HTPC - Why 2 hardrives ?

[vcd4me]

Ok

So I just put together a htpc, and I was discusing this with my brother, I mentioned that some people say you should use 2 hardrives .

What I want to do is.....record tv as well as backup dvds

The hardrive I bought for this computer is 120 GB, and after telling my brother this he gave me a 8.x gig HD that he had hanging around.

So I have some questions

1. Can someone explain why I would need 2 HD.
2. Is there anything that I need to know about installing an older 8 gig HD will it be compatible with a newer system.
3. I am not quite sure as to what exactly ata means so...Is it possible the 8 gig and the 120gig are the same ata ?


Thanks in advance
ED

[rallynavvie]

They should work fine together after a format as long as they're both ATA drives. The reason most people suggest two hard drives is if you're planning on doing any sort of encoding. If you plan on backing up the DVD to hard disk as an image or a VOB and the TV you save is left as whatever it was captured as then you don't really need the 2nd drive. But if you're planning on encoding the TV recording down or taking just the main video feature from a DVD to store on there (or shrinking it to fit on DVD5) they you'll want the second drive. You read from one and write to the other. Reading and writing to the same drive is no good.

Considering that 8GB stores roughly the same as a single DVD9 I'd look for other options for a second hard drive. Just wait and find a deal on bigger drives. I found an 80GB w/8MB cache for $20 after rebates...

[redwudz]

I use 2 harddrives for the reasons mentioned and also because I stress my 2nd (Video drive) a lot more than my boot drive. A lot of files, adding and erasing, defragging, etc. A smaller boot, say 40G is nice when you need to reformat and reinstall windows or just defrag. I know it would be a pain, but your 120 would be better as a 2nd drive and a smaller for boot. 8G is too small for much use. I don't multiple partition, as it seems unecessary.

[flaninacupboard]

eventual plan for mine is one smaller hard drvie (~60 gigs) at 5400RPM so i can't hear it and a larger (~300gb) that's a bit quicker for actually doing stuff with. a 7200RPM spinning all day every day is both noisy and hot.

[snafu099]

Depending on how you intend to use HTPC, dedicated to vid or as general pc with lots of apps; a 8g boot disk should be sufficient. It needs to be large enough to hold os, applications, temp woking space, it does not have to be "fast".

All the reasons given are valid to some extent but also holdovers from days of slower systems & hard drives. The critical factor is the sustained read/write speed/capability of the capture drive as configured in YOUR system. A good sys & hdd should function well enough for your needs but does not mean a seperate partition/hdd is not preferable for other reasons.

Vidio files in general are large and more disc intensive than normal pc use files. using a seperate partition/drive reduces the risk of corrupting your boot partition/drive when: file error, scan disk, defrag.

If you have the resources to utilize a seperate hdd that is the most prefered, next would be seperate partition and last would be single drive/partition. With a new sys the oder of preferance has more to do with maintenance than with ability to do the work in the first place.

[Jayhawk]

snafu099, I agree with almost everything you said but would have to differ on the 8 gig should be sufficient part. IF vcd4me is using XP then I think he's going to run into trouble. I have a 40g C: drive running XP with very few apps (a lite version of office, decrypter, lite version of Nero, Moviefactory, and a half dozen smaller apps). No photos, mp3's, video files, mail. I've even movied my swap file off to another drive and I'm at slightly over 7gig used. Fortunately I'm using a 40gig so I have enough room for disk to disk encoding, defragging, internet temp files, etc. I think 8gig as a C: drive in an XP environment is asking for trouble. A 12 - 15 would offer a better cushion but I really lean towards a good fast 20gig minimum. Fast because all your apps and windows dll's load from C: and typically that's where your swap file is although it could be moved. Most programs default their workspace to C: also.

[vcd4me]

Hi all,

By the sounds of it I really don't need a second hardrive it will just be faster to move things around .Right?but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to add the second hardrive seeing as it is free..LOL . I am so confused about this because some people around here talk about a 120 gig like it is not enough...maybe I am confused but isn't a good rule of thumb 10-20 mb per minute for video.

As far as my use snafu099...I plan on using it for a HTPC mostly. The goal is to be able to record tv programs and to make backup copies of dvds. I plan on using this at my summer cottage as a dvd player/entertainment system. There will be very little web surfing or other programs .

What is the best ide setup for the followig components (current position)
120 gig (ide1 -primary)
8 .X gig (not installed)
dvd +/- drive (ide2- master)
dvd-rom (ide 2 - slave)

Signed
ED

[Jayhawk]

I'm capturing TV at 720 X 480 with a bitrate of 6200 (VBR). My files are 1024MB for 26 minutes of video (1 gig). That would be about 40mb per minute but you could use a lower bitrate or resolution for TV. I like to get 4 episodes on a DVD with no commercials and the 6200 bitrate does that so it's more personal preference. I wouldn't count on getting to 10mb but you might make 20mb.

I think your setup is fine although IF you intend on editing, another hard drive would help. Here's a couple scenarios.

Capture to the 120g on C: (primary-master). That way you can capture a bunch of episodes for building your DVD (or watch them from disc and delete them).

Install the 8g on the secondary-master and edit from the 120g to the 8g. The 8g would be fine for a 4.7g DVD.

Your final burn of the DVD would be back to the burner on the primary-slave. Leave the DVD-ROM where it is.

The above assumes you will be editing and want maximum burn speed and will probably won't be burning from C: much.

You know, all things considered, with the 120g being new and faster than the old 8g. I'd probably just leave things where they are. We're not talking about a huge time savings here and there's a lot to be said for a clean cabling setup, convenience, and a logical layout. The 8g isn't going to help you too much and it will generate heat, drain power, make noise, etc. If you really want to use it, throw it on the IDE1-Slave. You won't lose enough time to make any difference.

[snafu099]

I agree with Jayhawk's comments of running win xp on 8g drive. My post was intended to be generic in nature, alloeing for variation of your particular setup/capabilities.

"What is the best ide setup for the followig components (current position)
120 gig (ide1 -primary)
8 .X gig (not installed)
dvd +/- drive (ide2- master)
dvd-rom (ide 2 - slave) "

Utilizing what you currently have, my preferance would be to partition 120g to 20-40g boot and remaining as data. My preferance if the case allows for it is to use removeable caddy box's for all my hdd. I can then move/change them around as desired.

However you configure the system, test the read/write capability of drives as installed; do not just rely on drive specs, preformance can be affected by many things.

[Jayhawk]

Agree completely with snafu099, if you go with a single 120 drive you should partition it for flexibility. 20-40 should be more than enough for C:, with 80 or more left for D:. Gives you a place to backup C: if you have to rebuild and gives a nice logical separation between applications and data. Also allows the flexibility to have one FAT32 (C and one NTSF(D for those captures over 4gig. Both your opticals on the other channel will allow fast ripping and burning. You would have to avoid direct DVD to DVD copies but that's the salf way to go anyway.