Couple of questions about a new hard drive

For christmas I got a new harddrive since I've filled mine up.

Does it really make a difference which drive is the "master" and which is the "slave"?

I would think that having the new 160GB drive as the master and the older 80GB drive as the slave would be better but will I lose any performance if I keep the 80GB as the master and run the 160GB as the slave?

Is it possible to hook the 160GB up as a slave drive, back everything from the 80GB up onto it and then reverse them as master and slave?

I dont plan on partitioning anything on either harddrive, just having lots and lots of storage space. I'm comfortable working with computers I just am not very knowledgable on stuff like this.

Thanks,
Bobby

 

i would put the new drive as the slave. you wont notice any performance difference by swapping them

 

Well, it does depend on a few things. 1) What is the cache on the new drive, if it is larger, and you decide to keep migrate your os and other programs to the new drive, you could see a slight performance increase. 2) I assume they are both 7200 rpm drives, but if not, that could make a difference as well. If they are the same in all respects but capacity, it doesn't matter at all and will save you the time and hassle of trying to migrate your os onto the new HD.

 

They're both 7200RPM but my old drive has a 2MB cache and the new one has an 8MB cache.

 

yes it makes a difference which is master and slave..

switching them around could make a difference, since the cache is larger, also is the new drive ATA or SATA?

yes you can set the 160 as a slave, and backup..

 

ATA IDE

I knew it would make a difference I just wondered how big a difference it would make as far as loading programs or transferring files.

If the new drive is the slave drive will it just add the 160GB to the 80GB and act as a single 240GB HD or will I have separate drives like USB hard drives, removable drives, etc?

 

ah.. ok the difference isnt that much at all, i have a hitachi 7200 4mb cache 80 gig.. and then a maxtor diamond plus 10 7200 8mb cache 240 gig SATA, i use the diamond plus as my main drive, and i did notice a large increase at first, but once i started to fill the drive with stuff, it seemed to slow back down.. no it will not add the 160 gigs to the 80, as in one big drive, unless you want to run a RAID setup, it will be two drives (C:, E:, etc..)

 

Thanks! I'm gonna try the install now.

 

Just got done installing it. I've got it as a slave.

Alex, that sounds like a good idea but you caught me 30 mins too late.

 

Cant wait to get back to Tech and d/l all of that techno/trance you guys have been talking about.

 

good job alex.. get on the ball ...

jeez least yall have steady connections. Adelphia is screwingme. issues the last 2 days.............