installing a 2nd hard drive

[897]

Hey all, I'm looking for a little help with installing a 2nd hard drive. I've looked at a bunch of tuorials on the net, as well as on this site, but I'm still having trouble. I'm probably just missing something really obvious. Can anyone give me the rundown on what I should be doing, or point me to a good tutorial that will? Thanks.

[rcgreen]

It depends on what you already have in your computer.
Usually, there are two connectors on the motherboard,
each of which is called an ide "channel".

Each one can take a cable to connect hard drives, cdroms
etc. The channel can support two devices. If you are lucky, the cable going
to your hard drive has a second, unused plug. you can plug the second drive
in to this plug. If it doesn't have a second plug available, you'll have to buy
a cable.

Drives have little jumpers on the back that configure it for use.
Usually the choices are MA (master) SL (slave) and CS (cable select).
If all goes well, the new drive will be set for CS, and (hopefully),
so will the existing drive. Mount the new drive and plug it in
and it should work.

Modern systems will automatically recognize the drive at the far
end of the cable as master, the boot drive, and the one in the middle
of the cable as slave.

With older systems, you may have to manually set the jumpers
to config one drive as master, and the other as slave.


BTW, "master" and "slave" is just a naming convention. The drives
need to be distinguished so the computer doesn't try to talk
to both at the same time.

[897]

According to the drive itself, no jumper=slave. Should I leave it at that or set it to CS? My old drive it at the end of the cable. My computer displays the new drive in the list of connected drives, but it doesn't display it in windows. Is there anything else I should be doing?

[morganlefay]

Use disk manager...can you see it there???

What version of windows

MLF

[897]

Using Xp. Disk manager?

[morganlefay]

Right Click my computer>manage>Disk Management.

Will show all physical drives...

this way you can partition format etc

MLF

[897]

Ok, so it shows up in disk manager, and it's set to enable, but I still can't see it in my computer. I activated it in disk manager, but it says it's unallocated, and has black stripes accross it's window, whereas the other devices say healthy.

[morganlefay]

Is there any data on it???

If it is a new drive then you have to format it....then windows will recognize it

Right click the drive and there you have your options

MLF

[897]

It's brand new. Partition, I'm guessing? Only other options are properties and help.

[morganlefay]

Yes you partition it...you can leave it whole or split it up to 4 seperate partitions....

If it is just for storage.... you can leave it whole

then format

reboot...

Voila...new drive

MLF