Hardware - - Two hard drives

thomasgeorge · #1 11-14-2001, 03:16 PM

Anyone else out there running two hard drives? I have been running this config. since a nasty incident a couple of years ago left me without operating system,software or data. I now use one drive dedicated only to programs and operating system, the other data storage. Just this week this set up saved me from loosing quite a bit of data when the operating system was mangled by some really nasty software. It might be worth while to look into doing this if you dont already. (Getting a second hard drive--not brutalizing your O/S) Tom

Ed_L · #2 11-14-2001, 03:53 PM

I have a 5 meg hard drive that came with the system 2 years ago. I have since added a 20 meg hard drive where I keep *almost* all my images. I back both of these up through CD's.

Ed

jeaniesa · #3 11-14-2001, 03:55 PM

I hope to be doing exactly what you've described in another week or so. Just waiting for my new BIOS chip to arrive. Actually, it's not supposed to arrive until Tuesday, and I leave Wed for Thanksgiving on the East Coast, so I think I might wait until I get back to figure it all out. -Jeanie

Doug Nelson · #4 11-14-2001, 03:58 PM

I run two hds on one of my machines. That's a great way to handle things.

Plus you can run benchmark tests on them and put your scratch files and virtual memory on the fastest one. That speeds things up enormously.

DJ Dubovsky · #5 11-14-2001, 04:56 PM

We started out with about 14 Gigs on one hard drive and soon realized we needed more, lots more. So we added a hundred Gig. I reasigned my Photoshop cashe disk to the big drive. Don't know how much will be coming with the new machine but we intend to transfer these drives to the new machine. Alot easier than copying and reinstalling I gather.
DJ

George · #6 11-14-2001, 04:58 PM

I am running one 40Gig Harddrive internal to the computer and another 20Gig Harddrive via USB. I use the 20Gig to store my work on. I have been using it for about six months and have never experienced any slow uploads or downloads from it.

I also run GoBack 3.1 on the internal harddrive so that I can restore to a working configuration in case something I load goes bad or something happens to the files on that harddrive. I also use it to either revert back to a previous version of a file or to reclaim a file that got deleted by mistake.

If I was going to add another External Harddrive, I would look at the new 80 Gig that connects via firewire.

George

chris h · #7 11-15-2001, 06:04 AM

I’d certainly recommend as many ‘hardware’ drives as you can fit in the box and the bigger the box lesser the acrobatics to put them there. When I recently upgraded a 60ghz IBM drive was thrown in as part of the CPU package. I’ve now got about a 100ghz which is partitioned off with a big chunk (which used to be 2K) used for Photoshop’s antics.

As said before when you upgrade your operating system keep the old one going in the form of a dual boot system it’ll save your bacon sooner or later. If your computer is generating income you can’t have too many safety nets.

Rick · #8 11-15-2001, 10:50 AM

I'd suggest you keep your OS/photoshop and whatnot on a "C" drive and have two other drives in a RAID configuration 1 (?) So that your "D" drive will have a continuous backup.

This configuration comes in handy for the following reasons:

You should have copies of your OS/photoshop and important programs handy and/or a safe place and burned onto a backup CD.

The raid configuration I mentioned is two Hard drives in which they're an exact mirror of the other. If one HD crashes, the other is there to still be in use. (again, backups are also necessary for this)

Can you tell I'm paranoid about my data?

My current system is as follows:

a Cel 866 w/ 512 RAM 1 5 gig HD, and 2 20 gig hard drives in a raid configuration.

I have a "prestine" system backup using norton's ghost from when I trashed the system (on purpose) and I burn a backup of the other Drive about once a month, or if I have an important project going on.

Rick

NJPatRN · #9 11-17-2001, 12:53 PM

Since I built my own system, I designed it to provide storage space, backup capacity, AND swap file efficiency. Since money is almost not an issue (cause I have children, NOT money) the availability of cheap space is very important.
Presently I'm running four IDE drives:
C: primary-20 GB: the work-horse. this drive has the actual applications and the swap file.
D: 20 GB-storage for most recent work, most frequently accessed files, and for "works-in-progress.
E: 16 GB- genealogy dedicated
S: 40 GB-back-up and miscellaneous storage
also:
Eb: 30 GB- graphics dedicated storage. this drive resides in the tower but is not always connected.
Then there's:
F: 16 GB USB>IDE hard drive-nifty to transport between pc's
L: USB L-S SuperDrive-120MB disks, again good for moving between pcs
and Q-the CD-R/RW drive.
Too much? Well, by using the 20 GB for my primary and secondary drives, I keep defrag time down--and I defrag weekly! I don't like to compress images and boy do I use layers!

I'm ok with the Athlon 800 and 786 MB RAM, and the multiple HD just make life a whole lot simpler---especially when the inevitable disaster inherent in Windows strikes.

chris h · #10 11-17-2001, 06:30 PM

I still keep a USB Zip drive on the go, its useful for pulling favourites for IE6 and Outlook address files off the computer as these are expanding on a daily basis here. Its not cheap storage as a 250Mb cartridge costs about £9 ($14) here but I can suffer that and its saved me from jumping from the battlements a few times !

GOLDCOIN · #11 02-02-2002, 02:02 PM

I just experienced my first hard drive failure a few months ago.

And sometimes "prayers are answered with a "Yes." Doing a fun early morning garage sale, found some computer stuff very cheap. One item being a hard drive, I didn't know about the special handling and wrap that is needed to keep it usable, so it was a waste of 3.00 dollar in one sense, however, the young couple giving the sale gave me a name ..... a hardware guru!

So for the cost of a new hard drive and his fee of $65.00, he did a complete copy of everything from the crashed one and put it on my new hard drive. Pictures, saved url ,Quicken & email are back, I did add some of the programs. What I found surprising was, rereading delete email from the long past!! I thought it was gone when deleted.....

Speaking of "deleted"....Is anyone else using Norton 2002? When I now emply the desktop waste can, a wizard is telling me he is protecting some 15,000 file. What does that mean?? It does ask if I want to delete them, so far I've click "No," wanting to err on the side of caution. This is after I empty the desktop icon.....

I just love the new features of 2002. It scans email, thus checking all incoming & now OUTGOING email for viruses. That will prevent infecting those that we exchange email with, even attachments.
Plus the little spaceman that goes out on his own and updates our "virus & dat files" from their web site." Seems they call him as it is not done on any schedule. He just sits "hovering: on the start bar while doing a transfer..... Long overdue, as so many of the newer viruses were sending email and it was not known to its owner.. You will now, as a screen pops up and shows it scanning the outgoing email....

DJ Dubovsky · #12 02-02-2002, 02:26 PM

Goldcoin,
Consider that the best $3 you ever wasted. Usually that's not a possibility when it comes to hard drive crashes. You were real lucky. I have had a recent close call where I thought something was deleted by the system on me and a few months down the road I found them in a wierd file marked "Found". I was so happy and I knew I should have backed up stuff but didn't that time and that's when it hit. Even if backing up means storing files you want to keep on a seperate hard drive, it's still a good idea.

Yes, I have the Norton Antivirus 2002 and I love it. It can get a bit pesky always wanting to update but I view that as my own safety inconvience. It could be a false sense of security but it's at least some security. I did have one time when a friend sent an .exe attachment and it went off with warnings of a virus. I dumped that thing so fast, I left skid marks in my mail box.

That's when you appreciate it most. Who knew if it was bad or not but I would rather be on the safe side. It just amazes me how often it wants to update itself. Boy, keeping ahead of the hackers is a full time job.
DJ

GOLDCOIN · #13 02-02-2002, 02:55 PM

Afternoon JD....

Did you understand my question, hidden in all of my comments.

Have you told Norton to go ahead and delete all "protected files" in the waste can? Not sure, but feel it is keeping all deleted stuff, and that means it can't be written over ??

DJ Dubovsky · #14 02-02-2002, 03:20 PM

Well, I guess I did miss that one. Sorry

I tried emptying my desktop recycle bin and Norton didn't say a word about any of it being protected. I didn't even see Norton.

I didn't set Norton up on my computer, my husband did so maybe there was an option that you have checked that I don't. I just sit back and let it do it's thing and so far nothing like that has happened to me. You might locate the help file, although I just looked through it and my option settings and I can't find anything that would indicate what a protected file was. Some how you need to find out what "protected file" means either in Norton (which I couldn't find) or in Windows help. Maybe check the profile of those files that are protected and see what you can find.

By all means, don't delete any of them until you are sure. If nothing else, I would go to Norton and get some online assistance. Heck, you bought the program so you're paying for the service. Let me know what you find out if you do.
DJ

GOLDCOIN · #15 02-02-2002, 04:02 PM

Hummm... I didn't do anything special when installing. even the icon on desktop reads "Norton protected."

When using a "right" click, I get an options screen, with many options. One being "Unerase Wizard" then empty and under that was empty "protected files?" You also get an "Are you sure screen before saying go ahead and empty...

Wonder why your isn't like that?