New WD Velociraptor questions

[Simba1]

I just ordered a 450gb Velociraptor because I feel like my current drive
has slowed down considerably after a few reformats and a lot of data
writing and deletion, and its SATA 3gb/s.



I was wondering how you guys would suggest reformatting my new drive as
my main drive with W7 on it, and in a way that I can name the drive "R:"
(my current is "C:") while also keeping my other drive formatted (I'll
just change the boot sequence so it starts off my VR) but I want it
there so I can still go to my computer and pull files/store data on it.
Should I just unplug my old HDD, throw in the new one, throw W7 disk in
there, and boot up?



What I basically want to do is start my computer completely fresh on
this new drive.



PS: Is there a way to reset all other hardware components also? Like
mobo, etc? I have been having a recurring issue where when I am playing
games the screen turns into a weird pattern and the sounds becomes a
buzz and my computer locks up and stays like that until I turn it off.



I'm hoping resetting everything will help solve the problem. Any
suggestions are greatly appreciated.



PPS: Is there something I have to do besides simply plug in the new SATA
III 6GB/s Velociraptor into my mobo to get all the speed out of it? Or
is it simply plug and play?





Thanks!

 

[jitpublisher]

You cannot name your boot drive anything other than "c". (well technically you can, but it will turn into a nightmare, everything in the OS is programmed to work on a drive labeled "c"..........just don't do it)
What you have to do is unhook your current drive, install the new drive, and install Windows on the new drive. After all is said and done, hook back up your old drive, and Windows will assign it a new drive letter. You WILL have to reinstall all your programs, but all the data will still be there on the old drive.
Personally, I would have bought an SSD to put your OS on, instead of spending money on a Velociraptor, they are a really poor value with SSD's coming down in price. An SSD makes Raptor look like a slug on a December morning.
There is nothing you have to do special, simply plug the drive into the correct SATA port, and assign it a boot priority in you BIOS if you wish it to be bootable, which you do if you are installing your OS on it.

 

[inzone]

If you want to you can change the storage configuration from ide to ahci that may help but it won't help as much with a hdd as it would with a SSD. I have the WD Veloceraptor 600gb and I use it for storage and I have my os on a 180gb Corsair Force GT SSD. You will have to reformat the old drive but you can use windows to transfer some of the programs and games before you do. You can reset cmos and that will refresh the motherboards bios. You do want to check out your power supply and video card as it sounds like one of those could be causing the problem you are having. Do you have the latest drivers installed for your video card , one way to "refresh" it is to uninatall it and the drivers and then reinstall , but only if you have the install cd that came with the card. If you could list your components and approx, age it would help so we are not working in the dark here. To install the new Veloceraptor just plud it in and set it to the first boot option in the bios and go.

 

[Simba1]

Thanks for the help guys.

The reason I got the Velociraptor is because I got it for extremely
cheap. I will eventually get a SSD drive (probably in 3 months).



Inzone:

You're probably right - people have been telling me (in separate posts)
that it is most likely my PSU causing the problem. I have indeed
installed all the latest drivers for my GPU (and everything else on my
system), I even sent it in for a replacement to Diamond, but the new one
that they sent did the same thing, which makes me doubt that it's the
GPU if it happens with 2 different ones.



Here are my specs, and I built my computer last summer:

AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition

8GB Corsair 1600MHZ Ram

Biostar TA890FXE Mobo (
http://206.108.48.60/app/en/mb/introduction.php?S_ID=482&tab=3 )

Ultra 750W PSU

Diamond 1GB HD5850 GPU



Let me know if you have any more ideas, which are, greatly appreciated.

 

[cadder]

Well look at it this way- the VR will make a good second drive in the system, and 450GB may be all the secondary storage that you need.

 

[inzone]

When you get your new VR make sure you plug it into the sata3 port. Does the Biostar have a cmos button to reset the MB bios or have you upgraded the bios. So the power supply is one year old , which isn't that old but it could be defective. Is there any warrenty left on it to try a RMA If you end up replacing it try looking at Newegg they do have a lot of sales and you could catch a good name psu on sale..

 

[Simba1]

I have updated the bios (yesterday in fact) but yeah it has a JCMOS1 "jumper" and according to the manual you remove the AC power, set the jumper to pin 2-3 close, wait 5 sec, set the jumper to pin 1-2 close, then power on the AC and "reset desired password or clear the cmos data" ...I don't know of any pswd tho. I may replace the psu although I'll be disappointed if that isn't the peoblem. The problem just seems so random, like if the game is online it doesn't seem to happen etc. I did upgrade the ram at one pont and the problem seemed to start somewhere after that date, which is why I'm hoping a mobo reset may do something