Recommended hard disk configuration for HTPC? (2 Viewers)

[kenp2600]

The parts I ordered for my HTPC will start arriving any day now and I want to get started building right away. What configuration of hard disks would be best?

I've got 2 1TB Sata drives coming. Should I combine them into one large volume and just put everything on the C drive, should I make a small C drive for Windows and Programs and use everything else for storing DVD Rips, etc? If so, how big should I make the C Drive.

Thanks for your input!

 

[trevor]

The parts I ordered for my HTPC will start arriving any day now and I want to get started building right away. What configuration of hard disks would be best?

I've got 2 1TB Sata drives coming. Should I combine them into one large volume and just put everything on the C drive, should I make a small C drive for Windows and Programs and use everything else for storing DVD Rips, etc? If so, how big should I make the C Drive.

Thanks for your input!

Hi,

Bit late now but I wpuld have gone for 3 x 750gb in a RAID 5 configuration though this would have only given you 1.5gb of usable storage.

I ignored my own advise (to my cost once) and stripe my drives, gives for faster access but if a drive fails you lose evverything...I have 3 x 1TB external drives as backup!

In Addition to the internal drives I have a 1.5TB DAS external, 1TB USB2 and 1TB iSCSI network drives - you will be suprised how fast diskspace is used when you get into this.....

I size things as follows for the internal drives

C: - 25GB - Vista 32 OS and all progams bar MP
D: - 15GB - Page Files, MP Install, Timeshift files (also pointed TEMP and TMP to this)
E: - 1TB - Media files (in my case recordedTV & films)

If doing this again I would make C: - 30GB as I have to keep

It is best to seperate off the C: drive as it allows you to rebuild the OS without affecting your media, in your case I would create C: on drive 1 and D: on drive 2 then stripe the remaining into a single E: drive. Just be aware that you should keep a backup of all media in case one drive dies...this can be sored on a cheaper external USB drive. Provided you have that a drive failure will just be a rebuiding pain and not a 'oh S*it' I have lost all my media....

Thats my thoughts...others may well differ..

Trevor

 

[SpudR]

I agree with the config Trevor suggested - almost.
Vista or XP?
If Vista - give it a larger C: drive - 50Gb+ as Vista bloats rapidly (for those with Vista, checkout the size of the windows/winsxs directory!)
XP is a little more predictable - go for a 30Gb - 50Gb C: drive.

The rest is really upto you - I'd have the remaining bit of the 1st disk as a D: drive and the other disk as an E: drive:
C: - 50Gb - OS and drivers ONLY
D: - 950Gb - MP stuff & audio
E: - 1Tb - movies
Also, spread your page file across disks to speed up the access time (D: & E: ) and set the size as fixed to 1.5x system RAM.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Just to add, have a 20gb partition for OS backup on my F:\ partition (Vista), can be 15gb for xp, this allows me to wipe the OS in case of any major issue and then use the restore cd to get back to a nice clean OS including drivers and updates, which takes 25 minutes to restore from boot, boy is that worth doing .

 

[kenp2600]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Ray, how do I create the OS backup and restore CD? Is that a built-in feature of Vista, or do I need third-party software to do it? I'll be running Vista Home Premium 32bit on this machine.

 

[dm15644]

[

Bit late now but I wpuld have gone for 3 x 750gb in a RAID 5 configuration though this would have only given you 1.5gb of usable storage.

Hi Trevor,

my own mainboard and most other budget boards I guess do not support RAID 5 out of the box, how would you realize it? Are there better options than running a dedicated budget NAS with FreeNAS and Geom_raid5?

Cheers

jayrock

 

[etheesdad]

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Ray, how do I create the OS backup and restore CD? Is that a built-in feature of Vista, or do I need third-party software to do it? I'll be running Vista Home Premium 32bit on this machine.

Check out Paragon Free edition
Drive Backup Express

it would easier with any software to back up to a spare drive or partition than to dvd's though. (faster, no swapping disks on back up or restore)

 

[schan]

C: - 25GB - Vista 32 OS and all progams bar MP

Trevor

25GB C: drive is kind of small for Vista. Microsoft recommended at least 45GB for all Vista version except Home Basic.

System requirements for Windows Vista

Even you do a custom install, I would not recommend the boot drive smaller than 100GB.

My Windows (Vista 64 Ultimate with SP1) folder is already over 21GB

 

[etheesdad]

my windows install (vista x86 - not vlited) is 11gb. program files including mp is about 1.5. (total 12.5gb). I think the MS Install Guidelines probably assume that hyberfil.sys (3-4gb) and pagefile.sys (4-5gb) are going to be on the same drive as the installation (single drive install). If thats not the case (ie hyberfile not used and pagefile split or run from separate drive) then a more modest space than the MS recommended will be adequate, depending on how heavy his program installations are.

 

[SpudR]

NO NO NO!!!
Vista copies things like drivers and updates into the windows\winsxs folder - as a result it becomes HUGE!
Take the recommendation - 50Gb! I See the problems throttling it produces almost every day - Dell still configure with a tiny system drive and I get LOTS of business fixing it!
Save yourself the hassle...