Installing a second hard drive... any help?

[Cronic]

I need to install a second partitioned hard drive here in the next couple of days... how difficult is this and what (aside fro a seperate hardrive) will be required? Otherwise I lose a whole lotta files I'd really like to keep, qand this seems like a better option then getting a CD burner because I want it all on hard disk... seems fairly easy so any help you gurus can offer would be great!

Right now it's only a 6 gig, and I want to retain all the data that currently exists so if there's an easy way to install it as a second or simply install and transfer I'm all ears.

[DarkDragon]

Shouldn't be too hard. Some issues you should be aware of, however:
1. If your power source is out of free leads, you're gonna have to buy a new power source. This shouldn't be a problem unless you have already installed a ton of gadgets inside the computer.
2. Most computers only have two IDE sockets on the motherboard, so if you can't contort those fat gray strip cords to reach all your other drives and an available hard drive slot, you're in trouble. Also should not be a problem if you have plenty of room in the computer.
3. Some hard drives refuse to work completely if they are not configured properly as master/slave PHYSICALLY WITH JUMPERS. In theory, you'll want to look at your hard drive manuals, then insert the jumpers properly so that the new one is the master and the old one is the slave. Of course, most people have either lost one of the manuals, or don't have the proper jumpers; if that's the case with you, just forget about it and pray: most new hard drives aren't that picky.

[gdorf]

The jumper settings are 9 times out of 10 on the top of the hard-drive. Just set the old Hard-drive to Master and the New one to Slave, with them both on the same IDE cable. And also, some Hard-drive manufacturers, such as Western Digital, ship software with their hard-drives that allow you to easily copy data from one hard-drive to the other.

Good luck, it really isn't hard :)

[The Savior]

Originally posted by DarkDragon
Shouldn't be too hard. Some issues you should be aware of, however:
1. If your power source is out of free leads, you're gonna have to buy a new power source. This shouldn't be a problem unless you have already installed a ton of gadgets inside the computer.
Either that, or a handy-dandy device called a Y-splitter can be used. ;)

[Cronic]

Thanks for your help peeps... what's the best way to make sure one is compatable with my mother board?

[The Savior]

If it says SCSI on the label, it (probably) isn't compatible with your board. If it says IBM, throw it away and get a decent drive. Otherwise, it should work. Just set the jumper on the back, enter the BIOS on startup and let it detect the drive, and you should be set.

[Cronic]

sweet... now if I could only find a drive smaller than 60 gigs =)

[War Lord]

http://www.tigerdirect.com