External SATA-based Hard Drive (aka "C" drive) with Operating System

Above: Part of a "home-made" kit for an external, SATA-based operating system. This image shows an AMS Venus external hard-drive enclosure (SATA/USB) with Seagate NL-35 400 GB SATA drive. I'm using this system in a SATA set-up. The USB 2.0 cable (bottom left of image) is not used. Notice the Venus system also incorporates an effective cooling fan. This is important as hard drives can run fairly warm. Many pre-packaged external drives -- such as a Maxtor, Western Digital, etc. -- do no have internal cooling. One such drive, a hot-running Maxtor external, failed after a little over two years in use. It had no internal cooling.

Reliable, High-Capacity SATA Drives

• Meets the stringent requirements of 24x7 storage applications
• From 250GB to 500GB storage capacity
• 8 to 16Mbyte cache and native command queuing (NCQ) for enhanced performance
• Industry-leading five-year warranty

Right: Run the SATA cable (red) from the SATA connector on the SATA-compliant motherboard thru a "hole" in the back of the PC. The hole may simply be a removed cover bracket (used for empty PCI card slots). You'll need your motherboard's "User's Manual" to help you with the rest of the SATA (software-based) set-up.

I used Acronis True Image to make a mirror (clone) of my old, internal hard drive (e.g., in Windows, this is "C" drive: the operating system, Registry, Program Files, My Documents, etc). I did this with the Venus/Seagate SATA external USB'd to my PC. For me, "C" drive was originally a dual-drive RAID 0 set-up. Nevertheless, everything mirrored just fine -- the system started up without a hitch the very first time I booted "externally".

* True Image takes much of the credit for this; just be sure to Scan Disk and defragment the original "'C" drive before cloning .

Right: Here's what my DIY set-up looks like from the back. The PC tower, continues to house the original dual-hard-drive RAID 0 set-up I originally installed upon building this system. I can also choose to boot from that set-up as well.

Notes:

Power-down and power-up : Notice that with this ad hoc set up, one must power-up each unit -- the external drive and the PC -- separately. Like an internal drive, and as long as the PC is on, the Venus drive will spin-up or spin-down (and eventually, turn off) based on the power configuration one has set up in the OS (in Windows, right click on the Desktop, choose Screen Saver > Power ... > Power Schemes). However, after a PC is shut down, the external HD is still powered. The Venus drive will spin-down (and maybe even spin-off) when the PC is powered down. However, the drive's internal cooling fan continues to operate. I don't like to keep motors turning indefinitely so I also power down the external drive after powering down the PC (the switch is inconveniently on the back of the Venus). using this scheme, one must remember to power up the drive before powering up the PC (the Venus has a green LED "on" indicator to tell you which state it's in). My routine with this system is to power it up in the morning, keep it on while in active use, and then shut down for the day in the early evening. If I'm going out of the house (which is my office, too), then I'll also shut the system down. Everything is plugged into a UPS/power conditioner.

Questions regarding "tweakablity":

• Does a "more-linear" DC power supply for PC components yield improved audio/video?
• Does mechanical damping PC components, chassis and tower hardware yield better audio/video performance?