Hi,

i think the answer to your question depends on various variables like technical knowledge level, personal preference and needs so i will give you my opinion - what works best for you is up to you.

Replacing the C-Drive with a SATA drive will most probably *force* you to reinstall your pc. Including adding SATA drivers on startup so make sure you have those drivers at hand. Disadvantages are amongst others : the re-installation, a 80 GB drive that may not be used again and in general a bit more complicated way of installing the system. A new IDE drive may work fine if you clone your old 80 GB harddisk and simply put it back onto the newer drive using programs like Ghost or another disk imaging program. No guarantees, but a good chance it will work.

Advantages : the re-installation ( a nice clean system usually runs way better than one that has been in use for some time ), a 80 GB drive that may not be used again ( but : you always have a working spare to plug in if the new installation fails, the new disk fails, viruses infect the new drive, etc. ), and SATA is faster. Especially if you buy one of those drives that support 'native command queuing' (NCQ) and newer drives are usually faster anyway, whether IDE or SATA. I know the emphasis is on increasing capacity but for your boot disk speed is of importance... a bigger disk that slows down your system may not be what you want.

I would not change the 160 GB drive.

I hope this makes your decision a bit lighter ;-)

Message Edited by Rijko on 04-25-2005 09:52 PM

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@JM101 wrote:

This is an infamous "what if" question.

 

Currently have C (80GB) and G (160GB) drives on IDE connectors. I am thinking of replacing my C drive to increase capacity (works fine).

 

Questions:

 

1. Since I also have SATA capability is there any advantage of going that route or should I just stay with what is currently working, IDE?

 

2. I understand you can have both SATA and IDE as long as the SATA is the boot drive. Would there be any advantages to replacing both drives to SATA or just the one or stay IDE?

 

Decisions...Decisions

 

1) No advantage, stay.

 

2) Nope.

Thanks for the replys

JM101

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