New Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache, Need Help.

[GRagland]

I have a 40GB IBM Deckstar, and a new 80GB Maxtor which has an 8mb cache. Everything is on my 40gb hard drive right now. Should I run windows xp off of the 80gb hard drive, would it be faster because of the 8mb cache. If so, how would i move windows xp from the 40giger to the 80gb hard drive?

 

[Jeff7181]

All Maxtor's I've had came with Maxtor's drive utilities which allows you to mirror your old drive to the new one.

 

[GRagland]

Originally posted by: Jeff7181
All Maxtor's I've had came with Maxtor's drive utilities which allows you to mirror your old drive to the new one.

ok thanks, ill try the cd that cae with the drive. do you think it would make a performace difference runnign xp of the 8mb cache 80gb drive, or would it be slower becuase its running off a bigger drive?

 

[John]

40GB IBM Deckstar

Which model of the Deskstar line do you have?

 

[GRagland]

Originally posted by: John

40GB IBM Deckstar

Which model of the Deskstar line do you have?

40GB DESKSTAR 60GXP MODEL IC35L040AVER07-0 (7200rpm)

 

[Jeff7181]

8 MB cache helps a lot... you won't be able to tell from benchmarks like HD Tach... but you'll notice a difference in real world use.

I should just link to the other thread, but I don't feel like finding it so I'll type it again...

The cache on the hard drive is used to store data that the drive predicts will be used soon. So having a larger cache allows more stuff to be stored there, so it increases the chance that something that is needed will be in the cache, which is about 100 times faster than physically reading from the disk.
That being said... an 8 MB cache doesn't guarantee faster performance 100% of the time... but it does help. The reason you won't see it in benchmarks like HD Tach is because that measures the speed that the drive can phiscally read from the disk... cache size doesn't play much of a role in that sort of test. Only in real world usage will you see the benefits of a larger cache.

 

[GRagland]

thanks for the info, i just installed xp on the 80gb drive cause the maxtor utility which was supposed to be able to copy my os from my old drive to the new one says it cant handle ntsf. so im in the process of reinstalling all my stuff on the new drive. thanks for the help.

 

[Jeff7181]

You could probably use Windows XP's wizard to transfer your personal settings n stuff... I've never used it so I don't know how well it works... but... you could try it

 

[GRagland]

thats an idea, but i think im just gonna do it from scratch, i needed to clean out my computer anyway. i think i am gonna put my 13gigs of music on the 40gb drive, but im not sure what else i should put on it. i guess it doesnt really matter. my games, programs, OS will go on the 80gb. thanks for the help.