Can I Use A 8TB Hard Drive for My Operating System

[IWonByDefault]

I have been building my PC, kinda aimlessly buying parts and watching video tutorials to put it all together. It has worked great, and I can run basically any game now on good graphics, but my Hard Drive that I originally got is almost full, it is only 1TB. So I bought a 8TB one, and then it wasn't until I got it that I found out that Windows 10 can only support 2TB Hard Drives unless I initialize it using GUID partition table or something. I have no clue what that means, but I did that. And my new Hard Drive is in the PC, and works and I can move stuff into it. I was wondering though, if I could just copy everything, including Windows from my 1TB Hard Drive onto my 8TB one, then take the 1TB out and put the 8TB one in the driver slot #1 and if then my PC would work the exact same as it did before, but I would just have 7TB more. And if this is not something I can do relatively easily, is there any way I could at least move the majority of my files over to the 8TB one, like the program files for example. I'm basically open to anything, but I do like my files all organized and I don't particularly want to start saving new games and stuff into different areas on a different hard drive, so if it is possible for me to move basically everything over to the 8TB one, that would be perfect. If there are any easier solutions though, again, I am open to it.

 

[mdd1963]

Many folks will use 500-1000 GB SSDs for the operating system and most used applications, while many will games, music, etc., are put on larger storage drives. As an 8 TB drive is likely a spinning drive currently, the OS is much slower run from a spinning drive anyway...

 

[IWonByDefault]

Many folks will use 500-1000 GB SSDs for the operating system and most used applications, while many will games, music, etc., are put on larger storage drives. As an 8 TB drive is likely a spinning drive currently, the OS is much slower run from a spinning drive anyway...

Could higher RAM help with running an operating system on a "spinning drive"? I currently have 4 chips of 8GB RAM each, and I could possibly get even more. Thanks.

 

[USAFRet]

Could higher RAM help with running an operating system on a "spinning drive"? I currently have 4 chips of 8GB RAM each, and I could possibly get even more. Thanks.

No, it doesn't work like that.
You currently have 32GB RAM. Adding more won't help.

An SSD for the OS and applications is what you want.

And an 8TB for the OS drive is a waste.
And no, you can't move just the programs to the 8TB.

You likely do have a bunch of junk that you can move to that, but not "programs".

 

[joshuatheman555]

More ram won't really help the "feel" of the operating system. Everything will feel laggy and slow with the OS on the HDD. An SSD for the OS is hands down the way to go. the 8TB HDD should just be storage.

There are utilities to clone drives and such, but a fresh install is way better.

 

[Steve Istvan Horvath]

Hi! If you have a traditional hard disk, you can create a 500GB partition for the OS and install it, and then format the remaining free space for your other programs. You cannot copy the OS from one drive to another, so you have to install the OS again on the new drive. After that you can copy your other programs. If have a Solid State Drive, than you neither need to format, nor partition the drive, just install the OS and reboot the system, and after that you can copy your other programs onto the drive.