Two Hard Drives, One Computer: Hard Drive Questions

[XXLIFERUINERXX]

Hi Guys!

So, I'm a bit confused as to why people would like to put more than one hard drive in their rig. What's the point other than more space? If any? I know that in a lot of gamer rigs, people will install their OS on an SSD and install another HDD. Do people just store a lot of junk--so much that they need another dedicated hard disk? I know SSD's can be quite expensive and are usually smaller than their HHD counterparts; But if you're a gamer, wouldn't you need a lot of space on your hard disk, so that you can have a lot of games stored? Also, If you have a two hard drive or more rig, can you run programs off of every hard drive, or can you only run programs off of the hard drive that has your OS on it? 

Thanks a lot!!

[minibois]

You also have stuff like RAID 0 and RAID 1 and such.

[Scouten]

i am a pack rat hence why i have 13TB of storage lol

 

in my rig i use a 64GB SSD for the OS and a couple main programs, a secondary 1TB HDD for just random storage and less critical programs, a 2TB for my Desktop and media storage(anime, movies etc) and finally a 1TB SSD for all of my steam library and non steam games

 

in addition i have an external 9TB NAS box

[Mistersprinkles]

 So, I'm a bit confused as to why people would like to put more than one hard drive in their rig. What's the point other than more space? If any?

 

Raid 0/1/5, redundancy, the ability to move your non OS drive to a different computer, etc

 

I know that in a lot of gamer rigs, people will install their OS on an SSD and install another HDD. Do people just store a lot of junk--so much that they need another dedicated hard disk?

 

Not always the case but is a valid reason for another disk.

 

I know SSD's can be quite expensive and are usually smaller than their HHD counterparts; But if you're a gamer, wouldn't you need a lot of space on your hard disk, so that you can have a lot of games stored?

 

Not necessarily. Gamers need less space than obsessive downloaders do. You can get 1TB SSDs if you have the money to throw around.

 

Also, If you have a two hard drive or more rig, can you run programs off of every hard drive, or can you only run programs off of the hard drive that has your OS on it? 

Thanks a lot!!

 

You can run a program off any drive it is installed to, as long as it is in the windows registry, and sometimes, even if it isn't.

[harrynowl]

You find when you have lots of data it's easier to store it than delete it.

 

You can also have redundancy.. I mean who wants to lose all their cat photos?

[phillrulz]

My current setup is a 120gb SSD boot drive purely OS maybe programs that benefit from the extra speeds, 2tb HDD mass storage for programs and old games that dont need the speed of a SSD, a 500gb HDD for videos. 512gb SSD for games that need fast speeds. SSDs are different to HDDs in the fact that they have a maximum number of write cycles. For short you can only write to a SSD wipe and write again a certain number of times before it starts to messup. So on an ssd you put files that arnt modified that much but benefit from being accessed faster like an OS. A HDD is cheaper for size and doesn't have the write cycle issue. You can run a program of any disk in your system. 

 

So i run 120gb SSD, 2TB HDD, 512GB SSD, 500GB HDD and have a 2TB external HDD

 

Combined size of ~5.2TB and i use ~1.7TB atm

[-ism]

I have a 120 GB SSD that I use solely for Windows 8.1, the Adobe Creative Suite, and my applications (Chrome, Steam, etc.)

 

I have a 1 TB hard disk drive for all my steam games. Currently my steam library is around 580ish GB in size, and my Origin library is around 100 gigs, so I am getting relatively close to maxing out. Still have a good 300ish gigs left to play with.

 

Also, I have a 320 GB hard drive I took from a laptop that I have in an external enclosure always plugged into my PC that has around 160 GB worth of movies, music, the adobe creative suite (for when I reinstall Windows, if ever), and a couple of games that are non-Steam. Stuff that I like to move to various PC's and give to friends, or just stuff that doesn't require fast speed.

 

Eventually, I will need another 1TB HDD and I most definitely plan on buying a 512GB SSD that I can put a few of my most-played games on such as DayZ. 

 

P.S. - I just found a sata cable shoved in the cushion of my chair. cool.

 

Nothing on my main hard-drives would be considered "Junk" I don't just download random crap.

 

The only "junk" that might exist would be on my 320 GB drive. Good example, downloaded John Lennon discography and a Beatles discography, lots of random John Lennon songs are also included in the Beatles discography so I have some duplicates.

[Keystone Nyan Cat]

There are quite a few reasons actually. I'll post them as a list

1. Songs, Movies and Gameplay footage don't require fast storage solutions and hence a HDD suffices as a storage medium for this
2. Older and some indie games don't have a lot going on hence don't benefit from the speed of an SSD. To reduce the space used up, people shift these to a HDD
3. HDDs in RAID are a better value than SSDs and based off how many HDDs and which RAID setup you are using, they can outperform and outvalue a SSD
4. Software's such as WebCam software and browsers which are usually quite write intensive and reduce the lifespan of a SSD. These are offlloaded to a HDD

I hope this answers your question!