Multiple hard drive help?

[Pakipimp109]

I have currently 2 hard drives I'm using, 1 2TB drive for my main windows, and had a friend hacktintosh my 2nd 500gb hd to boot up in mac to run programs, with the prices of SSD dropping i would love to install a 240gb SSD to complete the PC set up i have and make things run much faster. I would want to run programs on my SSD and storage on my 2TB drive while still keeping my mac set up. How would i go about getting a 3rd HD in my computer? i know I'm supposed to use a raid card but i know nothing about them, any suggestions?

 

[foscooter]

What type of PC? Boxed, or home built? How old?

 

[Pakipimp109]

Home built, maybe 7 months old, antec midsize, a MSI p67A -g45 mobo I5 2500K 16gb ram geforce 560 ti, 2tb 5400 WD. hope that helps

 

[smorizio]

if you have a free sata port on your nb your just add the ssd. then install windows on it and make it the first boot device.

 

[soccerdocks]

It is important to note that you install your SSD on one of the Intel SATA III 6GB/s ports or you might get reduced performance.

 

[foscooter]

You'll install the SSD to the first SATA III port (either 0 or 1 depending on mobo specs). Use the Intel ports, not the Marvell ones. Set your boot order in the BIOS to that port first, then CD/DVD Drive. You have 6 native Intel ports: 2-SATA III, and 4 SATA II. Always use these ports first!

Leave the other 2 drives unplugged during Windows install.

Once Windows is installed, then you can plug the other 2 drive into the next SATA II ports (hard drive don't need to be plugged into SATA III ports!).

Then you can move all your Libraries up to the root of the second drive, assuming that the second drive is your current Windows drive (i.e. from D:Users\name\My Documents move to D:My Documents AND C:User\name\My Documents to D:My Documents). "Libraries" include My Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, Videos, and any other (i.e. Gaming) data you want to keep/use/save.

Then you can delete ALL other folders on the second drive.

I assume that you know if you want to boot to the "hackintosh" drive, you do that with boot order.

Now this will require you to install all your programs (Office, Games, etc.) at this point.