Installing HD

[Sacofjoea]

I am going to buy a new HD soon and I want to know a few things...

I currently have 20 gigs on my HD, but I was wanting around 60 or so, Would I be able to buy a 40gig HD and then install it an use both, or does that not work that way? I do not know anything about installing them and would like some advice..

- Andre

[parksie]

Your existing HD will most likely be IDE, in which case it'll probably be set as master on 1 channel. What other devices do you have? Normally you can just set it to slave and attach it along *after* the 1st HD and it'll work fine.

[CyberSurfer]

For a nice tutorial, along with some explanations, try here...

http://arstechnica.com/guide/building/drives-4.html

[SurfDemon]

I don't know if this helps, but I recently bought a new hard drive and forked out for an Ultra ATA/100 controller card at the same time so that I could get an ATA100 drive.

If (like me) you only have UDMA/33 drive controller on your motherboard this is well worth it. The speed increase is incredible. And it means that when I upgrade the motherboard I can keep the drive.

SD

[ricmitch_uk]

Get a RAID controller. Although you might not use it right now, it will be an invaluable investment for the future and can dramatically increase disk access speeds. The best Socket A mobo around at the moment with RAID at the moment is the Gigabyte GA-7ZXR, if anyone is planning to build a PC GET THIS MOTHERBOARD!!!

[Sacofjoea]

ok, well i'm not 100 percent sure what is needed to be known but here is what my System Properties says:

AMD 765 PCI Bus Master Dual IDE Controller
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)

I am assuming that the primary and secondary are places where I can install new HDs??

- Andre

[scoutt]

well you can think of it that way. those controll the communication between the MB -> HD. the primary is mainly for the HD as the secondary is usually for the CD-Rom.

if you got a RAID card you would need to buy 2 of the same size HD so the work in unison, well it writes to one and reads from the other, never vice versa. You will notice a big increase in speed as Ric said, but you need 2 HD.

I will second that one SD, ATA/100 is an awesome thing
I use this on my MB and it does have it's speed. Since most of the technology is heading that way (my opinion) it might be wise to buy that kind of HD. so in the future if/when your computer desides to take a vacation on you and needed to buy a new MB you could get the one with ATA/100.

good luck

[Sacofjoea]

ok but as of now, im just looking for a HD, my motherboard is good for a few more years (brand new) So would I be able to get like a 40 gig hd and just install it along with my current 20 gig one and run everything fine?

[scoutt]

you bet, just install it like parksie suggested and you won't have any problems.

by the way, brand new MB doesn't mean anything. you can have a power surge or it could go out just like that, but you should be fine.

not trying to scare you or anything, for that to happen is far and between.

good luck

[SurfDemon]

Originally posted by Sacofjoea
ok, well i'm not 100 percent sure what is needed to be known but here is what my System Properties says:

AMD 765 PCI Bus Master Dual IDE Controller
Primary IDE controller (dual fifo)
Secondary IDE controller (dual fifo)

I am assuming that the primary and secondary are places where I can install new HDs??

- Andre

Ok. You can install 4 IDE devices. Each drive controller (Primary and secondary) can support a master and a slave drive). Your CD-Rom probably takes up one, and you existing hard drive takes up another.

This means you can install two more IDE drives without any worries. You might have to set the jumper settings on your new hard drive to slave, but this should be easily explained in the documentation. if you still have problems, ask us here and we'll send you a more in depth answer


So, Yes. You can install your new drive without any problems.

I hope this helps,

SD

[Sacofjoea]

Ok, thanks a lot everyone, I really appreciate it.

I'll be sure to come back here if I need future assistance
- Andre