master and slave

[mindbullets]

im just about to replace my 6gb hard disk with a 40 gb version ,someone suggested i make the 6gb drive a slave unit to download music and video onto ,i was just wondering if there is any real value in doing this and if idid would i have to install windows onto each drive ?thanks

[lisaj]

Yup. Even if you've only got one drive, it's worth partitioning. An 8Gb partition for the operating system and applications should be more than enough, leaving the rest for your data. In the event of having to reinstall the OS, you'll only need to deal with the first partition leaving all your data intact.

[j2buttonsw]

Why not use the original as the master with the system files on and use your new one as a slave for data (unless the new one is 7200 rpm with a large cache)? This way you are using 2 partitions (the advantages pointed out by lisaj) rather than 3 (ie two partitions on your 40 GB disk and the second hard drive). Windows will only boot from one partition (usually the first partiton on the IDE master) which frees up the rest. This is what Einstein has done in a round-about way (it is good practise to keep the system disk as the master).

[honkytonkman]

I agree with j2buttonsw.. I'd use the smaller disk as your master harddisc for system software, and use the larger one for the all stuff you're going to download, games, work etc. One thought,with an eye to the future, being that if should you get another computer you could just install the 40gb HD as a slave in the new machine and all your data is there. In my opinion, 6gb is a nice sized partition for system software etc.