hard drives

I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows 7
fairly soon.
I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
500gb hard drive.
My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
not? If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK
Thank you

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:04:43 -0000, "Stewart"
<> wrote:

>I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows 7
>fairly soon.
>I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
>My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
>500gb hard drive.
>My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
>Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
>running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
>I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
>What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
>not? If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK
>Thank you
>
I have the Nexus 430 watt power supply and I have no problems running
2 drives--the power required by a second drive is not that high. The
more important question is how much power your video card requires--if
its not that high, you shouldn't have any problems.

I have XP on a Western Digital 1 terabyte drive and I put in a Western
Digital 160 gb drive to try out Windows 7. I use the BIOS first hard
drive to boot from option to switch between operating systems. So far
I'm not sufficiently impressed with W7 to use it as my main operating
system. I see it as more of the same crap dressed up and warmed over.

<> wrote in message news:...
>
> So far
> I'm not sufficiently impressed with W7 to use it as my main operating
> system. I see it as more of the same crap dressed up and warmed over.
>

Oh dear. Win 7 isn't even close to XP. It's the stuff you can't see (many
of course can) that counts. Best to toss the old antique XP op system or
maybe keep it around for those 'older' programs you like to run. That's
about all it's good for now. Had it's day a long, long time ago.

Time for a modern op system.
--

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:04:43 -0000, "Stewart"
<> wrote:

>I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows 7
>fairly soon.
>I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
>My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
>500gb hard drive.
>My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
>Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
>running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
>I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.

As others have said, it depends more on what else is in the system.
Video cards and RAM are the biggest users of power. The drives don't
use much, relatively speaking.

About 10 years ago one of my systems was a Pentium 150 with a 200 Watt
power supply. That system happily powered two hard drives for years.
My current system has a 550 Watt p/s and powers 7 hard drives.

>What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
>not? If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK

It depends on your Windows power settings. You can configure your
drives to spin down after a certain amount of inactivity or allow them
to keep running full time.

If it were me, I would install both drives. You will likely be fine
unless you have a very high end graphics card, for example.

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:04:43 -0000, "Stewart"
<> wrote:

> I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows 7
> fairly soon.


Bear in mind that an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 is *not* possible.
Although you can use the Upgrade version, you will need to do a clean
installation.


> I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.


Good. Almost everyone should have at least that much.


> My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
> 500gb hard drive.


160GB may or may not be enough for you, but I certainly wouldn't
replace it. Rather *add* the 500GB drive.



> My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
> Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,


You can certainly keep both and you almost certainly should. There's
no sense in discarding a good existing drive. Even if you don't need
that 660GB of disk space now, you likely will in the future.


> running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.


You can keep both drives and use both for storage under Windows 7.
There's no need to run two operating systems.

I'm not a fan of dual-boot computers, but there certainly are some
people for whom it makes sense. But I haven't read anything in your
message that suggests that you are one of those people.


> I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.


425 watts? You didn't say anything about what other hardware is in the
case, but I very much doubt that adding a second drive would cause a
power problem for you. *Many* people run two drive systems with
substantially less than 425 watts.


> What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
> not?


It spins, yes.


> If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK


As I said, it almost certainly will be OK anyway.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Thank you all; I have windows 7 on my laptop and like it. The greatest
benefit of having the desktop using 7 as well would be to enable me to have
a home network and so work on files in either computer. I have been using a
sync program to save files and folders on the laptop but it does not delete
the ones that become redundant whereas file sharing would do this.
I think my drive to the hard drive is IDE and the graphics is included in my
Gigabyte GA-7N400-L motherboard.
The cost of a hard drive and extra ram is not significant so I shall go
ahead and keep the 2 drives; as someone said I shall have to do a clean
install of windows 7 on the new disk anyway.



"Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:04:43 -0000, "Stewart"
> <> wrote:
>
>> I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows
>> 7
>> fairly soon.
>
>
> Bear in mind that an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 is *not* possible.
> Although you can use the Upgrade version, you will need to do a clean
> installation.
>
>
>> I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
>
>
> Good. Almost everyone should have at least that much.
>
>
>> My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
>> 500gb hard drive.
>
>
> 160GB may or may not be enough for you, but I certainly wouldn't
> replace it. Rather *add* the 500GB drive.
>
>
>
>> My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
>> Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
>
>
> You can certainly keep both and you almost certainly should. There's
> no sense in discarding a good existing drive. Even if you don't need
> that 660GB of disk space now, you likely will in the future.
>
>
>> running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
>
>
> You can keep both drives and use both for storage under Windows 7.
> There's no need to run two operating systems.
>
> I'm not a fan of dual-boot computers, but there certainly are some
> people for whom it makes sense. But I haven't read anything in your
> message that suggests that you are one of those people.
>
>
>> I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
>
>
> 425 watts? You didn't say anything about what other hardware is in the
> case, but I very much doubt that adding a second drive would cause a
> power problem for you. *Many* people run two drive systems with
> substantially less than 425 watts.
>
>
>> What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
>> not?
>
>
> It spins, yes.
>
>
>> If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK
>
>
> As I said, it almost certainly will be OK anyway.
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 21:28:42 -0000, "Stewart"
<> wrote:

> Thank you all; I have windows 7 on my laptop and like it. The greatest
> benefit of having the desktop using 7 as well would be to enable me to have
> a home network and so work on files in either computer.


No need to go to Windows 7 for that. Windows XP and Windows 7 can
exist and communicate on the same network. Just make sure it's a
workgroup, not a homegroup.


> I have been using a
> sync program to save files and folders on the laptop but it does not delete
> the ones that become redundant whereas file sharing would do this.
> I think my drive to the hard drive is IDE and the graphics is included in my
> Gigabyte GA-7N400-L motherboard.
> The cost of a hard drive and extra ram is not significant so I shall go
> ahead and keep the 2 drives; as someone said I shall have to do a clean
> install of windows 7 on the new disk anyway.
>
>
>
> "Ken Blake, MVP" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > On Fri, 5 Mar 2010 16:04:43 -0000, "Stewart"
> > <> wrote:
> >
> >> I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows
> >> 7
> >> fairly soon.
> >
> >
> > Bear in mind that an upgrade from XP to Windows 7 is *not* possible.
> > Although you can use the Upgrade version, you will need to do a clean
> > installation.
> >
> >
> >> I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
> >
> >
> > Good. Almost everyone should have at least that much.
> >
> >
> >> My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
> >> 500gb hard drive.
> >
> >
> > 160GB may or may not be enough for you, but I certainly wouldn't
> > replace it. Rather *add* the 500GB drive.
> >
> >
> >
> >> My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
> >> Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
> >
> >
> > You can certainly keep both and you almost certainly should. There's
> > no sense in discarding a good existing drive. Even if you don't need
> > that 660GB of disk space now, you likely will in the future.
> >
> >
> >> running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
> >
> >
> > You can keep both drives and use both for storage under Windows 7.
> > There's no need to run two operating systems.
> >
> > I'm not a fan of dual-boot computers, but there certainly are some
> > people for whom it makes sense. But I haven't read anything in your
> > message that suggests that you are one of those people.
> >
> >
> >> I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
> >
> >
> > 425 watts? You didn't say anything about what other hardware is in the
> > case, but I very much doubt that adding a second drive would cause a
> > power problem for you. *Many* people run two drive systems with
> > substantially less than 425 watts.
> >
> >
> >> What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
> >> not?
> >
> >
> > It spins, yes.
> >
> >
> >> If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK
> >
> >
> > As I said, it almost certainly will be OK anyway.
> >
> > --
> > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
> > Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) since 2003
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

I have just realised that my graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200; that
should be powerful enough for windows 7 home premium.


"Alias" <aka@masked&anonymous.com.invalido> wrote in message
news:hmrago$tfd$...
> Stewart wrote:
>> I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows
>> 7 fairly soon.
>> I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
>> My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
>> 500gb hard drive.
>> My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
>> Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
>> running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
>> I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
>> What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
>> not? If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK
>> Thank you
>
> SATA or PATA drives? Video card specs?
>
> --
> Alias

Thanks for that, maybe I would be just as well buying a completely new
desktop however my one has 2 dvd drive bays, additional sound cards, tv in
card, firewire, quiet fan and more. That is why I thought I could upgrade
it, especially as I already have a windows7 32 bit software disk.


"Alias" <aka@masked&anonymous.com.invalido> wrote in message
news:hmthv0$6ue$...
> Stewart wrote:
>> I have just realised that my graphics card is a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200;
>> that should be powerful enough for windows 7 home premium.
>>
>
> I would get a higher end video card. Yours only has 128MB of memory which
> isn't much nowadays. Be sure and read the power supply requirements of the
> new card. The new high end ones require a power supply of at least 500
> watts and come with two connectors that connect directly to the power
> supply.
>
>> "Alias" <aka@masked&anonymous.com.invalido> wrote in message
>> news:hmrago$tfd$...
>>> Stewart wrote:
>>>> I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to
>>>> Windows 7 fairly soon.
>>>> I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
>>>> My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
>>>> 500gb hard drive.
>>>> My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
>>>> Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep
>>>> both, running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
>>>> I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
>>>> What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used
>>>> or not? If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be
>>>> OK
>>>> Thank you
>>> SATA or PATA drives? Video card specs?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Alias
>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Alias

On 3/5/2010 11:04 AM, Stewart wrote:
> I have a desk top running XP at present and intend to upgrade to Windows 7
> fairly soon.
> I shall buy an extra 1gb of DDR1 ram giving me total of 2gb.
> My present maxtor hard drive is only 160gb and I want to change it to a
> 500gb hard drive.
> My power unit is a Hiper 425watt and is very quiet running.
> Should I remove the exisitng hard drive and replace or could I keep both,
> running the new one with Windows7 and the old with XP.
> I am just a bit doubtful if there is enough power in the hiper unit.
> What I wish to know is, does a hard drive run whether it is being used or
> not? If it does not then having both hard drives would probably be OK
> Thank you
>
>
If the system operates stably with the present 425W supply then I'd think
it would work fine with 1gB of added RAM and an extra HD. Typically the RAM
might consume 5W (at most) and the HD might consume 20W (at most). If the
extra 25W of load causes problems then your PS is probably already
underpowered.

As for always running, you can set the power-saving function in the
operating system to spin-down drives after some period of inactivity. I
don't do it since I don't like the drives starting and stopping repeatedly
but YMMV.