Planning to get a new PC, confused about 2 hard drives

[saleksa25]

Hello everyone.

I am planning to buy a (used) prebuilt pc. My current one is not strong enough for gaming, and I have a 775 socket motherboard so I'm just better off buying a new PC instead of upgrading my existing one.

The PC comes with a 250 GB hard drive, and I can also pay extra for a 120 GB SSD. Since my computer already has a hard drive, and I have lots of personal files on it, I would like to keep it alongside the new hard drive.

Not being very good at tech, the entire process is pretty confusing for me. My current hard drive has 300 GB and is seperated to 3 partitions, C: , D: and E: My personal files are kept on D: and E: while C: is used just for programs and stuff like that.

What confuses me is how will the entire process work. Will I have to format the entire drive, or just the C: partition when putting it into the new PC? Can I format my C: partition, then change it to a secondary partition, and install windows on the other hard drive? Can I simply keep the entire drive with all partitions, and make the other hard drive the fourth partition?

Big thank you for anyone kind enough to answer. Cheers!

 

[USAFRet]

Ideally, you want the OS and applications on the SSD. Other drives and partitions for other things.

Show us a screencap of your current system.
What OS is this?
Does the new (used) system come with an OS already installed?

 

[camieabz]

What confuses me is how will the entire process work. Will I have to format the entire drive, or just the C: partition when putting it into the new PC?

The C: partition almost certainly won't be a working boot partition in the new system, so yes (you probably don't want the new system recognising it as a failed boot partition either, and throwing a spanner in the works).

Can I format my C: partition, then change it to a secondary partition, and install windows on the other hard drive? Can I simply keep the entire drive with all partitions, and make the other hard drive the fourth partition?

I think you mis-understand partitioning. Short of merging drives in a RAID setup, partitions are drive-specific. You can have drive 1 with partitions 1...2...3...4...etc and have drive 2 with partitions 1...2...3...4...etc

Ignore the whole primary / secondary / logical thing. My advice is to format the old boot partition (C: ), and then you'll have 3 partitions to go with the new system drive. I also recommend the SSD option if 120GB is enough for boot / programs. SSDs are excellent for boot speed and fast system operation, but 120GB is not a huge amount these days if installing a lot of programs / games etc.

To be honest, if it were my system, I would use the old second drive as a single partition with folders to separate files and backups. There's little point to keeping everything separated by partitions, unless you have a boot partition and/or wipe the partitions regularly.

And consider an external drive for proper file backups.

 

[saleksa25]

Thank you both for the answers.

@USAFRet
I am running 32-bit windows 7 but I am planning to upgrade to windows 10 64-bit anyways, since both my old and the new processor support 64-bit systems. If I am to buy a new PC I will install a newer OS, no need to stick with windows 7 for me.
No, it does not come with a system, the hard drive was used but then wiped while the SSD is a brand new Kingston.

@camieabz
Thanks for the long answer. It certainly cleared up a lot of things! I am on a low budget anyways and not planning to buy an SSD larger than 120 GB. Considering that on my current drive, the entire C: partition is ~70 GB and I am only using ~55 of it for programs and the system, 120 GB should be more than enough even with the new games I am planning to install. My question is do SSDs really make that much of a difference? I've heard they are super fast and all, but do they really make everything faster? Faster speeds when searching are fine and all, but I am not sure if it's worth the extra 30€ (I'm buying with my own money that I saved up). Is there a particular difference when I'm, say, browsing the web or playing video games?

Again, thanks to both of you for the super-helpful answers!

 

[USAFRet]

1. SSD. I would not build a PC without one or more. It makes the whole system feel better. Everything you do that involves the OS is faster.
Personally, I'd get a 250GB SSD instead of that 120.
A 120GB will work, but it is on the slim side.

2. Win 10. You'll need to do a full install on the new drive anyway, so no issue there.
How to do a CLEAN installation of Windows 10


Have only the target drive connected when you do this install. Reconnect the other ones later.

 

[DSzymborski]

Honestly, I think this is the perfect time to explore a backup solution, given that it sounds like you don't have one and it's an absolute necessity for files you don't want to lose. Once you have your important files that you want to keep backed up (ideally in at least two different ways), I'd just completely wipe the future OS drive, and skip the fol-de-rol and not partition out the space.

 

[saleksa25]

@USAFRet
Thanks for the answer!

@DSzymborski
I will keep that in mind, though right now I can't exactly afford a quality external hard drive to back up all of my data. I might just use the PC with the SSD and the other hard drive, until I can get a quality backup solution for the first drive. 120 GB + 250 GB is enough for now.

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet
Thanks for the answer!

@DSzymborski
I will keep that in mind, though right now I can't exactly afford a quality external hard drive to back up all of my data. I might just use the PC with the SSD and the other hard drive, until I can get a quality backup solution for the first drive. 120 GB + 250 GB is enough for now.

Everyone says that about backups.
No time, not enough money for another drive, blah blah....
But they never get around to it.

And then...the laptop falls off the desk. Lightning strike. Ransomware. 'oops, I formatted the wrong partition'...
I see that here every day.

How much is your data worth to you?
I have some things that are literally irreplaceable.
I have a pic of my eldest grandson, at age 2, in a tutu. He is now 13.
I cannot go back in time and make another one.
(I plan to use this pic when the girls start sniffing around.)


Give us a clear list of all the drives you'll have when this change is done.
We can suggest a way ahead.

 

[DSzymborski]

@USAFRet
Thanks for the answer!

@DSzymborski
I will keep that in mind, though right now I can't exactly afford a quality external hard drive to back up all of my data. I might just use the PC with the SSD and the other hard drive, until I can get a quality backup solution for the first drive. 120 GB + 250 GB is enough for now.

There are both cheap and free cloud solutions. Google Drive gives you 15 GB for free and doesn't count photos against this. At last check, you can get that up to 100 GB for $2 a month. OneDrive gives you 5 GB for free. Dropbox gives you 2 GB for free.

Think about what you have on this PC. Now, imagine that all the files were suddenly unable to be retrieved. What would you pay to get them back? If it costs more than what you price a couple hours of effort, then you're being very dangerous at not having a backup solution.

We get this *all the time* here. Someone's hard drive crashes and there's physical internal damage. Their family photos or the research paper they were working on or various other things were on that drive. Then they ask us the magic way to get those files off those drives after software-based attempts fail. Then we tell them that it's going to likely cost over $1000 to get a proper firm with a clean-room and specialized equipment if they want their precious data back.

Now, if nothing you have on your PC has any kind of value worth even a small effort, then great, you don't need to do anything. But if you have files you really don't want to lose, not having a backup solution is no different than not changing the air filter in your furnace or the oil in your car.

 

[camieabz]

My question is do SSDs really make that much of a difference?

SSD advantages?

Speed - Boot times are cut dramatically, depending on the SSD and the HDD. My last system had a WD velociraptor, and the current one's SSD walks all over it. Boot times cut from around 45-55 seconds to around 15-20 seconds (from POST onwards). Don't take my word for it. See a comparison of my old system's HDDs with my current one, and with a possible upgrade option. Data taken from UserBench site:



Other advantages? Zero noise. Less power used. Less heat. Less weight. Less size.

Disadvantages? Price. Potentially less tolerance for data loss (i.e. HDDs can die slowly, with warning noises / symptoms, while SSDs probably prone to die instantly), however we sensible people keep reliable backups anyway, don't we.

For what it's worth, I had a drive controller on an old PC die on me and take three HDDs with it instantly. Not a nice feeling. So I have never considered HDDs reliable compared to SSDs. For all the cost vs the hassle, a half-decent external USB backup drive is a great investment.

You don't need to backup that often. I do about 2-3 backups per year, as 99% of my PC usage is non-essential. You can easily backup to 2nd drive on PC or setup system restore appropriately to cover the maintenance.