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Yeah, but I'm building my own computer, and 2 drives might confuse me. Seriously. I've never really dealt with hardware, and am more than a little freaked out about the whole zero force insertion aspect, afraid I'll damage parts. One less hassle, well, that would be very welcome.
Inserting two drives into a computer's actually no different from inserting just one. You just have to make sure that you either set them up as "cable select" or as a master/slave combo if they're both going to be on the same IDE cable. Besides that, there really isn't any difference... the BIOS should detect them both and then you're set.
AJ
PS: Why are you thinking of installing two different Linux flavors? You realistically only need one, especially if you're just starting out with Linux. I would say, if you're going to use only one drive, stick with XP (since you mentioned you wanted that) and one Linux install, either splitting up the drive in half, or whatever you need. In my experience, if you want to dual-boot, you don't need as much space on the Linux portion because the programs generally aren't bloated, as most Windows-based programs are.
Yeah, I was joking. I'm only installing red hat. As for the master/slave thing, I bet it would be fairly easy, and I have heard XP can be easily configured to use 2 drives, still, I am a hardware newbie. I'll have to see on that one. And you're assuming I set up a BIOS, cause if I don't install XP, well, I hear linux doesn't need one. Ah, I dunno, I'll have to see. BTW, I wanted the extra space because I was going to host a site, for my IRC chan, they'll upload stuff to me, and in exchange I'll let them all download it, so I may need de xtra space. And also, if anybody knows what I meant in that last sentence, plz don't tell others.
If I had a 200GB HDD, I'd fill it up with one file, which would comprised of the phrase Spam Burger!! over and over again... why? Because I could....
I don't think you could. I think it would be a looong time before you repeated it enough times to fill 200gigs, by the time you reached 100, you'd be looking for something more interesting.
not sure if this quite fits in with the discussion, but it seemed relevant at the time
why would you want a 200 gig drive which would probably be slower than current tech being only a new thing on the market when you could probably set up a RAID with some 100 or 120 gig drives and gain more speed for a similar or cheaper outlay?
if RAID works out to be more than this 200 gig drive, just have 2 regular 120's
I have a 20 gig drive in my laptop running XP Professional and Red Hat 7.2. Anyone who NEEDS a 200 gig HD have way to much software that they NEVER use, and to many MP3's/Divx movies that they downloaded illegally off the internet. And yes, I have taken my laptop to LAN parties, and everyone wonders how I can pull it off. Its called the delete button. I will admit that my desktop has a LOT more space....140 gig actually, but as of right now, I am useing about 25 gig of that... Now when windows 2005 comes out, that will be a different story.....
BTW, as far as the 200 gig "spam burger" file. It would be quite easy to do with a small shell script.
avdven, I agree with you. Right now, the 200 gig HDD's are just too darn slow and too expensive. Like you said, I do not see any problem with stringing two 100 gigs together, or if you are really hard up for space, have a rack of HDDs on a seperate server?
I remember about six months ago when I called a local computer store and asked about buying a 100 gig and the technician (he did not work with customers often. He was terriffic with hardware, but SUCKED with PR) basically told me off saying, "Tell me, what are you goping to do with a 100 gig? If you need a 100 gig you have no life, blah,blah,blah...." Now it's not a whole heck of a lot. Like others have said with the bloating software sizes, in a few years it can be the norm...
Also, there is some new ATA standard coming out that is supoosed to speed up mass-storage devices...http://www.maxtor.com/products/bigdrive/whitepaper.htm if that is the case, will that be the answer to everybody's need for more mp3's, DivX movie, and app hunger?
hardware really isnt too much to worry about, khakis. the main thing you have to worry about fubaring is the motherboard. keep your fingers away from that and you're set. a good rule is to always touch the case before touching cards of drives, as the case helps to release some of the static electricity in your hands. get a demagnatized screwdriver. of course you know already, but for newbies, magnets erase media.
jumpers aren't too bad to figure out. usually the only problem is finding the correct jumpers for your HD. here is a site that may help with that: http://www.thetechpage.com/cgi-bin/default.cgi
after that, check your bios to make sure everything is found PnP, or configure manually. good luck and most importantly, have fun.
Also, something I thought about last night, is Western Digital going to offer support of Linux? I know that the site talks about including a special card, etc. with the hard drive for users who are not running XP SP1 (since SP1 will be the only OS to support the drive without the added card), but if they do not offer Linux drivers for that card, you'll pretty much be S.O.L.
AJ