Right now I have:250 gb 7200 rpm WD Caviar (with everything)120 gb 5400 rpm Seagate external USB drive (critical backups)I am probably going to go to:250 gb 7200 rpm WD Cav (OS drive, swap, *image*/*clone* of the Raptor)150 gb 10000 rpm WD Rap (FS only)120 gb 5400 rpm Seagate external (again with image or clone of Raptor)I might get Acronis TrueImage, not sure yet.I do want to ratchet down my backup scheme, because I've been pretty lacking for about the last year or two.Before I got my Seagate external, I was using my ZIP100 drive and CD's for backups.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Nice Greg! Thanks for the help. That's exactly what I'm looking for, on my current machine and FS9, I'm sick of the blurries, faster loading times are really a must for me at this point as far as the textures loading times. I already have two 7.2K 120G SATA's on this PC, if I add the Raptor exclusively for FSX or FS9, it'd look like this:First 7.2K SATA - OS, AppsSecond 7.2K SATA - Storage (FS related files etc.)10K Raptor - FSX exclusiveThat should do the trick then. I asked about it several people before, but everyone suggested getting two Raptors and set them at RAID0. I'm glad I haven't done that yet. That'll save me some more money for some better hardware. Thanks again! :)

> You ever had any probs with OEM vs. boxed in anything?No problems for me personally!

> I might get Acronis TrueImage, not sure yet.It's a good investment - I cut "clean" images of my XP and Vista installations and can move to them whenever I want. It's not dual boot and I have to reinstall applications and such, but it's FAR faster than reinstalling an entire OS from scratch. For someone who is always playing with things on the computer, the ability to reset my system to "the day it was installed" clean state is just great. >As I understand it, Raptors are all PATA. There are no SATA>versions. Is that right?No - Raptors do indeed come in the SATA2 variety - mine is just that. :) If you have the ability, definately go SATA/SATA2. Why? Read on! >Are there any known issues running a SATA2 drive with a PATA>on the nForce4 chipset?None that I have seen - I had it running on mine for a bit - in fact, I have it now with my PATA DVD-RW drive and my SATA hard drives. =----------------------------------------------------------------=Performance benefits of SATA above and beyond raw speed...From the "I really should be working on my day-job" files...When going to multiple drives for performance sake, you almost ALWAYS want to use SATA or SATA2. The reason behind that is that each drive plugs into a distinct SATA controller. With PATA (aka: IDE), most motherboards only have TWO controllers - and each controller has a primary and secondary channel.In an IDE world, if you have your boot/OS drive as a "primary", and you put FSX on a new hard drive on the "slave" channel, you won't get much performance benefit. This is because the IDE drive controller can only address one drive at a time! Instead of sharing a seek head, you're now sharing the controller! You can avoid this by putting your two hard drives on the two IDE controllers on your motherboard, but now you could be butting heads with your CD/DVD drive.In the SATA world, each drive has it's own independant channel. Drives don't share resources and can be addressed individually. Now if your OS drive is being accessed, your FSX drive can do it's own thing.IDE is still used for CD/DVD-ROM drives, which is just fine - but if peak performance is your goal, you'll want to make sure you only use one of the two channels on your IDE controller. If you have an IDE hard drive and an IDE CD/DVD-ROM, put them on independant controllers. Don't go master/slave, or else you'll be sharing the same controller and potentially slowing the overall combined speeds down. COMBINING PATA and SATA is also fine - the IDE and SATA controllers are separate from each other and can be addressed independantly, so there's no worry there.

Greetings Rhett,I am running 2 raptor 74G in raid and I wouldn't deviate from this for the world.This is just mho and my experience is that windows boots in seconds my FS runs great with all sliders maxed and I can't say enough good things. Biggest downfall for me is I have lost a couple of drives from whatever and when this happens*%$#@! you know!Best regardsAndrew

Twin 74's in RAID0 is amazingly fast.

Fast seek times or fast transfers? From what Greg is saying it's not so great.

Jacek, based on what Greg and others said, it seems that cit1991 may be correct. With two Raptors in RAID0, you get the best of both worlds--fast seek times AND fast transfers.The only drawback is expense. And of course the increased chance of data loss inherent to all RAID0 setups.RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

I've never had problems with OEM either...As long as we're on the HDD topic, I'd like to ask for someone's opinion on my existing HDD config.I have two drives (with partitions):A) 7200rpm WD SE16 250GB:( 10k Raptor 36GBThe WD drive is partitioned 3 ways, (Data, Apps, and my Vista RC1 dual boot)On my Apps partition I run FSX, and all other games/appsThe Data partition consists of my digi pics (which I backup to DVD's/CDRs) and other school filesThe Vista partition is very small only 15 GB and I'm just screwing aruond with Vista (soon to be deleted once RC1 time is up)The Raptor has Windows XP AND FS9 stuff. At the time I only had FS9 so that's where I put it.The question is, how can I get the best HDD performance using those two existing drives? IE, say if FSX is my main game, would it fit on the 36GB raptor, or should I leave it on the WD? Should I just put windows on the Raptor or what?

> The question is, how can I get the best HDD performance using those two existing drives?IF you were willing to start from scratch, here's what I'd do. :)Operating System on the Raptor (use a small secondary partition on the Raptor if you continue to horse around with dual boots) Partition the 250 GB drive into 2 - the first partition will be for FSX/FS9 games - the second will be for your other apps. You can adjust the D:rive letters to your hearts content, but plan to put the physical MSFS partition FIRST on the drive - this ensures the partition will be on the outermost, fastest tracks of the hard drive. Since you probably won't be running too many "APPS" in conjunction with MSFS, putting the two together on one drive isn't bad. The 36GB raptor just seems too small when considering future possibilities with FSX. My FSX dir right now is at 24GB with add-on mesh and some other sceneries. The OS on the raptor will benefit from it's speed, the MSFS on the first partition of a DIFFERENT drive will benefit from that efficiency as well. Always remember that even if you partition a single phisical drive into different drive letters, each of those drives have to share a single read/write head, so the only real benefit is separation and organization. Of course, if you could throw money at the problem, I think a 76GB raptor would fit into your puzzle quite nicely!-Greg Not a Western Digital Representative. :)

I've installed a couple of the 150 GB OEM Windowless Raptors in different PCs, and have had no issues whatsoever.Regarding the windowed raptors, The windowless raptors are cheaper, and I have read several people complain that the raptors with the windows are significantly noisier. I'd stick with the windowless version.Thomas[a href=http://www.flyingscool.com] http://www.flyingscool.com/images/Signature.jpg [/a]I like using VC's :-)N15802 KASH '73 Piper Cherokee Challenger 180

>Partition the 250 GB drive into 2 - the first partition will>be for FSX/FS9 games - the second will be for your other apps.>You can adjust the D:rive letters to your hearts content, but>plan to put the physical MSFS partition FIRST on the drive ->this ensures the partition will be on the outermost, fastest>tracks of the hard drive. >How would I put the physical FS partition FIRST on the drive? Would I need software for that?>>Of course, if you could throw money at the problem, I think a>76GB raptor would fit into your puzzle quite nicely!>What would I use for that? FSX on a 76GB raptor? I could think about it for my bday coming up.... neweggs got one for 160, 140 after rebate...I guess I'd be up for a fresh install.... I kinda like doing that LOL!

>>>Partition the 250 GB drive into 2 - the first partition will>>be for FSX/FS9 games - the second will be for your other>apps.>>You can adjust the D:rive letters to your hearts content,>but>>plan to put the physical MSFS partition FIRST on the drive ->>this ensures the partition will be on the outermost, fastest>>tracks of the hard drive. >>>>How would I put the physical FS partition FIRST on the drive? >Would I need software for that?>>Well what you want above all else is for FS to be on the outer tracks.Hm never thought about partition information. Perhaps that is in the MFT also? If so then the MFT can be moved to the outer track area, too. I think the "location" of the partition is not the thing...the thing is where are the FILES is my thinking on the matter...>>What would I use for that? FSX on a 76GB raptor? I could>think about it for my bday coming up.... neweggs got one for>160, 140 after rebate...>And for only 40 bucks more (two andy jacks) you have a 150 gig :)I just bought a 150 gb Rap and Acronis for my bday present...and a nice leather couch...I have been blowing money lately. But man that couch is comfortable, it has "slouch mode" where you sit on it, and it can recline just a little bit. I need "slouch mode".RhettAMD 3700+ (@2310 mhz), eVGA 7800GT 256 (Guru3D 93.71), ASUS A8N-E, PC Power 510 SLI, 2 GB Corsair XMS 2.5-3-3-8 (1T), WD 250 gig 7200 rpm SATA2, CoolerMaster Praetorian case

Ok, but how do I actually place the stuff on the outer plates of the hdd..... Do I need a disk utility like Partition magic or what?

If you are starting from scratch, it's pretty easy. The first partition created on any drive will take to the outer tracks. If your 250GB drive is completely clean of all partitions, the first one you create will be outermost - size it according to your wants and desires for MSFS, and you're good! The next partition you make, say for your applications and other items, will go in the remaining space.If you are NOT starting from scratch and want to move a preexisting partition, you will need a tool like partition magic. You'll have to DELETE any partitions "in-the-way", because it doesn't allow you to fully swap positions nicely - but it can slide them, much like the childhood toys where you slide the tiles around to get them in a particular order. Since you'd likely be wanting to install the OS on the raptor, you should probably start from scratch. -Greg