How should I partition, where should I install my OS?

I have three hard drives and one is a 1TB used for storage.  The other two are:

an older 250gb caviar:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/legacy/Legacy.asp?r=8&Model=WD2500YD

and a relatively newer 500GB caviar black:

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=552

I am going to reformat these drives, below are the speed tests.

QUESTIONS:

1) How should I hook these three drives into my MB across the 4 ports bank 0 and 1?  Does the order even matter?

2) Where I should put my OS.  I see two possible configurations:

A: Partition the 500 into a 100gb section for the OS and a 400gb for storage.  POSSIBLE PROBLEM: the read head will have to move from the OS portion to the storage portion thus slowing down access.
B: Use the 250gb drive as the dedicated OS drive.  POSSIBLE PROBLEM: Based on HD Tune it seems to be the slower drive.

THANKS!






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jacksmindAsked:
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sagiamarConnect With a Mentor Commented:
the 250 probably slower drive and only 16MB cache but my recommendation is split and install the os on the 250... you can use the whole 250 for the os or split for 2 partitions 100GB shuld be enough  for for the os and application  and use the 500 for data.
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davorinConnect With a Mentor Commented:
1. It really doesn't matter.
2. I would choose option A, as the disk is faster. It is better to have two partitions. Anyway even if you have only one partition, the head will have to move across whole disk platen. Just take care about partitions fragmentation.
It depends on computer usage but normally data is randomly accessed except in some cases, like database log files.
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David WallConnect With a Mentor Commented:
I would have to ask what are you going to use the other drive for?

But as you dont say , my feeling would be to go or the OS on the smaller drive, and use the faster dive for storage.

The one thing you may want to do is check you have the lataest firmware and run a manufacturers scan on the drive before using.

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?level1=6&lang=en 
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sagiamarCommented:
sorry about the first question ..... is dose not matter the os drive will always get the boot.
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Gary CaseConnect With a Mentor RetiredCommented:
Use the Caviar Black for the OS, with the partitions set as you described (100GB for the OS).    The first partition on a drive is by far the fastest due to the zoned sectoring used on all modern drives ... that's why the performance is so much higher at the beginning and tapers down.     A 100GB partition will be almost entirely on the outermost zone, so you'll get the best possible boot and program load performance with that setup.

Which SATA port you use doesn't matter -- just so you set the boot order correctly in the BIOS.
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MrWalkoConnect With a Mentor Commented:
I would partition out the 500GB drive and use the first 100GB partition for your OS. As was stated above, the first partition on this drive will be the fastest section you have and this will result in faster boot time and program access. I would then prioritize your stored data and put stuff on the reaining 400GB that you access infrequently. This will leave the drive to primarily access the OS partition.

Alternately go and buy 2 cheap, small SATA drives, configure them as RAID 0 and then choose the first 70 - 100GB as your OS. That will be much faster again!!!
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