Filling HDD and Upgarding

[blucher_au]

Hey guys,

I am quickly filling up the HDD on my laptop - have just been given faster internet and am smashing files into it quicker than ever.

I have 2 questions for the bank of knowledge that lives on TomsHardware!

1) How full should you let your HDDs get SAFELY? Also - if they are partitioned, how full should each get i.e. 250gb split into 100 and 150 partitions - how full? Percentage?


2) What is a good option for an external HDD. I think one that powers off the USB would be best - but does this reduce speed? Also, any recommendations for 500gb 72,000RPM - decent cache + USB2.0 (and preferably powers off USB - UNLESS this decreases performance)


Thanks very much guys - unleash your knowledge!

Kris

 

[br3nd064]

1) If it's the page file/OS drive, I'd leave ~5gb empty. If it's a storage drive, I'd probably do up to ~1gb empty.

2) Get one that has a power cord and doesn't use usb for all it's power. It doesn't reduce speed, if anything, it would be faster than one that's powered off usb only. I don't have any specific recommendations, but try to get one with at least 8mb of cache.