I'm not 100% certain, but i've seen it and maybe its due to disk compression setting being enabled.. some files are automaticaly compressed to help free up some disk space etc..
That's normal. 320GB is 320,000,000,000 Bytes,
Dont you mean "Bits" (Gigabits)? Plus some of that space is taken up by other sectors that makes the HDD run, such as File Allocation Tables, Boot sector, partition tables, firmware/driver info etc.
Also, I was wondering, is there any way I can save files to my new hard drive, but still have the files show up on my desktop? I'll almost always save new files to my desktop first, then sort them out later on. For example: I'll download a video from the internet to my desktop, I'll watch it, then I'll put it somewhere in my "Program Files" a few days later.
Transferring files from one hard drive to another via cut + paste is sooo slow, lol.
Why dont you just download straight to your new hdd, and put a shortcut to that hdd (drag the hdd icon from My computer onto the desktop) instead? Its a lot more conveniant than download>cut/paste>store. Moving files inside its own HDD is much more faster than moving files through cables from one HDD to the next.
Will files I download to my new hard drive from now on run faster, or just open faster? For example: If I move my Mozilla Firefox folder to my new hard drive, will my browser run faster, or will it only open faster?
Your new drive isn't faster than your old one, it might even be slower due to the large size. They're the same technology(I think) and the only reason it would run faster if at first it wasn't as cluttered as the other one. I suggest you don't put any 'program files' over, as they are in the registry and it would be a pain to get them to work properly. Simply use your new drive as a mass storage drive.
While its true that the drive will perform at similar speeds to the one you have now, it will run slightly faster since it doesnt have to reference program files for windows
and run the movie/other files at the same time, so it decreases the latency. If you're running the movies/programs etc from the other drive it is faster, since the HDD's head reading the hdd can just stay on one "place", without having to jump from one sector to the next one thats far away then back, while the other hdd is used for referencing windows's files or opening a program etc.. with an added bonus of the storage HDD not constantly turned on all the time.
Large hdd or small, if you keep it relatively clean, tidy (sorted into folders etc) and defragged then it will make no difference or to create any sort of un-normal lag..
So if you are experiencing some lag right now, its probably that you've used the hdd as one big folder, having a lot of items on one page, and/or using thumbnail previews as well. If thats the case, right click on an empty space
>New>New Folder and start moving those files into respective logical catagories (Movies, Anime, Music etc) and with their own subgroups etc.. Otherwise, a good defrag wont hurt, since a lot of files probably have been moved around to your hdd from when you got it, and is starting to get a bit all over the place..