I'm in the process of building a new computer, and am wondering whether a separate hard drive for windows and another for my games (mainly fsx and fs9) is really necessary.Does it really speed up performance to a noticeable difference?Thanks,Alex

oops, it pays to read other topics. The topic below about partitioning one drive seems to have somewhat answered my question.

The extra drives do come in handy is backing up. I can never stress the importance of backing up one's data. You only need to get burned once to be reminded how important it is.

>The extra drives do come in handy is backing up. I can never>stress the importance of backing up one's data. You only need>to get burned once to be reminded how important it is.Can't agree more there. Acronis backs up my system for me but I also have a second fresh install of FS archived on my second drive. With the essential patches and add-ons already installed for basic operation, if I run into a problem, I can just copy the folder over and voila', I'm back at the airport flying.So, is it necessary? No. Is it beneficial and desirable? Very much so.Regards,Jeff

I have a drive purely dedicated to FSX.I wouldn't do it any other way now.Faster response, faster defrag and easier to manage.

Jeff: Can you tell me how you do your backups? I have both Acronis True Image 11 and their partition manager software and I have 2 drives dedicated to back ups in addition to my primary flight sim drive. I'd like to have at least one complete image of my hard drive (more than one would be great) and then incremental backups of my data kept on a separate partition or drive, if necessary.I can't figure out how to make Acronis write the image without destroying the partition layout I've created -- no matter how I try to copy my drive, Acronis wipes out all partitions and data on the destination drive! And Acronis customer service is utterly useless unless I want to pay extra for their help ! :-(

Hi Alex!Get one big hard drive. The biggest the better. Two hard drives will slow your performance. That's my experience,RegardsAbrupto

thanks everyone for your help. So now my question is, to people who say separate the games on one drive, should the faster drive hold the operating system, or the games? i have a 750gb sata drive, and want a velociraptor. should the raptor hold the operating system, and the regular sata drive hold the games?Thanks

How can two drives SLOW your performance? If you have a dedicated drive to FSX it makes no sense that your performance would be slower.There must have been something wrong with your setup.

If it was me, I would put FSX/Games on the Raptor.

Thanks Glenn, But isn't the operating system accessed the most? All the drivers, windows files, etc. Just trying to figure out what needs the raptor

I've been using a single 160 gb Raptor for the last few months on an XP Pro and Flight Sim dedicated homebuilt (specs below) and love the speed in which my comupter boots and my programs launch, and Flight Simulator has just run awesomely on the entire system. But performance wise with Flight Simulator, I've been told by more than one person in more than one place that it's not really the best gaming drive out there.I'm swapping out my Raptor tonight or tomorrow for a 500 gb with 32 mgb. of cache just to see if there's any performance boost while flying. If not the Raptor goes back --

If you are running FSX, then the most access will be on the drive that contains FSX.Drivers aren't accessed during the game - They are already loaded into the system when you boot.

I wouldn't call it "necessary"...but I would say, it's "nice".With hard drives so cheap these days, I tend to do it on my personal builds.RhettFS box: E8500 (@ 3.80 ghz), AC Freezer 7 Pro, ASUS P5E3 Premium, BFG 8800GTX 756 (nVidia 169 WHQL), 4gb DDR3 1600 Patriot Cas7 7-7-7-20 (2T), PC Power 750, WD 150gb 10000rpm Raptor, Seagate 500gb, Silverstone TJ09 case, Vista Ultimate 64ASX Client: AMD 3700+ (@ 2.6 ghz), 7800GT

>Jeff: Can you tell me how you do your backups? I have both>Acronis True Image 11 and their partition manager software and>I have 2 drives dedicated to back ups in addition to my>primary flight sim drive. I'd like to have at least one>complete image of my hard drive (more than one would be great)>and then incremental backups of my data kept on a separate>partition or drive, if necessary.>>I can't figure out how to make Acronis write the image without>destroying the partition layout I've created -- no matter how>I try to copy my drive, Acronis wipes out all partitions and>data on the destination drive! And Acronis customer service>is utterly useless unless I want to pay extra for their help !> :-(Hi Chuck,Sure, I'm sort of a freak when it comes to backups now. First is Acronis' own secure zone which is that hidden partition that belongs only to Acronis. For this I do a monthly system state incremental. This is my deepsh*t button so to speak. When everything else goes to crap, I use this and I'll never have to lose more than a month. On my 500GB drive I have two backup locations. In one I do a daily system state backup (incremental), and the other I have a weekly full backup (also incremental). I don't partition my drives. For me, to partition a Raptor is akin to taking the engine out of a corvette and replacing it with one from a chevette. The way partitioning works, each one on the same drive will be slower than the last. Not to mention the fact that regardless of the number of partitions, you still have only one head to search, read, and write with. However,(stepping off my soapbox now :-violin :-lol) I know partitioning has its advantages under certain cicumstances. When you go through the setup for your backup, are you selecting all the partitions on the partitions selection page? On the bottom of that same page there is a checkbox to create the image sector by sector, is that checked? The only other thing I can think of is to use True Image and not Partition Manager to create your partitions. It could be that the two programs, though created by the same developer, may not work and play nicely with others. On the main Acronis screen, click on disk utilities and then Add New Disk. I don't know if you've tried the clone disk option on the same page. When you go through the Clone Disk wizard, there will be an option page that allows you to delete or keep the existing partitions. These are just some ideas after going through some of the different options and the manual. Alot of this stuff I haven't really explored but, I think I'm going to now. This really is a great program. It's already saved my bacon several times. I hope this helps. If not, let me know and we'll explore some other options.Best Regards,Jeff