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Thread ID: 138287	2014-11-04 04:42:00	Hard Drive Questions	Dragonov (16500)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
1387616	2014-11-04 04:42:00	Hi, Have been around PC's for quite a few years now, but have never successfully fathomed the mysteries of how to use Hard-Drives properly: for example if you had a 1TB HDD and a 500GB HDD, - which one should be the C/: Drive? Unless another Operating System is going to be used on one of them, then one of the Drives is going to be a file-storage/backup one, so is there any advantage to using one Drive over the other as the C/: Drive? My Operating System is Windows 7 Home Premium and have got it on the smaller Drive (C/:) but the other, bigger Drive (D/:) is from another older computer and has got a massively out of date Windows Premium OS installed on it (from long ago!) and when in the C/: Desktop the D/: drive under "Computer" is simply shown, when opened, as a "blank" Drive with no OS on it and instead heaps of space to put files and programmes onto, and that is what it is being used for, to minimise clutter buildup on the Desktop (C/:). However, when booting the PC a black page soon arrives with two OS options shown: if the second one is chosen it boots through to the D/: Drive and shows a Desktop with a black background but with quite a few icons on it. Obviously the D/: Drive has got an entire Win 7 OS installed on it, and the question is HOW can it (Win 7) be gotten rid of while at the same time keeping the Drive available afterwards for storage of stuff? the OS on it is useless and taking up a heap of space. Incidentally, in Windows 7 Home Premium, when installing it, you reach a page where you select which Drive you want to load it onto and then under "advanced" you can Format the Drive or Delete it. What's the difference? Thank you in advance for anyone who would be prepared to have a go at enlightening a Hard-Drive Utter Ignoramus! (Have not even gotten started on Partitioning and Windows/Linux combinations, but fortunately a few beers are within reaching distance). Cheerio, "Staritza"	Dragonov (16500)
1387617	2014-11-04 04:44:00	Do not know why the "Smilies" are in my opening post, did not put them there - they materialised in the Preview but could not get rid of them.	Dragonov (16500)
1387618	2014-11-04 04:52:00	Disregard this comment please	Dragonov (16500)
1387619	2014-11-04 04:57:00	Do not know why the "Smilies" are in my opening post, did not put them there - they materialised in the Preview but could not get rid of them.There's an option to disable smilies in the post window - and it's should be C:\, etc ;)As for your HDD question, there is no right way, whichever works best for you is the way to go. :)	pcuser42 (130)
1387620	2014-11-04 09:14:00	Agree with pcuser except to say if one of the drives was old/slow you would want the faster one as your C: drive.	linw (53)
1387621	2014-11-04 18:29:00	" if you had a 1TB HDD and a 500GB HDD, - which one should be the C/: Drive? " The fastest one. And I always back a smaller partition for th O/s. Makes it a lot easier to Image the O/S. "one of the Drives is going to be a file-storage/backup one, so is there any advantage to using one Drive over the other as the C/: Drive? " Bad idea........backups should not be attached to the same PC. They should be an external drive - ad not left connected. Imagine a power problem - it can and often does take out both drives. The idea is to have your important stuff on at least 2 separate devices. "Incidentally, in Windows 7 Home Premium, when installing it, you reach a page where you select which Drive you want to load it onto and then under "advanced" you can Format the Drive or Delete it.What's the difference?" Formatting the drive would wipe anything already on it but leaves the configuration (of partition) intact.. Deleting the partition means it's gone, drive loses that partition. Of course that doesn't apply if the drive is just in one partition, not split up.	pctek (84)
1387622	2014-11-04 19:59:00	To remove a 2nd copy of windows you simply wipe the contents of the 2nd drive (or just the windows files) and then edit the boot menu to remove the entry. EasyBCD is a fairly user friendly tool that can help with the editing although it can be done manually. However you need to be careful and make sure you know for sure what drive contains the windows version you want to delete. You say D:\ shows up as a blank drive but you should be able to see the windows folder and program files etc so it should not be "blank". Formatting a partition adds the file system to it and will wipe any existing data in the process, or in the case of a quick format might just delete the table of contents so it looks blank. Deleting the partition if it's the only one leaves the drive invisible to the OS until re-partitioned and formatted. Think of partitioning like creating a filing cabinet and formatting as emptying it out and creating a file system to help you find stuff. If you delete the filing cabinet it's gone and there's nothing to see, if you format it you can still see it's there but it's empty. I used to use a small partition for My OS to keep it under control and make it easy to backup. Eventually though I always seem to find I've underestimated how big my C: drive needs to be so now I use the whole drive as it's just easier that way. SSD drives have brought back the old philosophy though, at least for me. A small fast hard drive for the OS and programs, and a larger slower one for data storage. Currently I have a 256GB SSD and a 2TB HDD as my system drives.	dugimodo (138)
1387623	2014-11-04 20:48:00	Incidentally, in Windows 7 Home Premium, when installing it, you reach a page where you select which Drive you want to load it onto and then under "advanced" you can Format the Drive or Delete it. I allways delete all partitons & let the setup re-partition it. That gets rid of any strange partitioning that may be there. Just to be safe, unplug any 2nd HD before doing this.	1101 (13337)
1387624	2014-11-07 04:24:00	Gooday All, Was astounded to see so many replies here (did not know there were any, there were no notification emails) and want to thank you all for taking the time to provide such a veritable cornucopia of information; it's going to take a while to try and properly assimilate it (as far as possible that is, have already got more questions!!!) and am intending to try a few things such as removing the OS from the second HDD and maybe slapping Linux Mint onto it. One of the things am wracking my sole remaining brain-cell (and there's not much of that left; am trying to cure it with home brew but with not a lot of success - think the dosages are too small!!!) about, is this: how is it that the OS on the 2nd Drive cannot be opened from the first (C/:) Drive? Was wrong when saying the D/: Drive showed as "blank" when opening it from the C/: Drive OS, as it does have folders with files in them pertaining to the OS on the D/: Drive, but why cannot the OS on D/: be seen? All there are, are a few folders and nothing else. Better leave it at that for the time being, as it's a heck of a complicated subject for a non-Tech (like all computer stuff!) but want to learn and so asking questions on an outstanding Tech Forum like NZ PC World (by far the best Tech Forum i have seen) is the way to go: have got poor eyesight so googling Tech stuff and having to try and read oceans of text, a lot of which is information that is not being looked for, is truly gruelling. While on a Website such as this a questioner can be as specific as possible and will receive usually a lot of straight-to-the-point highly knowledgeable replies. All very Excellent, and thank you again, 10/10 NZ PC World.	Dragonov (16500)
1387625	2014-11-07 05:58:00	You only get notifications if you tick that option when creating the thread	gary67 (56)
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