Hard Drive

[The Hobo]

I'm not going to run into any compatability issues if I just throw in a second hard drive, will I? I've never installed two hard drives intot he same box before. Anything I should know?

[JungleMan]

Don't think so. If the machine is really old you might need some BIOS overlay software but my 350 P2 could handle a 60 gig just fine.

[filburt1]

Obviously make sure you have a free IDE channel. For example if you've got a burner, HDD, zip drive, and DVD drive, then you'll have to get an extra IDE controller card.

[The Hobo]

Alright. Just wanted to make sure I didn't have to do anything weird.

[Behemoth]

you might have to twiddle about in the BIOS to make sure its detected ok. The best advice I can give is- establish whether its a master or a slave and pay attention to the jumper settings.

Should be a piece of cake

[msimmons]

In the bios you have to make sure they are set the same (I prefer AUTO). When I worked as a tech we would get people all the time saying they had a virus because one of their hard drives was showing gibberish. If the drive types in the bios don't match you will see the drive but the data will be scrambled (won't hurt the data but windows won't beable to read it.
Other than that just set the jumers and you're good to go.
Michael

[The Hobo]

I know how to set it up in BIOS and everything. I just wanted to make sure there weren't any compatability issues. Like you can't use this harddrive with this harddrive, etc.

Jumpers? Don't know much about them. Except using them to reset the bios password.

[msimmons]

there will be a jumper block on the hard drive. usualy between where the power and the IDE cables plug in but older ones have them in odd locations. You will want to make sure one is set to master (not standalone) and the other to slave... or both to cable select (then the position of the drive on the IDE cable determins who is boss). To determine what the settings are there may be a diagram on the drive itself (I love those ), it will be in the book (or chart depending on the brand, or you have to do a web search for the drive/model.
Michael

[JungleMan]

www.newegg.com

You can order hard drives online for next to nothing but they don't come with documentation, although most is available online.

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by jpbtennisman
www.newegg.com

You can order hard drives online for next to nothing but they don't come with documentation, although most is available online.

That's where I plan on buying it

msimmons: Thanks for the information I'm starting to remember some of that from A+ class, but we covered so much...I don't remember half of it.

[The Hobo]

Okay, flash foreward...I've purchased the Hard Drive, put it in, hooked up power and bus cords, turned on computer and looked through windows, no new hard drive. I went into BIOS and it's in there. Looked in the Control Panel and it has it listed there (it hasn't assigned it a drive letter though), so what else do I need to do? I set the jumper to slave (my other hard drive is set to master)

[GSIV]

After setting the bios up for the new drive, you will need to reboot using a floppy or CD and format/partition the new drive before it is ready for Windows.

[GSIV]

Then, after Windows has booted, click on My Computer and you should see icons for your drives and any partitions you created. If you right click on a drive or partition and select properties you will see the size of the drive and partitions. To make sure it works, try copying a few files to the new drive.

[The Hobo]

how can I format it if it doesn't have a letter assigned to it?

[Michael_Kamen]

I think you need to create a partition with Fdisk.

[The Hobo]

Color me confused?

[The Hobo]

Anyone else having any ideas (that they can explain?)

Problem:

I just put in a new (second) hard drive. I started up my computer and looked in bios, everything was in there. I started into Windows and opened up Explorer, only C:\ was there. So I looked in the Control Panel in System and it had two hard drives listed, but there wasn't any letter assigned to it.

What do I have to do to be able to access, or even see the second hard drive?

[The Hobo]

Would I have to change the jumper settings on the old (Master) hard drive so that it knows there's a slave present?

[numtel]

Step 1: Load Fdisk
Step 2: Set it to the second hdd
Step 3: Create a primary dos partition spanning the whole drive
Step 4: Restart your computer

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by numtel
Step 1: Load Fdisk
Step 2: Set it to the second hdd
Step 3: Create a primary dos partition spanning the whole drive
Step 4: Restart your computer

There is no second hard drive when I run fdisk.

I talked to a guy at work and he thinks that the hard drive is burnt out. So I guess I'm sending it back.

[JoshT]

Originally posted by The Hobo


There is no second hard drive when I run fdisk.

I talked to a guy at work and he thinks that the hard drive is burnt out. So I guess I'm sending it back.

Most HDD manufacturers have a free downloadable utility that you extract onto a bootable floppy that'll check the health of their own drives - they'll probably want you to use it before you send the drive back anyway.

[JPicasso]

Try this:

power off.
unhook your old HD.
set jumpers on new HD to master.
reboot to floppy/dos.
(bios should at least see HD at this point)
fdisk the mo-fo.

if fdisk is giving you slack with just the one drive, you may
need to contact the manufacturer, they may have their own
floppy software to use to kickstart the thing.

anyway, this is a very common configuration that you're
setting up. take your time and make sure you don't repartition your
old HD, that could be bad.
Don't get frustrated, you're probably just overlooking something small,
and when you find it make sure you give a good, solid Homer Simpson "DOH!"

[msimmons]

I would always suggest following JPicasso's steps when adding a new second hd. It is far too easy to wipe your existing hard drive while trying to set up the new one.
Michael