I Have a pile of DELL computers that I have been refurbing and donating or selling for cheap. My personal computer was crashing so I decided to build myself a different one from the pile. I picked a Dimension 4700 it has a 3.4 processor, an 80 gig SATA HDD, 2gigs RAM, 2 DVD R/R 2 video cards for the 3 lCDs, sound card. original paperwork and CDs So figured it was worth my time. I loaded windows, office, antiviruse spyware, all my mantinace programs. And was just ready to transfer documents I wanted to keep from old computer when started thinking I needed more space. I found in one of the computers I had for parts a 160 gig SATA HD so I instaled it. No problems Everything works great. The 160 I installed has an Op system on it (XP) partitioned in half. The original 80 that I just formated has (xp profesional) with no partition. Dont know why I did that? When I go to drive manager It shows that the 80 is the C drive and the 160 is the E and F of course. But what I was not exspecting was for the C and E drives to be listed together as the primary partition?? And for the F drive to be listed as the logical Drive ?? Does this make sense?? My other issue is in the future If I have any issues and need to reload windows I should have partioned the c drive. I dont know what would you all do. Should I scrap it all reformat and reload windows on the 1st 10 gigs of the 80 then my programs on the remaining 70? Format the 160 with no partion and save my documents? Or should I leave all alone? Or should I format the 160 with no partitionand leave the 80 alone? Not sure how this all works what should I do??

Well you need not to worry about having multiple primary partitions, because if you have multiple hard drives, thats what you will get (becase 1st partition on each hard disk being the primary, whereas remaining will be logical partitions).

Now, I believe your 80GB HDD is enough for your programs/OS so keep it that way. However, I never place my data on same drive/partition on which OS/programs are located. It gives you certain level of liberty to do stuff, with maximum chance of your data surviving in case something goes south.

So, if you want to format your 160GB go ahead and do it, and place your data on it

Thank you

Thank you for your time and reading all my post. Trying to keep short. I could pick your brain all day.
I will format the 160 for data. Run OP and programs on 80. The 80 and 160 are same speed by the way. It is my understanding if drives are different speeds I should have placed op/programs on faster dive?
I am under the impression that I need to keep post short. Should I begin a new post/string for new questions? New to this what is proper?

A post can be as long as necessary to explain the problem.
If your problem strays greatly from the original topic, a new post is best.

No you don't need to open a new thread.

I'll agree with your assertion that it is advantageous to have more speedier/faster drive hold your OS/programs. Luckily you have two same sort of drives so you don't need to reinstall everything.

Should I format run operating system on 1 partition and programs on another Does it save me from having to reload all programs in case of op system problems in future? Would be nice to just reload windows and not have to mess with all the programs. I had a problem with Microsoft. My computer crashed. I formatted and reloaded. When I got to office it would not let me activate saying it was already installed on another computer. It took a bit of doing to get them to reactivate me.

1. There is no benefit in doing this, (i.e. keeping os/programs on separate partitions); as whenever you reinstall OS, you need to reinstall almost every program anyway.

2. That is the issue with Microsoft now, and many other vendors, and it is because of piracy and such issues. But I'll also want to say, that it is because of us (the users) not protesting strongly enough to stop companies from implementing such stupid ideas, and more importantly branding everyone (sort of) as pirate to start with, instead of the other way round which is the usual/normal way i.e. everyone is innocent until proven otherwise (remember all over the world you have to prove 'that someone has done something wrong in a court of law'). That is just my personal opinion though.

Yes I agree. Microsoft has made me feel like I was a thief trying to steal office. Thank you for your help. I will keep my op/programs on 80 gig drive C. And data on 160 gig F drive. One other question for now. Is there any reason to place ( page file ) on seperate drive from the op system? Does this help to run better?
Sorry One other thing before I get going on this! I think there are some programes on the 160 GIG drive I want to keep is there a way to transfer them to the 80 gig drive before I format the 160 and lose them? And what are the laws if I did not puchase this program but I have possesion of it. Microsoft already got there money for this copy. I would like to use it. But want to move it to another drive. I have use of them now as long as I dont format the drive. Or is this considered being disohnest?

If you place your page file to the second hdd it will slightly improve your overall system performance.

Now about the programs, I am unsure if you can transfer ownership of a piece of software from one person to another, frankly, that is one area I never really have looked into. I hope someone better informed than me will help you in this regard. If I came across something definitive I will let you know.

However, if you have all the legal documentation/keys etc. of such programs you may not be doing anything illegal.