new hard drive

[paul mc]

I am running out of space on my HDD and i have been looking at fitting a second one into my machine and i have a few questions

1. how do i find out what connection it is( i have had a look at the properties of my current one and it says its ATA is that the type of connecter)

2. can you just fit it into series with the current one like you do with 2 cd drives(set one to slave)

3. will it need formatting and partitioning once fitted if so is it easy to do.

 

I am looking at this one as it seems to fit the bill and its quite cheap

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quick...0151,4294960493

 

 

Thanks in advance

[jeepster]

that drive is a decent price. you will have on your motherboard a second connection for a hard drive so you just hook it up there, plug in the power and bingo, you're away!

[Newt]

3. will it need formatting and partitioning once fitted if so is it easy to do.

 

Yes (it will) and Yes (it is)

[zenith10]

in my experience they dont need formatting upon purchase

[paul mc]

Thanks for the reply's

I have just ordered one so no doubt ill be back in here when it comes

I have fitted mew parts to my pc before(graphics card, cd drives) so it may not be a problem.

[peterpikefisher]

in my experience they don't need formatting upon purchase

 

it will if its unformatted or if its fat32 and he is using NTFS most new drives do not come formatted therefore your bios would not recognise it or if it dose it won't show in my computer.

and so say most of us.

[chesters1]

i played with an ex camera 160 gig hard drive the other day ,bios saw it but XP wouldnt format it as it was uninitilised (sp?) ,i had to boot from a win98 disk then fdisk it then format it ,it was seen by xp then and proceeded to let me repartition it and allot drive letters ,most new drives come with the software to get them working ,maxblast 4 is an excellent bit of software (works on any drive) that lets you clone your existing drive if you want to replace it with the new one automatically ,you cant do it manually! once done you just change the drives jumpers and it boots from the new one with exactly the same ingrediants as the old one allowing the old one to be used as a slave

[paul mc]

I have just fitted the new HDD and set it to slave and my old drive(the one with windows on) set to DS(master). After restarting i cant see it in my computer but when i go into device manager it is there and in properties it says its working properly.

Any idea how i can get windows to recognise it in my computer??????

i am on win Xp(home) sp2 and the drive come with no manuals or discs

Edited January 13, 2006 by paul mc

[Guest Ferret1959]

I have just fitted the new HDD and set it to slave and my old drive(the one with windows on) set to DS(master). After restarting i cant see it in my computer but when i go into device manager it is there and in properties it says its working properly.

Any idea how i can get windows to recognise it in my computer??????

i am on win Xp(home) sp2 and the drive come with no manuals or discs

 

 

 

I got the same so waiting in anticipation for an answer.

[chesters1]

the only thing you can try is going to control panel...admin tools...computer management ..then click on disk management ,look for your new disk and see if its there ,you maybe able to partition the drive there and format it but i had problems with my disk (as above) hopefully yours will be ok,

i partitioned my 160 into 3 partitions (the amoungt is up to you) but remember anything using a CD to run will go up a letter if you add a new disk and call it ..for instance) E F G etc (3 new partition letters).

you can get round this by having your new drives partitions start above your CD'sdrive letter and all will be well ,you can "letter" each partition in a drop down box ,once the partition is "lettered" and formatted it will be seen BE VERY VERY carefull the drive your formatting is the new one ,no responseability taken if you wipe your old one

Edited January 13, 2006 by chesters1