Installing a storage hard drive

[dk]

Hi there,

I was thinking of installing an inexpensive second hard drive on my old Gateway just to free up space for programs on the original drive. I've put in memory and video cards before but never a hard drive. I was just wondering if I could get some clarification on installing it before I spend the money on the new drive.

So basically, you get an IDE drive (do I need a cable, or does the cable come with it?) set it to "slave" and fit it into the hard drive rack... then I'm a little lost as to how it's cabled.... And I'm assuming one of the aux power connectors from the PSU will work? I'd appreciate any explanations you all could give. Thanks.

 

[TheMajor]

Use one of the power molex from your PSU (has 4pins). Make sure you have a free IDE connector on one of your cables. Or make sure you have a spare cable. (i don't know if HD''s come with cables)

then connect the IDE cable to your HD. Make sure the red wire connects to PIN1 on your HD (next to the power connector) The yellow wire from the power connector points outwards.

Look at this, you can clearly see the yellow wire on the power molex and the red wire on the right side of the IDE cable:

 

[dk]

Wow, thanks, a pic no less! That helped a lot. So the IDE cable already in my current HDD will have an extra input on it for the slave? (I've never looked at these things before.) Sometimes you just need someone to say "this goes here, this goes there". I'll certainly give it a try.

 

[TheMajor]

Most IDE cables support 2 devices. Either 2 HD's, 2 CD-RoMs or 1 HD + 1 CD-RoM