Hard Drive Setup

[imported_Cooch]

Well here goes... i posted this here about week ago, cuz i was told there were a lot of knowledgeable people on here and I got diddly squat responses. As in ZERO.... So i'm posting this in hopes them "knowledgeable" peeps are still here.

I'm Currently dual-booting Win98/ W2K on a 40 GB HDD and plan to add a 3rd OS - Mandrake 9.1.

I bought a new 200 GB HDD. (Plan on using NTFS)
Have an older 10 GB salvaged from an older PC.

My initial thought was to put each OS on their own separate HDDs (since I have 3 HDDs available). But now i'm debating what I want to do. With so much space available, I want to be smart and make efficient use of the 3 HDDs.

My other option was to use the 200 GB as primary and load both Windows OSes on it. Then I could use the small 10 Gigger for my Mandrake OS and use the original 40 Gigger for images and backups.

What do y'all think about that?

As for images and back ups, would it be better to save it on the same HDD as the OS is loaded on or should I back it up to a separate HDD?

 

[stevty2889]

I would do your images and backups on a seperate hard drive, whats the point of backing up on to the same drive, if the drive goes bad, you lose the backup too..as for the OS's I would put windows 98/2k on the 200GB drive, and use another drive for the madrake.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

There are as many different schemes for organizing both multiple operating systems and the more usual assortment of applications, OS's, and user files as there are computer users. But there are a few useful facts to rely on.

The first of these is that you put your question in the wrong forum (OK, not only forum, perhaps wrong web site, see my follow-up). It's still really an OS-centric question.

With a single hard drive, the smarter computer users create partitions to enhance their file management situation. Two different OS's almost always work better in a multi-boot situation when they are each kept on a separate drive, logical drive, partition, etc. A partition that is sized specifically for its OS is many times easier to backup and to restore.

Personally, I put application type programs on a separate partition from the OS, the swap file on its own dedicated partition, and my own user created files on still another. I make backups of that last partition frequently, and have a second hard drive with a cloned copy of the C: drive on its active partition, which is updated somewhat less frequently than is the case for my own personal user files.

 

[imported_Cooch]

The first of these is that you put your question in the wrong forum. It's really an OS-centric question.

I put the question there about a week ago and got diddly squat there also. That's why i posted in this forum.

As for the partitions, I've been doing that ever since I created my dual-boot a few years ago. But I appreciate all the responses nonetheless. Atleast this time people are actually responding! LOL.

stevty2889, I was leaning towards what you said in your post. I guess i was looking for someone to confirm my initial hunches.

 

[imported_Kiwi]

I imagine you might do better with answers by putting questions of that nature in forums at which the majority of messagers are more oriented to software, especially OS's, than at any of the forums here, a gearhead type place where it's the hardware that seems to matter the most.

If you can avoid having your question being lost in a sea of whining newbies all making one or another of the same half dozen mistakes and wanting someone else to fix it for them, you can join the Annoyances Forums and find some very knowledgeable folks who eat, breathe, and sleep with operating system software, most particularly Microsoft's trash, as their bread and butter.

http://www.annoyances.org/

:beer:

 

[imported_Cooch]

I imagine you might do better with answers by putting questions of that nature in forums at which the majority of messagers are more oriented to software

Hmm... so there are messeurs running around on this board? I didn't know that. Thanks for the heads up though. It's enlightening.