if i put two 40 Gb hard drives on my computer and install windows in just one...will the other serve as a storage hard drive or will it be useless?
2006-06-20 15:22:15 · 12 answers · asked by andy 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
Depending on:
1. what type of HD you have (SATA or ATA = EIDE),
2. if and how you formatted both HD,
3. if you configured SATA drives as RAID 0 = both HD will store the same data (one will be the back-up of the other)
etc. (see the other answers).
Let's assume you have ATA drives.
To have a HD as storage, first assign one HD as "master", and the other one as "slave" by placing accordingly the pin connector (usually 4 pairs of pins on the side of the HD, two of which have to be interconected - see the instructions provided by the manufacturer).
Then format both HDs as NTFS (the standard file system for new Windows - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NTFS) using the CD which came with the HD. Namely, after you have installed the HDs, turn on your computer with the CD from the HD manufacturer put in, and follow the instructions (usually both HDs will be recognized, one as "master" and the other one as "slave" - you'll see these names displayed if you placed the pin connector properly - if not, turn off your computer and make adjustments to the HDs).
After you formatted your HDs, replace the CD (from the HD manufacturer) with the Windows installation one and restart your computer (ctrl+alt+del).
Follow the instructions from the screen. You'll be able to choose what to do with your HDs.
Good luck!
2006-06-20 16:01:52 · answer #1 · answered by c_p_32223 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
storage drive only one will be the main partition the bootableone. u can use the os installed one to still store some data and stuff but i would recoomend to leave like 15 GB free for system fuiles the rest could be storage and the other drive u can just make it be storage
2006-06-20 15:46:46 · answer #2 · answered by kickenchicken360 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
it will be useless more or less. It won't hurt to format the second drive and install Windows. You can still use it as storage, and you never know when your primary HDD might take a dump, so having a secondary that's bootable ready to go will save you a ton of time.
2006-06-20 15:26:51 · answer #3 · answered by dylanwalker1 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
putting two hard drives on your computer is a great idea,yes the second drive can be used for storage,but you must make sure you use a dual ide cable to connect both drives to your motherboard(connect to ide1),and make sure the system(windows)drive is set to master(jumper settings),and your 2nd drive is set to slave
on the ide cable your slave should be connected to the next connector from the motherboard and the master should be connected to the one on the end
some people with 2 drives on their p.c sometimes opt to use them in raid formation,this is when the computer uses 2 drives for data,and it apparently makes your computer faster
there are 3 different types of raid formation 1..raid level 0,,,data is striped,broken into chunks and spread out across two or more drives
raid level 1......files are stored on one drive and mirrored(duplicated)on another
raid level 0+1 combines the benefit of both striping and mirroring using four or more drives
this type of configuration used to be used only in corporate servers,but with the new types of motherboards avalible today ,many home uses are adopting the idea
personally i would stick to the master\slave configuration i explained at the start
good luck
2006-06-21 07:17:58 · answer #4 · answered by brianthesnail123 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes, It can be used as another storage device. YOu have to partition the drives and set the drive in which windows is installed as Master and the other one as slave.
2006-06-20 15:46:39 · answer #5 · answered by ganesh v v 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It will serve as storage. You must set your slave and master jumper pins. The one with windows should be master and he other slave. (my husband provided this info. He's a systems admin) The pins are on the hard drives themselves. You should notice them when you connect IDE cables in the case.
2006-06-20 15:27:47 · answer #6 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The second drive does not need to have windows installed on it, but you do need to format the second drive. To do this you might need to initialize the disk and create a partition
2006-06-20 15:41:45 · answer #7 · answered by Mojo Jojo 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
both will work, 1 must be set as the master drive the other set as a slave drive
2006-06-20 15:27:21 · answer #8 · answered by Pobept 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no you can use it for what ever purpose you want for storing or for having games movies etc etc
i with my self have two hard disk drives in my computer on is 80GB and other is 40GB i use both of them
2006-06-20 15:28:41 · answer #9 · answered by Itum Mera Hoon 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
if you do not partiion and format it, it will be useless.
If you do partition and format it it will serve as a storage hard drive
2006-06-20 15:26:28 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋