evolving my hardware...pata + sata?

[bgd73]

I decided to go for a sata drive....my mpeg2 encoding is a tragedy in time to do it, just to learn I am still above average for my setup given the facts.
The classic setup is so stubbornly perfect I am nearly sweating at a change.
2 patas twinned are genius. About as genius as it gets right?

Anyway a recent test on my very fast wd800jb (80-gig western digital 8 meg buffer) showed four relocated sectors (no big deal) but the access time is up to 13.7 from when it was new, that is over doubled.It had been getting slow, even after an os clean install, and My first vid with a "blip" occured recently..."uh oh"
So, I spotted a deal on western digitals site for a 400gb sata2 (thinking of my next mobo)
for now, I am going to have a monkeyed setup with a sata and pata all on the same board. Regardless of brand name of my setup, I need generalized advice about the sata becoming the primary os drive, and pata for storage. There are several facts read about sata (I went to the inventors of it and downloaded a boring-to-read pdf file) and it claims software is the bridge to pata. I do not believe my system does this, it is hardware sata and pata.
I am only guessing pata as os or sata as the os holder does not matter. My trick to disperse the page file over twin patas can't be done anymore (and I am actually depressed over it) but am curious if I can still treat the new setup like an old pata twin setup and get way with it.

Can I do this and make rock solid data transfers, trust integrity??

any help appreciated.

[stiltman]

Define twinned
Mirrored
Stripe

I would setup the SATAs for storage and PATA for OS

My setup
1 PATA for OS (ghosted after any changes)
3 SATA RAID5 for storage

[budz]

What are you trying to accomplish? Sounds like you wanna put your OS on a brand new sata western digital 400gb hard drive which isn't difficult to do. You may need to load the sata drivers from a floppy disc when you begin the installation of xp. This is needed if you want xp to be installed on that sata hard drive. What's the brand and model number of your motherboard? Do you have sata connections on your motherboard?

You'll be able to use your PATA hard drives for storage after xp is installed on your sata hard drive. Did you wanna save the data from those 2 drives? I would assume you will wipe the hard drive that has the old OS on there.

[bgd73]

hey fast replies..

the mobo is a platinum msi 6728 (delivered with all updates, has needed none)
sata is onboard. twin pata on normal eide, is always some kind of raid never officially announced (since 1986 if I do recall "OH MY GOD")
anyway...
yes, the pata would be deleted of everything, still wanting to stay with old fashined max four partitions (software does enough retarded boggy recource sucking things) between the two drives.
the 400 gb would have 3 partitions and the pata one open 80gb.

It seems as though, either way for the os storage is the same, but after reading of satas multifunctions and NCQ (in vista) I figured I'd keep the busy os on the newer sata..

you both seem confident in your setups. do you make graphics from scratch and realize 8 hours went by? (Do you REALLY trust the integrity of the setup?) I have a means to make the 80gb a usb external storage, should I take it out of the system entirely? Dies two satas twinned interleave like the "old genius" pata?

[ntscuser]

Two drives are always better than one. Personally I would put the OS on the 80GB and use the 400GB for storage.

[Krispy Kritter]

The fact that you are still using what sounds like an "older" 80gig drive explains some of the slowness that you are seeing. Any new drive, either PATA or SATA, will be a noticable speed improvement just because the technology has changed. New drives of both formats are equivalent in speed, but you can typically get the SATA version cheaper. It all boils down to cost and personal preference. Either way, you won't have any problems mixing the two.

Unless you have some specific need for a bunch of partitions, there is no need to create them. Multiple partitions typically just increase access time, but there are some instances where users like having data divided between a bunch of drive letters (partitions) as opposed to just using folders in a single partition.

You will also want your new drive to be your primary OS drive. The faster drive will improve the speed of normal everyday operations and bootup. Where as you typically don't need quick access to data on a storage drive.

[RabidDog]

Interesting use of the Englang.. You should pension off the 80g to a usb. less often used..becoz.. each disk has a limited lifespan, and any disk that is used as the os disk gets the most use, thus lowering its lifespan quickest. This disk is the oldest already, in your setup, and you are going to assign it the main role of OS disk again? . No. Put your OS on a nice fresh Sata with plenty of life left in it. Also smartdisk is good to keep track of errors and other disk stats. I never trust raid on a home setup unless its simple mirrored discs, but that can be done using backups and software rather than RAID (just copy all work to your backup disk at the end of a work session). If you value your work then save frequently to both your main disk and your backup disk. I currently use both SATA and PATA together and have no problems..with my "old" OS disk in an USb enclosure for Mega-Backups.
(not too happy about the integrity of the usb plug on the disk enclosure tho, seems far too loose, icybox)
Drobo would be nice, but it seems far too expensive for what it is, and a bit limited.
You could buy a blu-ray burber and lots of blanks for far less money.

[ntscuser]

With the main OS on the 80Gb the faster 400GB can be used to access the page file and also to hold a dormant copy of the OS in case of disc failure. The remainder of the 80GB can be used to hold work-in-progress files. File transfer between two ATA discs is much faster than between two folders on the same disc or from ATA drive to USB drive. External USB enclosure are pretty pointless when you can buy a removable hard drive tray for just a few pounds.

[Krispy Kritter]

With the main OS on the 80Gb the faster 400GB can be used to access the page file and also to hold a dormant copy of the OS in case of disc failure. The remainder of the 80GB can be used to hold work-in-progress files. File transfer between two ATA discs is much faster than between two folders on the same disc or from ATA drive to USB drive. External USB enclosure are pretty pointless when you can buy a removable hard drive tray for just a few pounds.

And while I agree with how you use the drives, there is still a definite speed advantage in using the new drive for the OS. Swap file benefits are negligible on a system with a decent amount of RAM and only benefit users with low RAM or use a large number of programs. On my system, for instance, moving the swap file from one HDD to another makes no difference.