Computer Q&A

[jeriddian]

Continuation of the Computer Q and A thread.

[Cloud23465]

Ok... Now I've just order at 750gb hard drive and I'm not sure what to do with it... as far as the 2 options. Set it as the master boot drive or set it as a secondairy backup drive? Though I've never had a WD crash but there's always that fear that it will... and something that big would hurt. I'm thinking of making it the boot drive but I'd figure i'd ask what you guys think.

[jeriddian]

You could just put a fresh copy of your OS on the new drive and then make your computer a dual boot system, able to go to either drive.

[GhostWhiter]

Ok... Now I've just order at 750gb hard drive and I'm not sure what to do with it... as far as the 2 options. Set it as the master boot drive or set it as a secondairy backup drive? Though I've never had a WD crash but there's always that fear that it will... and something that big would hurt. I'm thinking of making it the boot drive but I'd figure i'd ask what you guys think.

After your computer (without the second HDD) has been running for an hour or two, does the case feel rather warm? A lot of computer manufacturers have barely adequate cooling for the factory configuration and will suffer from overheating if you add another heat producing device (such as a second hard drive) in the case. If you even suspect that this is your situation, you should seriously consider mounting the new HDD into an external USB case.

You also might want to use a backup utility such as Norton Ghost or Acronis Trueimage to copy your current HDD onto your new 750 Gb HDD (format the new drive as a system disk first and then overwrite it with the backup image of the original HDD--this ensures the the computer will 'see' the new disk as bootable) and then swap drives (make sure everything works on the new drive first) and then erase your old drive and use that as the second drive.

You should also consider that adding a second HDD inside the case will usually be assigned drive letter D by Windows and could possibly change the drive letter designation of your CD/DVD drive(s). This can have the unfortunate effect of breaking shortcuts of applications that run off the CD. This can be fixed with the Disk Management Snap-in buried several clicks deep in 'Administrative Tools' in Control Panel

You could just put a fresh copy of your OS on the new drive and then make your computer a dual boot system, able to go to either drive.

If you want to do this, make sure that you got a bootable Windows install disk from your computer's manufacturer instead of one of those #$*& system restore disks that will only allow you to restore the computer to it's factory condition--they tend to automatically overwrite your existing HDD.

[Cloud23465]

Turely my only concern is the recovery partition... I'm hoping it will be able to create new recovery partition on this hard drive without conflict. Some of my older computer that I had to replace the hard drive with wouldn't let me use the recovery disks because it wasnt the right hard drive that was installed with the system. So i'd have to borrow someones copy of XP and enter the code found on the tower itself to get to have an OS.

[jeriddian]

You could just put a fresh copy of your OS on the new drive and then make your computer a dual boot system, able to go to either drive.

If you want to do this, make sure that you got a bootable Windows install disk from your computer's manufacturer instead of one of those #$*& system restore disks that will only allow you to restore the computer to it's factory condition--they tend to automatically overwrite your existing HDD.

Very True. I still have my original XP boot disk from when it first came out several years ago. I have used it several times and simply upgraded the service packs in order as they come afterwards. I will probably have to do it again here in a short while.

[Cloud23465]

I don't see anything on Hp's website that says it would keep me from replacing the hard drive with the boot partition with a new one... we'll just have to play it by ear i guess. First it's got to get here and not be DOA because of rough shipping.

[jeriddian]

I don't see anything on Hp's website that says it would keep me from replacing the hard drive with the boot partition with a new one... we'll just have to play it by ear i guess. First it's got to get here and not be DOA because of rough shipping.

You can do that. But I would consider ghosting a copy of the original HDD over to the new one as an option.

[Cloud23465]

I don't see anything on Hp's website that says it would keep me from replacing the hard drive with the boot partition with a new one... we'll just have to play it by ear i guess. First it's got to get here and not be DOA because of rough shipping.

You can do that. But I would consider ghosting a copy of the original HDD over to the new one as an option.

Well I dunno if the western digital lifeguard tool I've got will copy the hidden recovery partition but... i do know it can transfer and entire OS... programs, documents and all to make the new drive the boot drive. I sence alot of ne trial and error lesson on computers coming. Not to mention this is my first new SATA drive. All my older drives were IDE interface so hopefully everything will be as smooth as the past... I can hope.

[Cloud23465]

Ok... I'm getting tired of how warm my CPU gets when I'm running programs.
My CPU Idles at between 45*C and 50*C and gets between 60*C to 65*C at full load. I'm sure the fan that came with my HP is just a Stock Intel fan... What are my options? Is it possible to change it out with a different fan/ and or cooling system?