I have a spare 80gb hard drive- what can i do with it?

Question

i have plenty of space for sotring my files on the internal HD, what can i do with a spare 80gb in Vista? (im thinking speeding up system, or other similar tweaks?)

Also wondering- do i lose performance with an extra HD in the machine?

Answer 1

One work : BACKUP !
Buy an Ext USB caddy, OR mount drive internally as a slave.
Then use the space to BACKUP critical files.

there are 3 rukles in computing.
1 : Backup
2 : Backup again
3 : Backup frequently

Answer 2

hi d.j
the first thing that pops in my head for this answer is "back up"
how many times have we lost files due to hard drive failure and wished we had backed the dat to another location,this gives you a excellent way of backing up data and since windows vista(premium and ultimate)both have a back up feature you wont even have to buy software
if the drive is a s.a.t.a drive and your current system drive is sata too then i suppose you could consider setting up a "r.a.i.d array" using the two drives
this would give you a slight performance boost(not much) and would also make your data access a but more stable
there are two types of raid array using two disks
RAID 0
Striped set (minimum 2 disks) without parity. Provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance. Any disk failure destroys the array, which becomes more likely with more disks in the array. A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into fragments. The number of fragments is dictated by the number of disks in the drive. The fragments are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, giving this type of arrangement huge bandwidth. When one sector on one of the disks fails, however, the corresponding sector on every other disk is rendered useless because part of the data is now corrupted. RAID 0 does not implement error checking so any error is unrecoverable. More disks in the array means higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.
RAID 1
Mirrored set (minimum 2 disks) without parity. Provides fault tolerance from disk errors and single disk failure. Increased read performance occurs when using a multi-threaded operating system that supports split seeks, very small performance reduction when writing. Array continues to operate so long as at least one drive is functioning.
any of these would be ok however its not the easiest set up and you may need assistance ,especially when installing a raid array in vista
hope this helps
good luck mate !

Answer 3

no u wont lose performance. u may gain a few degrees in temp if ur case isnt up to the task.

use as backup. or as a spare storage device. no point leaving 80gb out as a paperweight.

you cud sell it but wont get that much for it.

if u use it and take some apps for hdd1 to 80gb hdd. u can defrag+a/v scan faster. enchancing performance. takes strain of the hdd.

makes sense

Answer 4

if the hardiski u are using is exactly the same model then u cud set up a RAID storage in RAID 0 configuration.. thta will speed up ur data transfer to ur hard disk.. for that u shud by a RAID controller,but its worth it..

get some RAID tutorial at:

http://www.acnc.com/04_00.html
http://www.pctechguide.com/tutorials/RAID.htm

Answer 5

Use it as a paperweight! LOL

That's about all its worth. You could use it as external Backup, but if its only 80 GB, its probably several years old and its lifecycle is near its end.

Answer 6

sell it