New hard drive, shall I bother moving?

Hi,

I currently have 2x 120Gb HD (6Y120P0 ATA Device,
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/636724/)

I ve had them for about 2 years and there is nothing wrong with them as far
as I can tell.

But because they are 2 years old I bough another hard drive as 'backup' as I
suspect they are going to start failing soon.

So I bought a new 500Gb HD(ST3500320AS ATA,
http://computers.pricegrabber.com/ha...oduct/sv=title).

Originally all I wanted was to backup the other 2 drives, but I wonder if
performance would not improve if I actually moved the OS onto the new hard
drive.
The new drive has 32Mb cache while the other have 8Mb but this apparently
does not mean anything in real terms.

But installing a new OS takes time, (I have VISTA Ultimate), and I would
have to re-install just about everything, (office and so on).

So, is it worth it? Will I see a marked difference between the two Hard
drives?

Is there a way I can use the new hard drive to 'speed-up' my system?

Thanks

Simon

"Simon" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi,
>
> I currently have 2x 120Gb HD (6Y120P0 ATA Device,
> http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/636724/)
>
> I ve had them for about 2 years and there is nothing wrong with them as
> far as I can tell.
>
> But because they are 2 years old I bough another hard drive as 'backup' as
> I suspect they are going to start failing soon.
>
> So I bought a new 500Gb HD(ST3500320AS ATA,
> http://computers.pricegrabber.com/ha...oduct/sv=title).
>
> Originally all I wanted was to backup the other 2 drives, but I wonder if
> performance would not improve if I actually moved the OS onto the new hard
> drive.
> The new drive has 32Mb cache while the other have 8Mb but this apparently
> does not mean anything in real terms.
>
> But installing a new OS takes time, (I have VISTA Ultimate), and I would
> have to re-install just about everything, (office and so on).
>
> So, is it worth it? Will I see a marked difference between the two Hard
> drives?
>
> Is there a way I can use the new hard drive to 'speed-up' my system?
>
> Thanks
>
> Simon


It is always useful to have a large backup drive, especially when it is
installed in a USB enclosure which can be isolated from the rest of the
system..


--
Mike Hall - MVP

Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx

For a speedier system you should start with as much RAM as the system will
allow.
If you're really serious about speed then you might want to look at a new
computer (perhaps 64 bit system) with large RAM and a hard drive that has
high speed access times.

But regarding the computer that you have, you would be better off just to
use the 500GB drive for storing all the stuff that you don't need on the
120GB drives. If you migrate some of your photos, music and videos (the big
disc space hog) onto your large external drive you should have plenty of disc
space for Vista to do its job at the most optimum speed that your system
components allow.

In short, don't bother migrating Vista onto the larger drive.

As far as the 120GB drives failing soon: I wouldn't worry about it unless
you use those drives heavily on a daily basis. I still have XP computers
whose drives are 3-5 years old and they're working fine. So is my 2 year old
Vista machine. Just keep your drives backed-up in case of future failure.


--
oscar

....Right click is your very good friend...


"Simon" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I currently have 2x 120Gb HD (6Y120P0 ATA Device,
> http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/636724/)
>
> I ve had them for about 2 years and there is nothing wrong with them as far
> as I can tell.
>
> But because they are 2 years old I bough another hard drive as 'backup' as I
> suspect they are going to start failing soon.
>
> So I bought a new 500Gb HD(ST3500320AS ATA,
> http://computers.pricegrabber.com/ha...oduct/sv=title).
>
> Originally all I wanted was to backup the other 2 drives, but I wonder if
> performance would not improve if I actually moved the OS onto the new hard
> drive.
> The new drive has 32Mb cache while the other have 8Mb but this apparently
> does not mean anything in real terms.
>
> But installing a new OS takes time, (I have VISTA Ultimate), and I would
> have to re-install just about everything, (office and so on).
>
> So, is it worth it? Will I see a marked difference between the two Hard
> drives?
>
> Is there a way I can use the new hard drive to 'speed-up' my system?
>
> Thanks
>
> Simon
>
>

Simon <> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I currently have 2x 120Gb HD (6Y120P0 ATA Device,
> http://computers.pricegrabber.com/hard-drives/m/636724/)
>
> I ve had them for about 2 years and there is nothing wrong with them as
> far as I can tell.
>
> But because they are 2 years old I bough another hard drive as 'backup'
> as I suspect they are going to start failing soon.
>
> So I bought a new 500Gb HD(ST3500320AS ATA,
> http://computers.pricegrabber.com/ha...uda-500GB-Hard
> -Drive/m91404383.html/search=ST3500320AS/st=product/sv=title).
>
> Originally all I wanted was to backup the other 2 drives, but I wonder if
> performance would not improve if I actually moved the OS onto the new
> hard drive.
> The new drive has 32Mb cache while the other have 8Mb but this apparently
> does not mean anything in real terms.
>
> But installing a new OS takes time, (I have VISTA Ultimate), and I would
> have to re-install just about everything, (office and so on).
>
> So, is it worth it? Will I see a marked difference between the two Hard
> drives?
>
> Is there a way I can use the new hard drive to 'speed-up' my system?


I would not listen to some of the advice you have got so far.

If you want the best performance, you should clone your OS partition onto
the new drive, as it is a fact that it is going to be faster. I would have
made a switch to SATA drives as well. If your computer is so old that it
does not have any SATA ports, I wonder what you are doing running Vista on
that machine. Even so, you could have bought a PCI controller card.

Anyway, clone your Vista partition onto the new drive, and use the old ones
for data and backup, if you want to the best performance (even though it
sounds like you are using a computer that is just too old to run Vista
well).

The free trial of Acronis Migrate Easy should work:

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...s/migrateeasy/

Please tell me if that trial actually fully works, if you use it.

ss.

>
> I would not listen to some of the advice you have got so far.
>
> If you want the best performance, you should clone your OS partition onto
> the new drive, as it is a fact that it is going to be faster. I would
> have made a switch to SATA drives as well. If your computer is so old
> that it does not have any SATA ports, I wonder what you are doing running
> Vista on that machine. Even so, you could have bought a PCI controller
> card.

I never said that the computer was that old, it has 4 IDE 'slots' and 2 SATA
'solts'
I got the SATA because the size seemed about right. The specs of the drive
seem to be the same, 7200rpm and so forth.

Why do you think the performance will be improved so much?

The fact that it is a SATA seems to be a bit of a, (lucky), coincidence.

> Anyway, clone your Vista partition onto the new drive, and use the old
> ones for data and backup, if you want to the best performance (even though
> it sounds like you are using a computer that is just too old to run Vista
> well).

Again, I never said it was soooooo old, what makes you think it is?
Maybe not the new kid on the block but certainly well within the VISTA
specs,

>
> The free trial of Acronis Migrate Easy should work:
>
> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...s/migrateeasy/
>
> Please tell me if that trial actually fully works, if you use it.
>

I'll give it a try, I am very worried that moving will open a whole new kind
of worms.

Simon

>
> But regarding the computer that you have, you would be better off just to
> use the 500GB drive for storing all the stuff that you don't need on the
> 120GB drives. If you migrate some of your photos, music and videos (the
> big
> disc space hog) onto your large external drive you should have plenty of
> disc
> space for Vista to do its job at the most optimum speed that your system
> components allow.
>
> In short, don't bother migrating Vista onto the larger drive.
>

Thanks for the advice, there seem to be 2 very distinct schools of thought
here.
one that it will improve the overall performance and the other that it will
not make much difference.

I wouldn't mind moving to the new drive, but this involves a few hours of
copying and I have no doubt there will be some kind of problems.

Simon

>
> I'll give it a try, I am very worried that moving will open a whole new
> kind of worms.
>

actually, make that a 'can of worms'

Simon

Simon <> wrote:
>
>>
>> I would not listen to some of the advice you have got so far.
>>
>> If you want the best performance, you should clone your OS partition
>> onto the new drive, as it is a fact that it is going to be faster. I
>> would have made a switch to SATA drives as well. If your computer is
>> so old that it does not have any SATA ports, I wonder what you are
>> doing running Vista on that machine. Even so, you could have bought
>> a PCI controller card.
>
> I never said that the computer was that old, it has 4 IDE 'slots' and 2
> SATA 'solts'
> I got the SATA because the size seemed about right. The specs of the
> drive seem to be the same, 7200rpm and so forth.
>
> Why do you think the performance will be improved so much?
>
> The fact that it is a SATA seems to be a bit of a, (lucky), coincidence.
>
>> Anyway, clone your Vista partition onto the new drive, and use the old
>> ones for data and backup, if you want to the best performance (even
>> though it sounds like you are using a computer that is just too old
>> to run Vista well).
>
> Again, I never said it was soooooo old, what makes you think it is?
> Maybe not the new kid on the block but certainly well within the VISTA
> specs,
>
>>
>> The free trial of Acronis Migrate Easy should work:
>>
>> http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing...s/migrateeasy/
>>
>> Please tell me if that trial actually fully works, if you use it.
>>
>
> I'll give it a try, I am very worried that moving will open a whole new
> kind of worms.



Oh, I thought your new drive was ATA (PATA) and not SATA.

All you need to do is move with Acronis Migrate Easy, and then go into the
BIOS and set it to boot from the SATA drive. Then once you are sure
everything has been cloned over, you can wipe the old drive and use it for
files and backups.

ss.

>
> All you need to do is move with Acronis Migrate Easy, and then go into the
> BIOS and set it to boot from the SATA drive. Then once you are sure
> everything has been cloned over, you can wipe the old drive and use it for
> files and backups.
>

Well, I'll try acronis, but the installation is failing, ("Failed to
register product...").

My firewall is not blocking anything, in any case, not sure why I need to
register a trial product.

Simon

> Well, I'll try acronis, but the installation is failing, ("Failed to
> register product...").
>
> My firewall is not blocking anything, in any case, not sure why I need to
> register a trial product.
>
> Simon

Well, looking at the forums, it seems to be a very common problem, (since
2006 by the looks of it).

A bit of a shame really, I wonder how many potential customers like me will
not go any further because of the red tape.
But I must admit, it did look good.

Simon