Hard Drive - Networking Before I Buy It

Former Member · June 2006

Well I've decided because my computer is starting to become extremly slow, errors and has a ghost - its old

So im thinking should i just get a Network Hard drive,

Quick Find Code off Ebuyer: 95885

But im wondering if i can run Windows XP Home SP2 off it?

Former Member · June 2006

or just get an exorcist

Former Member · June 2006

They cost too much these days:thumb:

Im just going to get Another HHD 160 GB for £35.25 Ex Vat.

and a 128 GFX card @ 22.08 ex Vat.

Just hope they all work!!

Can you run programs from one PC to another? I.e like Messenger program, or a game ect?

Former Member · June 2006

CoolMe wrote:

They cost too much these days:thumb:

Im just going to get Another HHD 160 GB for £35.25 Ex Vat.

and a 128 GFX card @ 22.08 ex Vat.

Just hope they all work!!

Can you run programs from one PC to another? I.e like Messenger program, or a game ect?

http://play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/2007/The_Exorcist/Product.html
£5.99 delivered :thumb:

and yeh me and my dad play online pool against each other, the game is only installed on my parents machine and i just network access the .exe, but i dont know what its like for other programs or anything

Former Member · June 2006

A networked hdd won't make your system faster. If your PC's too slow to run XP then a networked hdd and new graphics card won't make any difference at all.

Check the spyware sticky (by our very own JimV) and see if that improves performance. If not then your best bet is to get more RAM.

Former Member · June 2006

Sidtec wrote:

A networked hdd won't make your system faster. If your PC's too slow to run XP then a networked hdd and new graphics card won't make any difference at all.

Check the spyware sticky (by our very own JimV) and see if that improves performance. If not then your best bet is to get more RAM.

No its slow at the moment because of the Ghost on the HHD:thumb:

I have 512mb Ram and its always run Fine

But what im asking is, if i buy an INTERNAL HHD can i share programs acrosS? like a networked drive?

2nd question, If i buy a EXTERNAL HHD can you install an OS onto it? and run from it

Former Member · June 2006

I have a netgear SC101, And trust me, you woulden't want to boot windows off it. It takes approx 5 minutes to transfer 600mb across. I have 500gb in my sc101 and It's cool being able to share files across all my network'd computers, It really is too slow, and relys on clunky drivers, which only work in windows.

Buy it if you want to backup large quantities of media to stream around the house, but don't buy it to boot windows from, It's technically impossible, and even if it were possible it'd be too slow

Former Member · June 2006

External hard drives suck. Cheap portable storage = goooooooood. Speed = baaaaaad.

Can you even get Windows to boot off an external drive these days? Won't it fall over when it realises it's being booted through a USB device, but the USB drivers aren't loaded?

Slow PC - format it.

Former Member · June 2006

CoolMe wrote:

2nd question, If i buy a EXTERNAL HHD can you install an OS onto it? and run from it

I gave this a good go with a USB 2 Drive and had no luck with Windows XP

I did a thread on it - it can be done but you need to edit the files on your installtion CD and burn a modified copy

I haven't been bothered to do that yet
A networked drive via ethernet might be different though

if your machine is slow try

SpeedXP - google and though shall find

Former Member · June 2006

Best thing to do is.
1) Buy a new hard drive that is bigger than your old one
2) Swap it with your old one.
3) Install windows on the new drive
4) Put the old drive back as a secondary drive
5) copy your files back, and use the old drive as extra storage or as a backup for your files.

I agree with everyone who said that USB hard drives will be too slow for running windows off of. You need the speed and reliabilty of a good 7200rpm internal drive.

The £22 graphics cards will be good for 4/5 year old games, and maybe solitair.

Good luck

Former Member · June 2006

I disagree with the above...

I think one smaller drive dedicated to windows and a bigger one dedicated to data works better.

That way if windows crashes (and you know one day it will) you can totally reformat it and still keep all your important files.

Former Member · June 2006

I know. That would be the best solution, but the fact that his old hard drive is probably tiny, old and likely to fail, I assumed it might be better to get a big new drive and use the old one as a spare.

DiamondGeezer's advice is good. Either keep Windows on a seperate partition, or a seperate drive.

Former Member · June 2006

CoolMe wrote:

No its slow at the moment because of the Ghost on the HHD:thumb:

I have 512mb Ram and its always run Fine

But what im asking is, if i buy an INTERNAL HHD can i share programs acrosS? like a networked drive?

2nd question, If i buy a EXTERNAL HHD can you install an OS onto it? and run from it

Internal HDD - You can share the drive and programs across. easiest way is to map it as a drive on your other computer.

External HDD - It is possible to install and run an OS but difficult and slow.

Recommended - as others have already said. Get rid of the ghost using some anti-spyware or anti-virus or format, install OS on a small hdd and docs, etc on another, larger one.

Former Member · June 2006

Well thanks for everyones replies its intresting reading them all
Just to clear afew things up

Brought new HHD 80gb for £31 stuck it in did windows ect.. works fine no ghosts or problems, stuck in the 40gb slave And Shabam! the CD drive started to blink and make noises and things

After i had copyed my files i took it out and booted up and no more problems, so i asume it was the Slave, but im happy with what i have at the moment

Former Member · June 2006

noog wrote:

I have a netgear SC101, And trust me, you woulden't want to boot windows off it. It takes approx 5 minutes to transfer 600mb across.

That is extremely slow, what are you running it on 10mbps LAN?

Try setting up dedicated machine, perhaps an oldish pentium, running Linux and Samba. I can transfer 4GB in around 10 minutes. This is using 100mbps LAN, maybe I could achieve even more with 1gbps LAN!

CoolMe, it is not possible to make a typical Windows installation on network drive (and maybe very foolish if it was even possible - as it would be very slow). My advice would be get two really cheap/large SATA drives, cheap SATA RAID card... run them in RAID 0, giving combined storage capacity of both drives and a wickedly fast transfer speeds (~ x1.5 speed of single drive).

Former Member · June 2006

bacon wrote:

interesting, i'd been looking at getting one of those for work, will not now though!

basically i want a central place to store files, (NAS?) with raid mirroring and needs to be fast as we have lots of big graphics files. any suggestions?

http://tomshardware.co.uk/2005/09/19/thecus_n4100_brings_storage_space_to_your_lan/
http://tomshardware.co.uk/2006/05/19/intel_ss4000e_raid5_nas_uk/

Much better to grow your own!

Dedicated box (something like P3 or old P4), raid card, loads of cheap sata drives, gigabit network and Linux. Use RAID1+0 (or visa-versa). Sweet!

Former Member · June 2006

Coolme: You're looknig to do something like network boot, unless you have an excellent network, i wouldnt bother. Network booting can be hard to setup. And PXE is even harder.

bacon: hit ebay and pickup an old server, like a loaded proliant, i was looknig at one for about £30.

Hard Drive - Networking Before I Buy It

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