HD upgrade.

[SiZcO]

I'm wanting to upgrade my Harddrive BUT, i'm not sure about something my HD is a Seagate 40GB hd and i want to upgrade to a 120GB hd but im not sure how i install it... im a newbie at this sorry. but anyways so i open up case unscrew the old HD and unplug it then take it out. then get the new HD plug it in and Screw it in... and when it boots up do i have to go to BIOS? or should it reconize it... and when i install XP back on to it. i just do it the same way like i did my old HD right? or since its a never used HD.. i gotta do something different? i'm sorry im just tottaly lost. heh

 

[Rizinc4]

You would boot directly off your XP disk (probably the way you formatted your last one). Leave the BIOS alone unless the disk does not boot. In that case, make sure your boot sequence in the BIOS (under advanced setup options, or the tab "boot" I beleive):

1. Floppy (or Removable Device)
2. CD-ROM
3. Hard Drive

Other than that, I would stay out of the BIOS.

 

[GameGURU]

You might have to put in a HDD disk from the company that made the HDD. If thats the case there should be some instructions somewhere.

 

[SiZcO]

well i just checked my BIOS...

1st boot device:CDROM
2nd boot Device:HHD-0
3rd boot device:CDROM

so take out old HD put in new... i shouldnt have to mess with BIOS? just pop in Windows XP and let it reformat and put windows xp on it.. and it should work? dont need no Boot disk do i?

 

[GameGURU]

If you have the XP CD-ROM then yes, you're fine. Also now that those are your settings, any CD-ROM that is in the drive at startup will atuo-run and you might get some errors. So when you are done installing change back to what Riz has.

 

[Nubius]

Wait a minute...I thought that OSs work with 1 Hard Drive: the 1st one their installed on...?????

Not fully sure what you mean, but you can't like take a HD out of one computer and put it in another unless you format the drive which he's doing.

You can't simply swap HD's from computers though cause it has drivers from the other motherboard and such, but yeah.....HD = Reusable

 

[SiZcO]

ok, but i don't want to get a Harddrive... that i cant use.. my Motherboard book said that... it supports 2 ports SATA 150 1.5g BPS and Supports Serial ATA data Transfer rate of 150MB/sec

so im wondering what is the different between SATA and ATA... should i get ATA?.. thought all HD worked on all computers.

 

[ChaosBlizzard]

SATA = Serial ATA
ATA = Advanced Technology Attachment

Sata supports 150MB/s, whilst ATA maxes out at 133MB/s.. That's if you have ATA133 support.

Also, the SATA cables are much smaller in size than the ribbon cables used for ATA..

 

[TheMajor]

I don't like how the HD manufacturers advertise with their transfer speeds. Sometimes tey don't even mention the read/write speeds. SATA still maxes out at a maximum burst rate of 133MB/s. The PCI bus limits about every single part in your computer. Still, SATA drives are usually faster than IDE drives, they often have better read/write speeds.

I would get an IDE drive cause they are cheaper.

 

[GameGURU]

SizCo, I have a motherboar in one of my older pc's called KD7A, if this is the one that you have I would suggest doing what Major said and get an IDE, not SATA as they are expensive and to my knowledge not worth it.