Using a second drive for storage

[DragonSlayer]

Hi, I am a newbie at using two drives in the same PC. I am going to be using alot of astronomy software, and I am planning on adding a second drive (maxtor 120Gig SATA - to my existing 36gig Raptor). The second drive will be for storage only, everything else will be on the Raptor. Do I just connect the second drive to the other SATA connector on my P4C800-E Deluxe mobo? Also, how do I format the second drive in order to prepare it for use? Any and all suggestions and comments would be greatly appreciated !!!

 

[LED]

Check the BIOS on your MoBo and set it as non RAID then all should be ggood...also I would go with NTFS and think about baking it up regularly

 

[Danzilla]

were there no instructions with the drive??? They usually provide all you need to know.

 

[LED]

Originally posted by: Danzilla
were there no instructions with the drive??? They usually provide all you need to know.

No drive purchased is going to give instructions for RAID setup's from 1 MoBo
:roll:

 

[rond36]

I am also using the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe and have 2 WD 120GB S-ATA hard drives installed.

Disable RAID in BIOS setup or set it to IDE. The BIOS may do that by default because your drives are not of equal size.

If you need instructions for BIOS setup post back.

Install the drive in a bay hookup the power and S-ATA cables.

boot up to Windows. I assume you are running Win XP because I can't even get Win 9X or ME to install on my system. I think it has something to do with the HT P4 or duel channel DDR.

When you get to Windows open control panel open the administrative tools applet open computer management in the left Paine choose disk management.

Once disk management opens in the top Paine you will see your partitions and the details of each one.

In the bottom Paine you will see your disk drives and the partitions that are on them.

Your raptor should be Disk 0 and the new drive should be Disk 1.

It should show partition(s) on Disk 0 but Disk 1 should be Unallocated with a black bar above it.

Right click in the unallocated space on Disk 1 and choose new partition from the menu and follow the new partition wizard.

I suggest more then one partition on a drive that large. I have 4 on each of mine. The file system is up to you mine are all FAT 32 but I don't have a preference both have good and bad points.

 

[DragonSlayer]

Originally posted by: rond36
I am also using the Asus P4C800-E Deluxe and have 2 WD 120GB S-ATA hard drives installed.

Disable RAID in BIOS setup or set it to IDE. The BIOS may do that by default because your drives are not of equal size.

If you need instructions for BIOS setup post back.

Install the drive in a bay hookup the power and S-ATA cables.

boot up to Windows. I assume you are running Win XP because I can't even get Win 9X or ME to install on my system. I think it has something to do with the HT P4 or duel channel DDR.

When you get to Windows open control panel open the administrative tools applet open computer management in the left Paine choose disk management.

Once disk management opens in the top Paine you will see your partitions and the details of each one.

In the bottom Paine you will see your disk drives and the partitions that are on them.

Your raptor should be Disk 0 and the new drive should be Disk 1.

It should show partition(s) on Disk 0 but Disk 1 should be Unallocated with a black bar above it.

Right click in the unallocated space on Disk 1 and choose new partition from the menu and follow the new partition wizard.

I suggest more then one partition on a drive that large. I have 4 on each of mine. The file system is up to you mine are all FAT 32 but I don't have a preference both have good and bad points.

 

[DragonSlayer]

rond36 : Thanx for the great reply - it has all the info I am looking for!!!!