[Peaker]

Hi all,

Just wondering if you can help me.

I currently run an IDE HDD 20Gb and have finally purchased a SATA Seagate Barracuda 250Gb HDD.

I was intending on continuing to run my OS on the 20Gb drive and have all my software on the 250Gb drive.

What I'm wondering however is will this introduce and performance issues.

Obviously the SATA drive has a faster transfer rate than the IDE drive. Will running the OS from the IDE drive slow down or reduce the benefit of the faster transfer rate of the SATA drive? Thus making my programs run slower.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Peaker.

 

[MysticEyes]

Well you could check the speed of the drives with this app.

http://www.hdtune.com/

There isn't much noticable speed difference between modern IDE and SATA, but your 20GB is probably an old slow beast. I guess you could try installing your new apps to the SATA, but I've had less problems when I let apps install to the C drive.

 

[Peaker]

Please help!!! Want to install my drive but not going to until I have some opinions....

 

[JohnWill]

You have an opinion, and I'll second it. I doubt I'd install on the 20gig, for several reasons. It's bound to be slower than the 250gig SATA, and 20gigs is marginal for your boot partition and applications anyway. I prefer 30-40gig for the boot partition.

You were also provided a link to a nice benchmark utility that will tell you exactly what the difference is.

Exactly how much more do you need?

 

[griffinspc]

Without knowing the specs of the IDE drive (I suspect MysticEyes is right in assuming it's very old and slow, 5400 RPM) but unless you're doing some heavy work or gaming you'll likely not see much difference. Having said that I can't imagine why you'd not want to start with a fresh install of your OS and clean installs of your applications. You'll have to reinstall all your applications anyway from what you said above. You already may know this but you can't just move the software to the new drive. It will have to be uninstalled from C and reinstalled on D.

 

[Peaker]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the replies. Sorry. posted my reply just as first reply came through so I thought I hadn't any.

Tested my 20Gb drive and yes it's a dinosaur. 24Mb/s with a very small cache.

I take it it's just a case of remove the IDE drive. Install the SATA. Install the O/S?

According to the Seagate website Win2000 should recognise the SATA without the need for any additional drivers?

Thanks,

Peaker

 

[griffinspc]

I have to ask. Was that the original HD in that machine? If so how old is the motherboard? Is it SATA ready?

 

[Peaker]

The rest of the machine is bang up to date. Just built it recently. But couldn't be bothered replacing the HDD and spent the cash on other toys. It is SATA ready but only 150 not 300

 

[griffinspc]

Good, had me worried there. Some folks think a SATA is just another drive they see on New Egg or wherever but faster.

 

[JohnWill]

According to the Seagate website Win2000 should recognise the SATA without the need for any additional drivers?

That's going to depend on the motherboard in question. If it's connected to a RAID controller, you may need the drivers, even though you don't use the RAID function. Perhaps you should tell us the make/model of the motherboard...

 

[Peaker]

Hi,

Mobo is an Abit IS7-E.

 

[bigbear]

If the rest of the machine is bang upto date then you would not have been able to use that drive with the os as it will not work on your new system, it is "tied" to your old mobo
I would install new drive, create a partition of say 50g for your "C" drive and use the rest for your data