Would adding another hard drive improve my porformance?

Question

i have 3 hard drives sitting around and would like to make use of them would it benifet me to install on my fairly new computer or just get other hardware for little proformance boost?

Answer 1

Wisdom C…: Putting the page file on another drive to boost performance is a myth. I've done that as a test several times on several computers. Furthermore, in XP as well as Vista, when you do that, the operating system will create another paging file on your main drive without asking you. You'll only really find out when you uncheck "hide system files and folders". The only thing I would do is move the paging file to the front of the disk using "PerfectDisk" another utility. Then I'd add as much RAM as the OS will handle (there is a limit depending on which operating system). Then I would edit the registry to conserve page file useage - which will force your system to utilize RAM rather than the paging file (unless it really needs to). Back to the question, when adding another drive to boost performance, you should add the same model as the the main disk. Run both of them in a RAID 0 configuration (stripping) which basically spreads the data accross 2 drives - acting as one thus reducing the load on each drive by 50%. I've also done this and found only marginal improvement in performance; a different scenario though if you're running a server - then you'll enjoy the full benefits of RAID 0. A word of caution though, if one of them fails your data will most likely be unrecoverable - so make sure if you're running Vista to have automatic backups of your data (not programs) running periodically to one of your non RAID drives. Perhaps a dual CPU system would be what you need (not Dual Core but 2 CPU's on the motherboard.

Answer 2

If you put a page file on that drive then it could give you a slight increase in performance in some situations, but otherwise, no, installing a second hard drive will just let you store more stuff on your computer.


Edit: @ Sven B
I meant having two swap files, for example a 768MB page file on drive 1 and a 768MB page file on drive 2. If you put them on separate channels (or if your motherboard's SATA controller is any good- I don't know much about those) it should in theory give a small performance boost, provided both drives are of similar speed.

Answer 3

Hi jjsalas55,

It will not hurt or help to install more hard drives. If you have less then 2 gig of memory adding memory will give you a boost.

Norm

Answer 4

Adding another harddrive will NOT improve your performance.
What will is this:
1. Adding a Physical Memory Chip
2. Defragmenting your existing harddrive(s)
3. Run disk cleanup
4. Rid your system of any ad-ware (spy cookies). Download a good free program from Lavasoft.com
5. Get rid of icons on your desk top. They take up memory space. You can move them to another folder.
6. Create a small virtual partition on your harddrive and move the cache memory there. (This is a bit involved, so if you have questions about this, email me).

Answer 5

Unless your slowness is being caused by lack of free space on your main hard drive, adding a second will not speed the PC. Only give you more storage space.

Answer 6

second hdd's can be handy provided they are not of the slower breed, like the 4200 rpm. getting a 7200rpm type (or better) is a plus; keep it defrag'd; compact the data (via 'properties') and have max allowable 'cache writing' enabled.
second hdd's are essential for backup of data/files in the event of 'c' drive loss/windows failures; recovery by this method is far simpler and faster, which is the best reason for 2nd hdd's.

Answer 7

It wont give you a performance boost, its just gives you more hdd space.

Answer 8

You will gain a little performance by putting your swap file on a separate drive. (Preferably on a separate controller.)

Answer 9

no not at all basically hdd are meant for the data storage and by saying this you will know what it is .

Answer 10

Not really.