Running out of storage, what's my best option?

[daniel852]

Hello,
I'm currently using a gig I built about a year ago, and I'm running out of storage space.
The gig I'm using is

FOXCONN Bloodrage mobo with
i7-920 OC'd at 3.66 ghz (air cooling),
with 6 gb of 1600 mhz corsair memory sticks,
evga gtx 275 sli,
and a 640 GB WD Caviar Black (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136319).
I'm also using an old 300 gb external which is full to the brim.
Power is corsair 850TX (I believe, don't have my comp with me atm)

What are my best options to increasing storage?
I'd rather not format (to be honest, I should since I could install windows 7 over vista which I'm using now),
but wouldn't mind if it's necessary.

Should I get another 640 WD Caviar Black and put these two in raid?
(I've never done raid so I'm not sure if that means I gotta format)
Or is getting an SSD and installing my OS on that and everything else on the WD drive I have worth it?
Unless the change is drastical, I'd rather save my money for something more gaming-relevent such as
a video card upgrade (SLI has been giving me trouble).

Thanks!

 

[daniel852]

Just realized getting an SSD would not solve my storage problem (lol), so make that
getting another WD Black 640 (put two in raid) vs getting SSD + hard drive (doesnt really have to be wd black 640 since i wont put them in raid) vs getting a different hard drive and just using them separately (probably a bigger one, like 1 tb)

 

[treefrog07]

Why not buy another HDD and install it for data storage? The 1TB WD Black are reasonably priced. I don't think you need RAID - you may lose all your data when you create a RAID volume with the existing HDD and the new one (they should both be the same capacity). SSDs are very expensive for data storage (and putting your OS on one and using the 640GB HDD for storage only gains the storage space your OS uses on the 640 HDD).

 

[daniel852]

A different type of question here, when I add another HDD, after I install an OS on it, how would I go about uninstalling vista from my current WD Black 640 without formatting it? Would be pointless to have OS installed on both of my drives.

 

[Emperus]

You can delete the boot record in your new installed OS for vista and then delete all the OS files from the hard disk.. Then procedure is, msconfig > boot then make your current OS as default OS and delete the vista.. As for it being pointless or not, that is something for you to think..

 

[Guest]

Step 1. Delete all the temp files to free your hard disk drive space. There is probably a lot of junk on C that you could move (or delete) to reclaim a lot more space- temp files (delete), /Windows/$NTUnistall* folders (move or delete anything more than a few months old), *.dmp files (delete), and probably some junk in /temp (probably delete). Be aware that this may add only a little space to your c drive.

Step 2. Place the pagefile to some other drives other than c drive. Right click My Computer—Properties—Advanced—Performace(Settings)—Adanced—Virtual Memorry(Change) then you can allocate the pagefile to some other drives. However it can only make less than 2G space which depends on the current size of the pagefile.

Step 3. Uninstall programs in c drive and install them to another drive.

source: http://www.geeksdo.com/allocate-space-to-c-drive.html

 

[daniel852]

Thanks for the help.
Just gonna get the WD Black 1TB for storage and install windows 7.

 

[JackNaylorPE]

First pick a HD ...... might wanna stick w/ WD or get one of the 500 GB per platter drives ..... Seagate (7200.12 or Spinpoint F3). Check out the performance charts and pick whatever 500 GB per platter drive performs best under your usage patterns. The 7200.12 excels in gaming, multimedia and pictures whereas the F3 wins at music and movie maker. See the comparisons here (copy past link in manually, link won't work in forum):

(http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/2009-3.5-desktop-hard-drive-charts/compare,1006.html?prod[2371]=on&prod[2770]=on)

Look at the tests that reflect your usage and choose accordingly.

What I'd do next is take out your old HD and install the new one with Windows 7 on it. Reinstall all your programs fresh and, after updating everything to current version, put your old HD back in. If you have a problem, you can always change the boot order and boot to your old OS. Once you're sure all is OK, then delete the OS, programs and whatever you don't need off the old HD.

Lastly, keep it clean .... my fav tool is Steven Gould's CleanUp utility.

http://www.stevengould.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=69

 

[JDFan]

Actually the Samsung F3's are very fast performers and right now Newegg has the 1TB model for $69 after a $20 discount code so you might want to consider getting it ! -- Newegg Link