Hey, I'm planning on getting this HD as a secondary one to store a backup of my entire system on
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
I'm going to use Acronis to backup my hole system onto that drive and I got a couple questions:

How do I get it to be recognized as a "Slave" Drive only, I heard people talk about "Master & Slave" Drives but I think it might be IDE only, these are SATA ll drives, do they auto detect the settings or something?

Also,

When I do get it installed as a secondary drive, Will i be able to install the OS & everything else onto it with Acronis, so if my current HD ever goes bad I can just swap them and it'd be like nothing ever happend..

Thanks guys!

You cannot copy the C: drive to a D: drive and have it work. If you remove the first drive and relocate the second drive to the connection where the first drive was (which will make it C:), that 'should' work.
But I think it's better to make an image 'file' of the first drive on the second drive. Then if the first hard disk dies, replace it with a new hard disk and restore the image from the second drive.

To get the new disk recognised as a slave, you just change the links/jumpers to slave. It should be writen on the drive itself.

To be able to quickly restore your operating system, create an image of your master drive to the slave.
I don't know Acronis, but I think you should be able to create a startup/recovery disk to enable you to access the backup image, if your system won't boot.

Before posting try google. Backup. Use anti virus software.

The new drive is SATA II, there is no master/ slave settings with SATA drives.

Is your primary HDrive also a SATA II drive? If so you should have any needed SATA drivers already installed.

Connect the new drive to the next SATA port on the MBoard. Existing drive should be on PORT #1. Connect to port #2. Boot into WinXP and go to disk managment and partition and format the drive from there. Even if you want to keep the drive as one partition you still need to create it there.

I haven't used Acronis so I am not sure how different drive sizes work within Acronis. To be safe you could partition the new drive into at least 2 partitions. When imaging the primary drive create a folder on the new drive and save the image there.

Hi, Thanks for your replies!!

So, if my current HD is SATA ll already (which it is) I won't need to install drivers for the other SATA ll drive I'm installing?

And I just put it in right under the other SATA ll drive which is the 2ND HD Slot, then I boot normally and go to Disk Management in CP and find the new HD I installed in there and then what do I do? Partition it/Create it/Format it? How would I go about doing those Three things with the new drive?

After you install the new drive in the case and connect the power and data cables you should verify the BIOS is seeing the drive. Watch the screens at startup. The new drive should be identified by model. Assumming that occurs, allow the computer to boot completely into WinXP. Go to disk management and you should see the drive listed there as unallocated. Right click on the drive label and you should see all options. Before proceeding think about how you will use the new drive and decide if you wish to create multiple partitions. The process is to create at least one partion and then format that partition. For a primer on partitioning strategies see the link below. If you have a desire to install additional operating systems then you may want to allow for that by creating additional partitons. Should you pursue the multiple partition route one word of caution. When creating partitions you need to specify the desired size. this can be done by actual size typed out or by percentage. The percentage way can get confusing. For instance if you say you want to create the primary partition on the new 320GB drive 50%. The first partition will then be about 160GB. Now you have 160GB lest. You make the next partition 50% and it will only be 80GB. See where I am going with this? BTW the numbers will vary due to disk geometry. Before I go any further with instructions that you may not be interested in post back if interested in further help with partitioning. I will point out that partitioning halps organize and make performing backups easier to do.

http://partition.radified.com/

As to using Acronis to restore to a new drive, no problem It can clone your old drive to a new one even if it's bigger or smaller, so long as the partition is larger then the amount of data that is going to it.

"Likewise, you can create a partition for all your Games, and another to store your Back-ups, etc."
Wow, this is exactly what I wanted to do.
Thanks for that link!

I plan to make 1 partition for my Pagefile and Games so nothing interferes with the games (like scattered data or software conflict or anything) That should work right? And then another to store the backup. And maybe one more for something else (Media?)

I'm still not sure on which Drive I will get, but maybe a 320/500GB one,

I read through that hole thing hoping he would explain how to partition at the end :( lol but It helped me understand it more.

So the first partition will be the fastest, I will put my games on that one(100GB?) I have like 40GB in games currently, then media on the second(120GB), then backup on the last(80GB).
That's like perfect for a 320GB drive I think.

Now I just need to learn how to partition, could you help me out with that? I'd really appreciate it!

Edit...

Also, question about purchasing drives:

1) http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...

2) http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...

On #1 I'd have to buy online, probably OEM (Which I don't like cause you don't get instructions or cables I think) But the drive says it's for "Gaming"

On #2 It's at my local Bestbuy, but it doesn't say it's for Gaming..

Now, is there really a difference between these two drives, that makes one better for running games on then the other? The specs are identical except for the size I think...

First of all there is no difference in retail of OEM drives other than packaging and cables.

You already know how to use the internet. If you get stuck go online a use Google. You are lucky. When I first opened up a case all we had were computer magazines and Computer shopper for vendors.

Don't get too caught up in speed. I would recommend buying an OEM drive from Newegg.com. They are one of the best online vendors in existance. I have been using Western Digital drives for the last couple of years. Has trouble with IBM which was bought by Hitachi. Also had trouble with Maxtor, which I think was bough by Seagate. Don't know anything about Samsung harddrives but they do make good LCD displays. Below are two links to Newegg.com. They are for SATA II drives of certain sizes. Read the specs and decide. Some will say that 16MB of cache is superior to 8MB. I am unsure of this but there are two WD drives with those specs and they are $15 difference in price. If you are a gamer the extra cache may be of benefit to you. You MAY need to also order a SATA data cable, 4 mounting screws and possibly a power splitter if you don't have any available SATA power connectors in your case. Check with Newegg about what is in the box. They may even show you pictures. SATA uses a different connector than other drives.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...

"The new drive is SATA II, there is no master/ slave settings with SATA drives"

I stand corrected. As someone else says. learning all the time.

Before posting try google. Backup. Use anti virus software.