Best config for my hard drives?

[gramboh]

Hi guys,

One of my Seagate 7200.10 500GB (3AAK firmware, the bad one) drives started to get flaky last weekend (random shutdowns with 'Disk read failure' messages) and will only run for 20-30minutes at a time, so I've stopped using both disks and purchased new ones to ensure I can save my data before one/both drives die.

I bought 2 new Seagate 7200.11 1TB drives, one for my system and one for eSATA backup, so in the end I will have:

1x Seagate 7200.11 1TB SATA2
2x Seagate 7200.10 500GB SATA2 (3AAK firmware, so max 65mb/s read instead of 80mb/s)
1x Seagate 7200.11 1TB SATA2 via eSATA enclosure for backup
1x Maxtor DM10 200GB IDE via USB2 enclosure for backup

My question is, given that the 7200.11 is significantly faster than my 500GB's, what is the best way to install everything? I was thinking:

7200.11:
C: (50GB partition) - OS (Vista x64 Ultimate)
E: (950GB partition) - Games/apps install, random storage, swap file

7200.10's:
F: (500GB partition) - storage
G: (500GB partition) - storage

Does it make more sense to install games and run the swap file off one of the 500's? Is there a big advantage to having games loading off a different physical drive than the OS? I would do this for sure if it wasn't for the 7200.10's having the slower firmware version (3AAK) which causes the read speed to peak at around 65MB/s instead of 80MB/s like other firmwares and the 7200.11. Another option would be to RAID0 the 500's and use TrueImage to backup the OS partition and maybe a 100GB games partition, but after one of the drives failing within a year of purchase, I don't really want to deal with the risk of array failure.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[sutahz]

So 3 hdds, 3 things your concerned about.... doesn't that just sorta spell itself out for you?
Where do you want your performance? OS(a) or Games(b)?=>1TB drive
Which ever you didnt pick from above, put on 1 of the 500GB
Put your page file on the other 500GB.
I put games on highest priority so w/ your 3 hdds this is what I'd do:
1TB:
50-100GB partition for games
I guess the rest for storage huh..

500GB #1:
50GB partition for Vista x64
I guess the rest for storage huh..

500GB #2:
Make a partition the size of your pagefile + .5-1.0GB (ie 1GB PF so 1.5GB partition)
I guess the rest for storage huh..

If you run filesharing or the such, something that access a hdd a lot but isnt that demanding, run that off your 200GB USB hdd.

It doesn't sound like your one of the few ppl that would benefit from RAID0.
I havent ran any numbers to see how much faster, or even if it is faster, to run 'everything' off different hdds, but the theory is to split up disk I/O's so that every major task has its own hdd.

 

[mav451]

I'm interested in the answer to this question as well.

I recently moved my swap from my 320GB boot/os/game drive to my other 320GB, and it "seemed" that TF2 loaded quite a bit faster. Or it's my imagination, I dunno.

 

[gramboh]

Thanks for the tips sutahz. unfortunately I installed Vista x64 on the 1tb last night, and the current problem is I am not 100% sure which of the 500's is failing (or both) so I need to isolate them for the time being, but maybe I'll ghost my OS over afterwards.

I'll have to do some testing to decide if the difference between the 7200.10 (3.AAK FW) and 11 is enough to separate games off the 11. My thinking was having the games and OS on separate physical drives would be important.

 

[lxskllr]

I use 1 partition for everything, and put data and my pagefile on a separate hd. I honestly don't think it makes a difference, but there should be a theoretical improvement.

 

[0roo0roo]

i keep os on a partition... ~10gb, easier to wipe/ghost/format/reinstall o/s or whatever without messing with data partition/drive. i keep a ~10gb partition on the second drive as well in case of o/s drive failure. o/s image file is on both drives, makes for easy restore.
swap file on fastest drive.
doesn't matter really with ram so cheap and plentiful.
if you are hitting swap big time something is wrong.