I currently have a 40GB hard drive on my computer and decided it was time for some more space. I just bought a 200GB HD to add in, but haven't installed it yet.
I figure it's about time for a fresh install of XP, and was wondering how I should set up my data with two drives for best performance. Should I install XP and all my programs on one drive and leave the other strictly for data? Or should I install the OS and programs on separate drives?
My computer is for home use and I run a lot of different types of programs, so it's not a dedicated video-editing station or gaming system or anything special like that.

Well, first check the access times of your old 40g and your new 200g, if the access times are close, use the smaller HDD for your OS. Things get spread out on larger HDD's, it's very important to keep them defragged.

That makes sense...but is there any benefit to installing my applications on the OS drive or should they go on the other drive?

The more I think about it, the more I think it would be better to just toss the 40g, sell it, use it another system, whatever, unless you need 240g's of storage. Partition the 200g, use one partition for media/vid editing, another for gaming, another for your OS and normal/everyday apps.


That would give you more control of resources for each partition, and better performance for your apps. I could be wrong, but seems the best way to go.

If you're set on keeping the 40g in that tower, use it strictly for storage. Great place to toss your large files, and it won't affect the speed of apps on your new HDD.

I don't necessarily need the 240g of storage, but I don't have another system to use the drive in. I thought there might be some small performance gain by using the smaller drive strictly for applications (not that I have 40g of apps).
I like your partition idea...I'm one of the many who don't bother to partition the HD under Windows...for me, out of sheer lazyness.
Hey, I just had a thought...what about setting Windows to use the smaller drive as swap space? I don't need the virtual memory that badly, but I do work with rather large files now and then...just a thought. It's a decent drive: 7200rpm/ATA100, so I'm sure it'll have some use.
Thanks for the tips!

I'm not sure if putting the page file on the 40gig would speed anything up, your CPU would have to access a slave HDD, while accessing your master HDD. Having 40gigs of space for the page file might make for a VERY fragmented page file, which would slow down access/read/write time even more.

For storage and backup, great, and would save you a bundle not burning CD's/DVD's.