Installing a new Hard Drive

[m3trj]

OK basically I would like to install a second hard drive in my computer. However, I opened my computer to see if I have enough plugs and stuff but got a bit confused. I believe there are 3 IDE sockets (if that's what they're called). Two of them are right next to each other, and one is slightly higher, dunno why. The floppy drive is connected to the higher one, and the existing hard drive is connected to one of the other ones. However, what confuses me most is that the last one is connected to the CD-RW drive, but then the DVD-ROM drive appears to be connected to that drive by the same kind of wire. So there are two CD drives connected in series to one IDE socket. This is as far as I can see anyhow, it's all a bit jumbled and squashed together.

Anyway, do my eyes decieve me, or are the two CD drives really connected to each other? And what I would like to know most is, where in all this do I connect a second hard drive? I don't appear to have anywhere to connect one, and I don't have any spare power plugs by the look of it either. All I know is that there is definitely space to physically put one.

Can someone tell me how to install a second hard drive, thank's in advance!

 

[slvrstang]

Most IDE slots can take up to 2 devices, so most likely your CD/DVD drive are sharing a slot, just like your new Hard drive will have to share with your old Hard Drive, Make your old drive "master" by moving the jumper on the back of the drive and the new driver "slave" through the same method. Start it up and it should be fine.

 

[m3trj]

Right OK I understand now. I'm guessing that I'll need to buy a new IDE cable though, because the one that the hard drive is connected to only has one plug on it. Also, after formatting and partitioning the drive and stuff when it's set up, will it appear in My Computer as D: or something, because i don't want that. I would like my existing CD drives to remain D: and E:, and the new drive to be a random letter, like L or something. The reaon for this is that last time I partitioned my existing drive and created a D: partiton, my CD drives no longer worked. Is it possible to choose the drive letter?

Thanks.

 

[ekÆsine]

If using win2000 or winXP you can change drives letters except for the system and boot volume. Otherwise if using win98/ 95 it will assign letters in alphabetical order excluding the reserved letters A: and B: for floppy drives. Each IDE cable can take up to 2 devices. Since there is two IDE controller you have a max of 4 IDE devices. If you already have 4 devices on both you need to get an IDE card. You install it into a free PCI slot and it increases the number of IDE devices to at least 2 or 4 more. You can find these cards in most computer stores including newegg.com

more info
http://www.mikeshardware.com/howtos/howto_connect_ide_hd.html

 

[bla!!]

Definatelly,

What OS are you running?

If you're in Win2k/Xp, Right click on my computer, go to manage. Then go to the Disk Management tab.

You can do change each drive's letter to whatever you want.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Inside windows you can dedicate any letter to any drive you would like. It would be best to keep the your optical drives with the same letters so the programs that use the opotical drives can still access them.

It sounds like you want to make your new drive the master and reinstall your os, right?

If not then juat connect the new hard drive to the second slot on the ide cable and then its ready to use.

 

[bla!!]

Definatelly,

What OS are you running?

If you're in Win2k/Xp, Right click on my computer, go to manage. Then go to the Disk Management tab.

You can do change each drive's letter to whatever you want.

 

[m3trj]

Well the basic setup is like this:

I want to keep the current operating system (Windows 98se) on my existing 20 GB hard drive on a 10 GB partition, and install Windows XP on the other 10 GB partition. Then I wanna get the new hard drive and use it just as one big partition for storage, and installing stuff onto (if this is possible). I'm guessing it'll need to be FAT32 so that both OS's can read and write to it, as I'd like to be able to access data from both OS's.

Is it possible to install stuff onto a hard drive other than the one the OS is on?

Also I have 2 IDE devices on one plug (CD drives) and only one on the second (existing HD). I'm not entirely sure what the floppy is connected to, but I don't need to bother with that.

Thanks for all the help anyway.

 

[AND_YOU_ARE]

Well the basic setup is like this:

Is it possible to install stuff onto a hard drive other than the one the OS is on?

Thanks for all the help anyway.

Yes you can install other things on a drive rather than just the os. You are looking to do a dual boot drive. Where each partition is a different bootable partition. I woulde format the other partition before you install xp on it. And yes if it is fat32 both os would be able to access it. You shouldnt have any problems with that set up.

 

[EricB]

buy your new 80pin cable with 2 connectors
hook the second drive up. use your xp cd to create partitions (2 on 20 gig, 1 on the other) before you install xp. install xp. when xp opens up, right click 2nd hard drive and select format (pick fat32). Now click start, right click my document and select properties (you can only do it here), pick move and move your document folder to your second hard drive.

get you a bootmanager. now you can install windows 98 on your 2nd partition on your 1st hard drive