disk management to format the 120G when thats done copy back the fold to the 120G that was copied to the 250G

[dannol]

Thanks very mcuh, bobbyraw.

I'll give that a go soon.

I'll just post my system specs quickly. They're not very good at the moment, but I am upgrading my motherboard at christmas (tomorrow!) and my processor + graphics in a few days time. :)

Current Specs:
650watt Jeantech PSU
250GB SATAII HDD
120GB ATA HDD
Pentium D 3ghz 830 Processor
ASRock 775 Dual-VSTA Motherboard
nVidia 8600GT 512MB Graphics

New Specs:
650watt Jeantech PSU
250GB SATAII HDD
120GB ATA HDD
Intel Quad Core Q6600 95watt G0 Stepping Processor
XFX S775 nForce 680i LT SLI Motherboard
nVidia 8600GT 512MB Graphics
Will also buy another nVidia 8600GT 512MB soon and SLi them.

I'll get back to you guys in a few days to let you know how I get on.