JohnnyLaw[RS]
05-12-2009, 07:50 PM
I'm not gonna tell y'all to run chkdsk or defrag once a week (although you should).
I just have a suggestion for you guys who may be building a computer or wanting to upgrade sometime.
Hard drives are almost guaranteed to die on you at some point or another. Its just a matter of time. What I'm going to do is share with you how I get the most out of mine for probably longer than most.
Typical setup in computers is a big hard drive to hold everything you want. When it starts to fill up you buy another one and put it in. Many people try to buy a hard drive with a big enough capacity so they don't have to worry as much about filling it up too soon. And there in lies the biggest cause for hard drive failures.
We put so much stuff on our hard drives that we make them constantly work harder and harder over time by filling them with more and more crap.
My technique for better performance and reliability concerning hard drives isn't rocket science or anything. Its just an approach that a lot of people don't consider.
I have 3 hard drives in my computer;
C:80Gig System drive for the operating system and programs.
G:80Gig My games and only my games
The third is a 250 gig that i've created multiple partitions in for things like digital picture, music, movies, etc.
When I want to defrag my system hard drive it doesnt take 2 hours. its only an 80 gig.
when I want to run a chkdsk on my game drive, it only takes 15 minutes.
Bottom line is that my hard drives aren't working as often or as hard which equals better performance, easier maintenance, and ultimately longer life. There was also an added plus. About a month and a half ago I wanted to replace my C: drive. That was an older hard drive and I could tell that it wasn't going to be long before it was gonna roll over on its back and start to get bloated. I bought a new hard drive, cloned the old C: [ http://download.cnet.com/HDClone-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10504284.html?tag=mncol ]onto the new hard drive. shut off the computer and removed the old hard drive and then turned it back on. Which means for about $40 I replaced my C:, did it in less than an hour, and didn't have to reinstall a single thing. Think about it.
I just have a suggestion for you guys who may be building a computer or wanting to upgrade sometime.
Hard drives are almost guaranteed to die on you at some point or another. Its just a matter of time. What I'm going to do is share with you how I get the most out of mine for probably longer than most.
Typical setup in computers is a big hard drive to hold everything you want. When it starts to fill up you buy another one and put it in. Many people try to buy a hard drive with a big enough capacity so they don't have to worry as much about filling it up too soon. And there in lies the biggest cause for hard drive failures.
We put so much stuff on our hard drives that we make them constantly work harder and harder over time by filling them with more and more crap.
My technique for better performance and reliability concerning hard drives isn't rocket science or anything. Its just an approach that a lot of people don't consider.
I have 3 hard drives in my computer;
C:80Gig System drive for the operating system and programs.
G:80Gig My games and only my games
The third is a 250 gig that i've created multiple partitions in for things like digital picture, music, movies, etc.
When I want to defrag my system hard drive it doesnt take 2 hours. its only an 80 gig.
when I want to run a chkdsk on my game drive, it only takes 15 minutes.
Bottom line is that my hard drives aren't working as often or as hard which equals better performance, easier maintenance, and ultimately longer life. There was also an added plus. About a month and a half ago I wanted to replace my C: drive. That was an older hard drive and I could tell that it wasn't going to be long before it was gonna roll over on its back and start to get bloated. I bought a new hard drive, cloned the old C: [ http://download.cnet.com/HDClone-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10504284.html?tag=mncol ]onto the new hard drive. shut off the computer and removed the old hard drive and then turned it back on. Which means for about $40 I replaced my C:, did it in less than an hour, and didn't have to reinstall a single thing. Think about it.