Installing Dual Hard Drive on HP DV9700T

Hi Everyone,

I just had to exchange my DV9500T that had 2 120 GB drives. Now I've got one 250 GB drive coming.

Since the new one that's coming has that much storage, would adding a second one at around 120GB cause more heat and/or a big drain on battery power? I'm just wondering if a second hard drive will run idle (like a power saving mode) and not just be 'on' all the time - bit of a noob here if you haven't guessed already!

Also, I want to do Orev's clean Vista install to get the bloatware off the laptop when it arrives. Is there a way I can make the new 120GB drive the one with the OS and just have the 250 that came with it be for file storage -- in other words, do I physically need to swap these drives or can they be assigned a drive letter when formatting in the clean install?

Lastly, is there a guide with brand recommendations somewhere? I've been reading good things about Seagate here. I definitely want cool and quiet.

Thanks in advance!

 

The secondary hard drive WILL run idle if no program is accessing it. The second you access it you will hear the spin-up sound.

I have the 2x250GB HD configuration in my dv9500t. I use a temperature monitoring program and I notice that the secondary hard drive (because I rarely use it) is routinely 10 degrees cooler than the system drive.

I cant speak about battery drain, though. I have never used this laptop in a mobile environment to test battery life, I use it as a desktop replacement, always plugged in. But going by simple logic, a second hard drive WILL require more power, idle or in use, so battery drain WILL increase with a second hard drive, less when idle of course.

I havent read Orev's guide, but heres just a few tips:
-the HP recovery DVD recognizes which hard drive is in the PRIMARY slot and will install the OS to that drive. You really dont get a choice with the HP recovery
-the HP recovery partition is always on the primary drive, so using that will just recover windows on the primary drive. It wont touch the secondary drive.
-any standard Vista disc will give you a partition manager, so you can choose which drive you want to have the OS without swapping physical locations.

If you want to be on the ultra safe side, just install Vista with only the 120GB installed. Then when Vista is completely installed pop in the 250GB to ensure it will be a storage-only drive.