Karen decides to add a second internal hard drive
Hi. I've been reading your newsletters for years and I've learned so much! I've just joined The Hill - and I'm having so much fun - and learning a lot too! After reading up on it, I've decided to take the plunge and install a second hard-drive. I'm not very computer savvy, but I have installed RAM in my computer and it wasn't so hard. But I have a feeling that installing a second hard drive in my computer wont be as easy. Any tips you can give me since I've never done anything like this before? (I'm using Windows XP.)
Our answer
Thanks, Karen. You've made a good decision! Installing a second internal hard drive is a great idea for everyone, especially in this era of inexpensive, yet very large storage capacity hard drives. And you may not be very computer savvy, but being willing to try is a good first step to learning more about your computer.
Let's face it. The more time passes the more our personal computers become part of our lives. Just a few years ago a computer was something most people used for entertainment - for fun. As the Internet grew, it offered many different things. It is a vast resource of knowledge. Just about anything you want to learn more about can be found on the Internet. With the advent of secure server technology online shopping became safe and practical. We shop online all the time and have do so for three or four years - never once have we ever worried about safety. We understand whether or not you shop online, anytime you use a credit card to buy gasoline, purchase a dinner at a chain restaurant or buy those laundry supplies at Wal-mart with a credit card - you're shopping "online" anyway.
Anyone who wants to learn more about their computers and is willing to try gets a big hats off from us. Computers will only become more essential as we go through the 21st century.
Installing a second hard drive requires a certain amount of fortitude. You're going to have to open the case (but you've done this already when you installed more RAM), find an open hard drive bay, insert the drive into the bay and connect the cable connector to the backside of the hard drive. Before you do this, you'll need to set the jumper settings to "slave" if this hard drive is going to be your "second hard drive". We highly recommend you make the second drive the slave, otherwise you won't be able to boot your computer, and that wouldn't be good.
Most computers come with adapters that screw on the side of the hard drive so all you have to do is connect these plastic adapters by screwing them into hard drive then sliding the drive into the empty bay until it "clicks" into place. You don't have to screw the hard drive directly to the computer case -at least not on most newer computers.
The cable connection is easy, but you'll need to be aware if you're installing the drive as a second (or "slave") drive, the connector will be in the middle of the cable that connects your current drive to the motherboard. Sometimes it's a tight fit, just remember you might have to close your computer case part way to get it to "reach" the back of the second hard drive. Make sure you push the connector (which is usually a black or gray plastic female connector) all the way into the back of the hard drive. You might have to push pretty hard - but that's OK. Just make sure it's in all the way and the connection is tight.
Then you'll have to format the hard drive or else when you reboot into Windows, Windows will not "see" it and you'll think you've failed. Most hard drives come with a CD-ROM that makes formatting the "invisible" (in Windows) drive easy. Just follow the onscreen instructions on the CD. In Windows XP you can format the new drive without even bothering with the CD included with your hard drive. Just use Windows XP's "Computer Management's" "Drive Management Feature". See this article for more details.
Most hard drives today come with excellent and easy-to-understand instructions. Make sure you read those instructions carefully before you get started. It will save you a lot of time and aggravation later on, especially since this is your first attempt.
As far as transferring all your data to the second hard drive, this opens a can of worms. Transferring files from one drive to another is as easy as dragging and dropping them. But, you can't just drag and drop programs to your new hard drive. There are registry entries and start menu shortcuts that won't be transferred and you'll end up with a huge mess. You could use a cloning software like Acronis True Image - and make a mirror image of your old hard drive and clone it to your second hard drive, but this would also transfer the operating system as well as everything on your old hard drive including any errors or problems you currently have. We strongly recommend that you don't do this. You're only going to end up with problems. We'd suggest moving only your pictures, files, documents that you don't want to lose; and leave the operating system and programs on the old drive. It's much simpler and will cause you many less headaches down the road.
Summary:
We congratulate you on your decision to install a second hard drive. And we applaud you for being "willing to try" new things - it will certainly give you new confidence and you'll learn a lot about the mysterious "computer" (which is just a machine like other machines actually). Once you've had two (or more) physical hard drives, you will never want to live with just one hard drive again. The peace of mind that comes with having all your important photos, documents and files safely stored on a second hard drive, away from Windows, is worth it.
Make sure you set the jumpers on the back of your hard drive correctly. If you follow our advice you'll make your number two hard drive the "slave" and set the jumpers to "slave". The instructions that come with your hard drive will show you (and show you pictures) how to do this. This is important. Setting the jumpers wrong or not at all can and will cause you big problems.
Don't try to move everything from your old hard drive to your new hard drive. You'll end up with a myriad of issues and problems. Just move documents, photos, important files, etc. to your new hard drive and leave your programs and operating system on your old one. In the future, you will, of course want to install new programs on your second hard drive, and that's fine.
One note we want to make here about new hard drives. There are several different types. Most brand new computers have SATA hard drives (Serial) which are supposed to be faster than ATA/IDE hard drives. SATA drives use a smaller connector. If your computer is older than a year or so, you probably don't have motherboard support for SATA hard drives. SATA drives don't have jumpers to set like ATA. Throughout this article, since your computer is not brand new, we gave instructions for ATA/IDE hard drives and not SATA. Don't buy a SATA hard drive unless you're positive your motherboard (mainboard) supports SATA drives.
And, we hope others who are not "computer savvy" will take heart that you're willing to try new things because you will learn a great deal from the experience. No one is saying everything will go perfectly, but with patience, a little reading and using your head, you'll surprise yourself and learn a lot about computers. Good luck!
©2008 Cloudeight Information Avenue - Issue #325 -April 19, 2008
Tags: Computers Hard Drives Internal Drives Secondary Drives Slave Drives
