Which HD should I use for HTPC?

[rmbelson]

Am adapting a PC for use as a HTPC. Currently have an old WD600BB IDE drive running windows XP (system was used, and that's what came with it). I'm planning on buying a 1TB SATA drive for media, but want to keep OS and Program Files on different drive (or partition). I have an old WD1600JB IDE sitting around I could put in as C drive, if the effort of loading OS and configuring was worth it -- but I'm looking for easiest and zero bucks way to do this. So, will switching to the larger IDE drive be worth it? Should I partition the 1TB drive for windows and just use that? Note: I have old win xp discs but will have to search out serial numbers, so this may be more of a drag than I want to reinstall windows.

Thanks

 

[Onus]

I don't think an HTPC is particularly demanding of its hard drive(s). I see no reason why you couldn't keep the OS and apps on the old C: and use the new drive for content. 60GB ought to be plenty of space, but you could clone it to the 160 if you need more; you shouldn't need to reload Windows in that case.

 

[rmbelson]

Sounds like a great plan. I don't have Norton Ghost, but I can dl HDclone. On the other hand, the used drive calls itself by the name the previous user had and maybe I should do a complete install just to get the OS right. Thanks

 

[Onus]

If it is the name of the computer, you can change it in the Properties under My Computer, or search for that name in the Registry and change it. If it is just the volume label on the drive, you can change it in the Properties for the drive.

 

[rmbelson]

I tried this a few ways -- in XP there seem to be different ways the computer is named. The log on name, the network name, the OS name. Some you can change -- but the one name that I haven't figured out how to change is the name My Documents is under.

 

[megamanx00]

Even if you change the user name Windows still has properties associated with that folder so in the directory, the folder that My Documents folder is in will remain the same. The best way to do it is to boot into safe mode, log in as Administrator, create a new user (with all the same rights as the old one), copy the files from the old user to the new one, and delete the old user. Of course don't delete the old user until you've copied everything to the new desktop and my documents folder. Also if you have any emails, or other info that could be stored in Application Data, make sure to back it up before deleting the old account.

 

[Nik_I]

i think that you should get only one hard drive. since this is a HTPC that'll be sitting in your living room, extra noise isn't welcome. while hard drives aren't all that loud, i don't think the second one is all that necessary. just get a really big one, maybe the 1.5TB drive that seagate is supposed to release soon if they haven't already.

 

[goonting]

if its cpu is old it might have difficulty playing HD content... hard disk really matters less....ide drives still fast enough

 

[rmbelson]

newish cpu - athlon xp 64 - BE-2400