What are some possible uses for a second hard drive?

#1 sjvirchow

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Posted 20 June 2011 - 11:04 PM

A family relative gave me his old Dell computer that had a 500GB SATA hard drive inside. I ripped it out, and threw it into my computer just for giggles. Now that it's in, I can't think of anything to do with it. It's completely empty, as I D-Ban'd it once I installed it. I've got a 320GB for my OS in right now, which is about about 25% used.

Hardware: The parts of a computer that can be kicked.

#2 Blathnat

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Posted 20 June 2011 - 11:30 PM

I have had two drives in my machine for several years now. I put all the kids saved games on the second drive, which is where they stored their mods, music and a multitude of other things that can include malicious items. It was less of a risk for the main drive.

When they got their own machines, I cleaned it out and installed Win 7 on the second drive, allowing for a dual boot system. I don't recommend that unless you take a good deal of enjoyment updating two operating systems instead of just one. Lately it has been steady back and forth, and some antivirus programs object to being used on both drives.

The best use of a secondary drive is for storing images of the main and most important drive. There are several free imaging programs, that will back up the entire C drive in case of a major problem. Plug in a recovery boot disc and you can be back to work in an hour or less.

#3 the_patriot11

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Posted 20 June 2011 - 11:41 PM

Some possible uses:

A: dual booting (using two OSes, such as linux and windows 7)

B: backups

C: Saving all your files to it, so if you have to reinstall your OS you dont need to back everything uo

D: RAID. I love RAID setups myself, been playing with it a lot lately.

E: Bragging rights. Always cool to have one more hard drive then your buddy. lol jk.

Primary system: Motherboard: ASUS M4A89GTD PRO/USB3, Processor: AMD Phenom II x4 945, Memory: 8 gigs of Patriot G2 DDR3 1600, Video: ASUS ATI 4890 and a Saphire 4890 in Crossfire, Storage: 1 WD 500 gig HD, 1 Hitachi 500 gig HD, and Power supply: Coolermaster 750 watt, OS: Windows 7 ultimate 64 bit.
Media Center: Motherboard: Gigabyte mp61p-S3, Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 6000+, Memory: 6 gigs Patriot DDR2 800, Video: Saphire 4850, Storage: 500 gig Hitachi, PSU: OCZ Fatal1ty 550 watt modular PSU, OS: Windows 7 Ultimate.
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#4 MrBruce1959

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Posted 20 June 2011 - 11:44 PM

Another use for a second hard drive is storing a back-up hard drive image on it in case your original hard drive was to crap out on you. :thumbup2:

Windows 7 has an automatic back up feature, using back up disks as medium storage can be time consuming and consumes a lot of disks, but using a secondary hard drive the same size of larger works out quite well as a back up drive.

You did not mention what your operating system is, but if it is Windows 7 you can set it up as I mentioned earlier.

For other OSes, you can do manual backups just the same.

Bruce.

Please take notice. Oreo and I will not be available until June of 2012.
Thank you for understanding my absence, it is job and college related, so all is good. If I do not answer your PMs this is the reason why. See you all soon!
Bruce.