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Preface
Are you getting pressed for space on your existing hard drive (fixed disk) on your computer, but otherwise the system meets your needs? Then it might be very possible to add the additional storage in a very painless manner. With the cost of hard drives coming down and the amount of data they store going up, it has gotten to the point it is very cost effective to add a second drive to your existing computer. In most systems this is not a major job at all and few special tools or talents are needed to add such a drive to the computer. So while I cannot give you all the steps here for each and every system possible, I can give you some general hints on how to go about adding such a drive to an existing home system that has not had a drive added before. Only you can tell if you are up to this job after reading this page. Of course just so it is clear, if you are still lost after you read what is here, it is likely best you avoid attempts at adding the drive yourself. However if you are cheap and willing to work with a bit of care, most can add parts such as this to your computer. A few ground rules first, you need to check what you have for a computer as far as age. Bios ( the operating system that starts your computer up before DOS, Windows, or Linux loads ) and if it is dated after 1998, you should be able to accept most any IDE type drive available today. If your computer was build before 1998 you may be able to upgrade bios by contacting the maker of the computer or motherboard. See the link below for SiSoft Sandra if you do not know the maker of the motherboard on your computer. Here is a small graph of the IDE/ATA standards used over the years to see where your system falls in the mix. If it is over 3 years old ( your bios date ) you may need to upgrade to support drives larger than about 11gb. Even older than that you may be limited to 2gb drives again depending on the bios. Ask the store or online dealer you are planning to buy your drive from for assistance in that area. If they are unwilling, you may wish to talk to www.dirtcheapdrives.com for assistance with sorting out what is possible for your system. IDE Terms
If we wish to extend the install process for a hard drive, the install process for CD-ReWriteable drives is much the same as the install of a second hard drive. On most computers build since 1998 ( 250 mhz processors and up ) most CD-Roms are also an IDE interface and use the secondary IDE controller supplied on the motherboard on most of these systems. If your system uses the IDE drive interface, and most since that time do, it should be possible to use the IDE connection to for a CD Rom/CD-ReWriteable as a slave on the IDE controller also. Most come with primary and secondary IDE controllers/IDE buss connections are on the motherboard and it is there for CD Roms. If your PC is using has both of these controllers, you can also add a second CD Rom or CD-ReWriteable drive as a slave using the same instructions below, aside from the fact you would be using the secondary IDE connection, and not the primary. ( the secondary would always be used for the CD-Rom drive ) It may even be possible to add a 3 hard drive to the secondard controller as a slave however I would not think it recommended to do so in most cases. Warning!!!! Before we proceed, a computer is an electronic device. Care should be taken whenever working with such items to avoid shock hazards. While most computer do not pose much of a shock risk, if your system is one that has the monitor built into the case with the floppy and CD drive, I strongly suggest you send the computer into a computer shop to have them install any hardware upgrades. The reason for this is the monitors can produce VERY high electrical voltages and can produce a DEADLY SHOCK, even when unplugged in some cases. This type of hazard is not present in a system that does not share the same case with the monitor. All computer electronics are subject to static shock damage also. Care should be taken when handling any cards, cables, or other parts that make up your computer. Additionally, hard drives are subject to damage from rough handling. The fact is most hard drive failures are a direct result of the drive being subjected to excess impact during the shipping, handling, or installation process. Always handle drives carefully, much the way you would a very expensive camera or other sensitive device. This means padded tabletops and so forth when you set them down. Make sure you are purchasing the correct drive interface. SCSI type interfaces do exist and are not compatable with IDE/EIDE/ATA interfaces used on most home PCs. SCSI interfaces are often found on server type installations, and Apple products. See the table above for information concerning the different standards. HOWEVER, I have seen PCs ( generally with processors slower than 233 mhz ) that use SCSI CD Rom drives. I have also seen older or high end custom built machines that use SCSI hard drives. Since these interfaces are not at all the same, damage to the computer and/or drive will result if you attempt to connect a SCSI type interface to a IDE type connection. So be aware of this fact before you purchase a drive. If you are in doubt consult the maker of your PC or a computer tech to at the least assist you further in determining which type drives you have before you purchase additional storage devices. Again see SiSoft Sandra link at the end of this page for help if you do not know what your current system hardware is. Time to Begin The first thing I suggest is to at least get the book out for your computer if you have one and look over the lay out of the inside of the system. If you lack the book, you may have to go in blind so to speak on some of this. The next thing to do is to decide what your storage needs are going to be in the next few years. I say for the next few years as by that time your computer is likely going to be ready for replacement due to speed increases in hardware anyway but you also do not wish to run yourself short on your storage expectations either. The reason for that is simple. You will only be able to add one additional drive to most systems without going through a bit of work. So you can pretty much expect that if you add an additional drive at this point, and take the easy way out, the next one will be a matter of replacement of an existing part, not the addition of a part to your system. The first thing you should do is make sure you have any data you wish not to loose backed up to a non fixed media such as diskettes, zip disks, tape, CD-R /RW, or network drives if available. You should be able to determine if your computer has an IDE/EIDE drive type by going to the START, SETTINGS, CONTROL PANEL on Windows and selecting SYSTEM, then double clicking on DEVICE DRIVERS, then double clicking in DISK DRIVES and it should list IDE type drive there. It should also list only one drive. ( you may have more than one logical disk on your system already, but we are talking about physical disk drives at this point. A physical drive can have more than one logical drive contained on it. ) If you have only one drive listed, and it is the IDE type, you can start shopping. There are really only 4 drive makers left that sell drives to consumers. They are Maxtor/Quantum, Seagate, IBM, and Western Digital. If your system is under 550 mhz, or uses a small case, I suggest you do not consider 7200 rpm drives. The reason is that it is unlikely you have an interface ( controller that can make real use of it, and if you have a small case, heat from the faster drive may be a problem. ) If you have a large case and faster machine you may wish to consider the 7200 rpm drives. All the current drives as of this time support the ATA66 or ATA100 interface. Most of these drives will function even on the slower ATA33 standard without a problem as well. The pin out on the drives are the same for all three ATA standards really but the faster standards require cables and controller/buss chips that can support the transfer speed. Prices that you can obtain a drive for vary greatly depending one where you are located. In the USA at the time of writing, you could purchase a ATA100 30gb drive for about $100.00 (5400 rpm). What your requirements are is something you would need to answer for yourself but it is best to go larger than smaller in this case. Ok, you have your drive! You have your drive, and are ready to go. Close Windows, and generally shut down your computer after you have backed up the data you wish to back up. Go find a medium flat and a medium phillips screw driver, a piece of paper and a pen. Unpack the installation guide ( instructions ) for the new hard drive but do not remove the drive yet. ( it should be in an anti-static bag and in a well padded box at this point. ) Read the install guide with the drive and take note of any diskette or CD included. Unplug the computer from the wall and then remove the cables, labeling the connections if needed. Remove the screws from edge of the case in the back ( usually 3 to 5 ) slide the cover backwards about 1 inch then lift it off the computer. At this point it might be easier to move the computer to a table with a towel or something on it with the side you can see the part with facing up. In most of the newer mini-tower type cases there is an unused drive bay next to the one that the existing hard drive is located in. In most of these systems the cable may even have the connector in place for a second hard drive. If it does not, you should have one located in the box with your new hard drive. If you can see the location where the cable ribbon cable that attaches to the hard drive is located on the motherboard, take note of the side with a red stripe on it as that is pin 1 on the IDE controller. Also take note of it on the existing hard drive. If you need to change the cable at this point, to replace the existing one with the one that come with your new hard drive to get a second connector, do so at this point. Remember to keep track of which side has the red stripe and replace the cable in the same manner as the old one. If you are satisfied you can physically mount the new drive in an existing bay at this point you may proceed to bring the new drive to the computer and open the bag carefully without any sharp blows to the drive on things like tables and so on. Carefully locate the jumpers on the new drive and move the drive from MASTER to SLAVE. Then carefully put the drive in the bay and attach at least 2 screws to hold the drive in place. ( if you can put in 4 do so but I have never seen any problem using two if it means removing the motherboard to put in the other two screws. ) Attach the ribbon cable as required to the new drive, and then the power connector. Care should be exercised in this to avoid touching cable ends or pins where the electrical connections are made. ( to avoid getting body oil on them or possible static charges ) At this point if you have made the needed connections, replace the case if you are sure your work was done correctly and return the computer to the location it normally is and replace the cables you removed. Start the computer and if you have had a diskette included to complete the installation of the hard drive you may wish to insert it as per the instructions. The new drive should be Drive D on most systems after it is found. Most drives come with low level formatting software, and disk Partitioning software. Generally I would suggest partitions no larger than 10 to 15 gb depending on the overall size of the drive. Each partition makes a different logical drive, and other drives such as the CD Rom or DVD drive will advance if they were drive D or E or F as needed to be the last drive in that order. ( you can assign a drive letter to a CD Rom drive also in the control panel also, such as Drive M or Drive R if desired. ) Ok I installed it, and it doesn't work! First thing is to go back to the control panel and see if Windows has found the drive. If you cannot boot your computer you have likely messed up on the drive cable connections somewhere. Go back and repeat the connections. Most boards and drives have the pin numbers shown for pin 1 and 40.. If you have them reversed it will not work correctly until you correct the problem. If you are not reading the new drive but read the old drive ok, it is more than likely a problem with Windows finding the drive. If you lack the software you may try the control panel and find new hardware function. Windows should locate the hardware that way and install the basic drivers for the drive. You may have to do a format on the drive if it is found and not readable. Make sure you do not mess up and format the wrong drive. ( it would mean a great loss of data. ). Can I ........ Can I make this new drive my drive C? The answer is yes, but it will require a reinstall of Windows, and all the files/programs currently on your computer. It just amounts to making the new drive the master with the jumpers and the old drive the slave. However you will not be able to just copy and paste the contents of the old drive to the new one. It will require a full format and reinstall of Windows so make sure you have all your data backed up. Can you have more than one logical drive? Actually I think the limit is only the number of letters on the Windows Operating system you are using. Keep in mind drive A and B are reserved for floppy drives and everyone about needs a CD Rom drive now so that means you have three already used. On Windows 95/98/ME/2000 I believe you can go up to drive Z. If you wish more, I think you need to get the Network version of Windows 2000 or Windows NT and then I believe you can use AA, BB, CC and so on also. I have no idea what the upper limit is with the Network versions. Can I run two operating systems? In a word, yes. It is possible to dual boot the computer but you can do this with one physical hard drive. It just requires logical drives to install different operating systems. I would however suggest software like Partision Magic for doing things along these lines as it will take most of the fight out of making the system dual bootable. There is a page on this site that deals in detail with adding Windows 2000 Professional as a second operating system. ( dual_boot.html ) for other operating systems such as Linux, I would suggest you obtain a copy of Partition Magic (www.powerquest.com) as there are some files and information on making dual boot set ups included with that software. Do I recommend one hard drive over another? Generally I avoid making hardware recommendations because it is my feeling you can end up with problems with any makers product. That being said I can only relay my experences so far with makes of drives I have owned personally. By a large margin I have been most pleased with Quantum ( now owned by Maxtor ) hard drives. I have also had very very good operation from Maxtor drives as well so if I were to make a recommendation for a drive now it would be the Maxtor drive. I have had my worst problems with some of the less popular makers but the truth is Seagate drives have never served me well either. I have also found the performance in other areas lacking on the Seagate drives. Further down this page you will find a link for SiSoft Sandra if you do not know the maker of your drive and do not wish to open the case up and look. ( not that even that is always easy to see that way without a lot of problem. ) The one main thing I cannot stress enough is that most people who really are up on the construction of hard drives say is that the more care they are handled with as far as moving them around in shipment and installation the longer the life you are likely to see. Treat them like kind of like a cross between an egg, a older highly valued watch, and a baby in your care and you should have good results in most cases with any of the major makers. In the warrently and support area from what I have read in reviews it also sounds like Maxtor is excellent there also. My Windows does not like the new large drive. You may need to visit the Windows Update page. There are some known issues with Windows 95 and early versions of 98 that deal with larger drives. You may need to download the update for larger drive support if you happen to be in this group. If you know the make of your computer it might be a good idea to visit the makers webpage. ( such as Compaq or Dell or HewlettPackard or IBM or Gateway ) They often have updates for bios and so on for systems. Keep in mind if you decide to do a bios update you should have a Uninterruptable power suppy on the computer as in most cases a flash upgrade to the bios that is interruped will ruin ( as in un-repairable ) a motherboard. If you need to download the update and put it on diskettes and take it in or get a UPS for your computer before you install it. If you do not know the maker of your computer, you may not be totally out of luck if you can get a copy of a hardware snooper program such as SiSoft Sandra, ( www.sisoftware.demon.co.uk/sandra ) and find the information about the real maker of the motherboard and bios release version. You may then be able to go to the makers website and download a flash upgradable bios install. Again you should use a UPS supply for installing such updates. The SiSoft Sandra site should have a trail / Demo version of their product which will be useful for 30 days. This should be enough time to obtain the needed information about the system hardware. You can of course purchase the product at their website as well if you wish to. See them for details. Text version of above ( easy printing ) Close This Browser Window Got here from main page? Close this window on your browser. Off site link? Use the back button on your browser to return.. Surfing my website? Feel free to use the Quick Jump below. |