So I'm buying a new hard drive...

[Stigmata]

I currently have a Seagate 320GB 7200RPM SATA2 drive, in four partitions. I think it's dying though, so I'm picking up a 1TB (or maybe 750GB) drive. How should I be setting all this up? Should I do some sort of scan on my 320 drive before moving its data around? How should I partition my new drive?

My setup right now is a 15GB backup partition for drivers and install files, 25GB for my OS, 20GB for programs and 240GB for media. I like this - it keeps my C: drive fairly clear, my media from being deleted when I reformat, and important files from getting lost. But could I do it more efficiently?...

 

[No Limit]

To be honest I'm not a fan of partitions, to me they are a hassle. You have to plan out a head of time how much space you will need for all your stuff and you usually find making such a plan is impossible. But that's just my personal opinion, nothing wrong with partitions if you really wanna use them, I just think they are a pain in the ass.

On your 320GB drive not really much you need to do. If you will be running 2 drives in your system you don't have to do much of anything. If you will keep your OS on the old drive you will have to make sure it is set as secondary in your bios so it doesnt load that installation. If you are formatting that drive its pretty much plug and play (assuming you have enough sata ports).

 

[VirusType2]

Should I do some sort of scan on my 320 drive before moving its data around? How should I partition my new drive?

Sure, it's a good idea to scan your drive for malware before moving the data to another drive.

You can simply partition it the same way you had it, unless you think you will want more space. It's definitely less of a hassle to format and reinstall an OS on a huge drive if your OS has its own partition. Then the hundreds of GB of other data doesn't need to be moved first.

If you want to install more than one operating system on 1 hard drive, you will need partitions.

EDIT: But if you aren't putting an OS on the HDD, then I agree with No Limit, I don't know of a reason to partition the drive - in fact I think it would be undesirable.

 

[Rico]

Partitions are good if you separate your OS from the rest of your data.

Make sure your new HD is not a Seagate, or Maxtor. I only trust Western Digital these days, as the failure rate of those other two brands is abysmal.

If your old HD is dying I suggest formatting it after you move what you need, then just use it as a storage drive. It will extend its life and if it crashes, it will not take out the OS with it. (put the OS in the new drive)

 

[No Limit]

Make sure your new HD is not a Seagate, or Maxtor. I only trust Western Digital these days, as the failure rate of those other two brands is abysmal.

I guess that's somewhat of an opinion based on negative experiance you might have had and can happen with any drive. I've actually had fairly good luck with Seagate and Maxtor as internal drives. But western digital has always been good too. I did have a external seagate crap out on my but I beat the crap out of that drive since it was a backup drive I always kept in my car so I never had to leave it on site.

One way to increase the lifetime of your new hard drive is to add a hard drive cooler to it. They are fairly cheap and will keep your drive much cooler.

 

[Raziaar]

I have two partitions on my 1TB HD.

about 200-250 gigs on my C drive... for programs and stuff that typically like to be installed in program files... as well as all the my documents information and shit that will be produced.

And the rest in a separate drive that I use for all my downloads, my game installations, steam... etc.

this allows me to do almost whatever I want with the bulk of my stuff on my D drive... while keeping my C drive for the most part clear of all but program installations and my desktop/my documents stuff.

 

[Rico]

I guess that's somewhat of an opinion based on negative experiance you might have had and can happen with any drive. I've actually had fairly good luck with Seagate and Maxtor as internal drives. But western digital has always been good too. I did have a external seagate crap out on my but I beat the crap out of that drive since it was a backup drive I always kept in my car so I never had to leave it on site.

One way to increase the lifetime of your new hard drive is to add a hard drive cooler to it. They are fairly cheap and will keep your drive much cooler.

Well its personal experience, but this experience comes from also working in an IT environment, and seeing Maxtor and Seagate drives die on a monthly basis, while WD would live for years.

So its purely an opinion, though its an opinion shared by many people. I always buy WD if my other choices are seagate and maxtor.

 

[No Limit]

Well the funny thing is my experiance is also coming from an IT enviroment (although fairly small in all honesty). So its funny how different people will have different experiances with different brands. But you are absolutely right, I got no beef with WD and when I can I go that route.

 

[Asus]

I've usually got feeling that the Maxtor brand was not viewed very well by most people while with Seagate it mattered more with the model. Both good models and bad depending on what 5 year time frame people had experience with their products. Maybe Maxtor was like that too but that wasn't the image of the brand imo.

WD is average (that's good for consumer level HDDs) because they don't seem to have any specific model that ended up with a rash of bad drives. And their image always seems to be for the enthusiast.

I would keep the 320GB drive you have now and still use it if it is just getting old. If it seriously is dying (I didn't read that kind of urgency from your post) then obviously toss it.
I would keep it simple and not use partitions like folders (Media, Drivers, Programs etc) but just to keep the OS seperate.
If you were to do it similar to how you have it now maybe setup 2 or 3 partitions max.
OS - Partition 1
Program files - Partition 2
Media folder, Driver/Installs folder - leave it on Partition 2 or on a 2nd drive (your old one) or create a 3rd partition on drive 1

I have one of my older SATA drives completely disconnected from my PC and in a shielded bag. I pull it out for backups in one of these.

 

[VirusType2]

Exactly my sentiments, Asus.

Personally, I've only owned WD and Samsung HDDs. I've had the WD drives for years longer, but regardless, never had a drive fail. I leave them things running under direct case fans 24 hours a day 365 days a year most of the time, for about 5 years straight.

Probably due to lose one soon, I would think. I tend to retire smaller drives anyway, so I use them as backups of active drives.