¨whats thepoint of 2 harddrives?!

[please help me]

bought a new computer latley and since im not too great on em i had a relative install windows etc. he recommended that i installed windows on one harddrive and the other stuff on another so that if windows F**** up i still have programs and documents left. It sounded great at the moment so i told him to do it. Now all i get is trouble, stuff keep installing on the wrong one, stuff that i could run on the old computer wont run on the new, have to search both harddrives for stuff, cant find certain things and i just want it back to one harddrive. CAn anyone please tell me if there is something i need to do differentley when i have two harddrives or just how i bring it back to one, please i need help.

[stymiee]

First of all, two hard drive give you more storage capacity. If you need more space, you want two hard drives. They also allow you to do back ups from one drive to another. Plus you can store your data on the slave drive so if you ever need to move to a new computer it is as easy as moving your hard drive.

[linux]

if you don't understand the reason for two hard drives, then go with the harder option: partition your single hd (not that hard, but harder than adding a second one.)

[DMR]

CAn anyone please tell me if there is something i need to do differentley when i have two harddrives or just how i bring it back to one, please i need help.

If you've actually been installing programs on the second hard drive, you won't be able to get everything back on to one drive without reinstalling those programs. At issue is the fact that every program you installed on the second drive will have written references to its location into the Windows Registry (among other places); if you move the programs' files to another location, they will become disassociated from Windows and will no longer work.

stymiee pretty much summed up what a second drive is normally used for: storage of user-created files/documents and backups. Unless you're well aware of the possible "gotchas" involved in spanning Windows or program installations across two drives, you shouldn't have any software actually running from the second drive, it should only be used as a safe storage area for data files.

if you don't understand the reason for two hard drives, then go with the harder option: partition your single hd (not that hard, but harder than adding a second one.)

There are two reasons why I'd personally advise against that:

1. Windows machines are usually configured with a single partition which occupies the entire boot drive; in order to make a second partition, the original partition has to be shrunk. Performing that kind of partition manipulation requires third-party software (such as Partiiton Magic), and if something goes wrong during the repartitioning, you can lose all of the drive's contents.

2. Perhaps more importantly though, storing your data on a second partition is not as secure as having it stored on a second physical drive. If a drive develops an electromechanical fault, or if the contents of the drive's Master Boot Record/Master Filetable get damaged, any and all partitions on the drive can become inaccessible. With a two-drive configuration, if the boot drive dies, at least all of your important files will be safely stored on the backup drive.

[bilbus]

I would say its best to have 2 Hds, on a cheap sata raid controler, and format two partisions ... that way if you have to install windows again your data is safe. I keep my data on my server so thats less of a concern