New PC hard drive being partioned / use of RAID

jezza574

Have just taken delivery of a new PC from Arbico Computers following their good reviews in PC Advisor magazine but given that this is a replacement for a 7/8 year old Dell I'm a bit out of touch with current PC build issues so wonder in any moneysavers can help?

Basically I customised the original spec to include a 1000GB hard drive (as opposed to the 500GB offered) and have noticed that in Windows Explorer I am shown as having two hard drives. The C drive is 204GB (184GB free) with only Windows 7 and Norton Internet Security installed and also have a D drive of 726GB (all currently free). So in total I still have my 1000GB.

So I'm kind of unsure of how this setup works and whether I should be concerned and how it's been done as this wasn't made clear when I upgraded.

Does anybody have any advice on this setup and how best to use it? Should I be looking to install any subsequent software on the C drive, keeping the D for documents, mp3s etc. or mix and match between the two? I'm thinking RAID may have been used as I see I have a piece of software called Gigabyte RAID configuerer installed.

Any guidance is most welcome

debitcardmayhem

No its not using raid, it is a normal partitioning job. I would leave that as it and use the D for Documents/Pictures/Music etc and install your software on C as normal. It will make life easier if you ever need to re-install windows, but of course still make sure you regularly back up bioth partitions , (althought C should need less regular backups usually after new software)

HoofeHearted

Use C: drive for Windows and Applications. Use d: drive for "My Documents" and store all your files there. That way, if Windows needs to be re-installed, your music, photos etc will be safe.
For RAID you need at least two physical hard drives, not two partitions.

Hope that helps.