steps on installing a second hard drive

[dasygirl128]

I have a pent 200mhz and windows ME. I have a second hard drive in the hard drive slot but don't know how to install it. I know that if someone emails me the steps or posts it here that I will be able to do it. Please help. Thanks.

[Lycia]

1. shut down PC.

2. Find out what harddrive you have and make sure the pin is set so it is a Salve drive rather than master. To find out the correct pin orientation, you might try visiting the harddrive maker's website. Or the pin orientation might be printed on the label on top of the harddrive itself

3. locate the IDE connector on the motherboard that the first harddrive connects too. There should be three connectors, one end connected to the motherboard, and the other end connected to the harddrive. The one in the middle is where you will connect the second harddrive too. Do not connect the second hardrive to the IDE cable that your CDrom is connected too. Also, the IDE cable itself will have a red stripe down one end. Typically this red stripe when orientated correctly will be nearest to the power connector. If you hold the drive in your hands, with the label facing up, from left to right it should be:

IDE connector/PIN switch for master-slave/power connector. The red stripe should be closest to the power connector.


4. Locate a free power connector. This will be a four wire connector with different colors for each wire. This will plug only one way into the hardrive.

My suggestion would be to connect the harddrive to the proper IDE channel before mounting the drive. Then booting up the pc to make sure it works. If the drive works, then turn off the machine and mount the drive in the proper bay. If the drive doesn't work, having it out the the bay and resting on the side will allow you to trouble shoot better.

[dasygirl128]

Thanks for responding.

Now a new question: Once I turn my pc back on what will it do? And what will I need to do. I want the second hard drive to have windows ME and I want to put all my artistic programs on it. Am I going to have to install windows ME again?

I know that it sounds like I am computer illerate, but I am not. I just want to make sure that I am forworned about everything that might happen so I don't end up loosing my comp.

[Kymera]

No, if you followed lycia69's advice your second HD should show up as the d: on your My Computer window. Usually the next step would be to fdisk your new drive and then format it before you can actually start putting data on it. Also, does your MB recognize the drive. Older boards have trouble recognizing the LBA used by newer multi-gig drives.

I'm not sure how to do that in ME because it kinda does away with the good old DOS prompt. But you can still boot with a DOS disk with the FDISK program and accomplish the same thing. I'm assuming that your HD is pretty big, so you're going to want to use FAT32. The important thing is to make sure that you are on the right HD. Once you've FDISKed the drive will show up in My Computer and then you can format it the same way you would format a floppy.

You can also use PartitionMagic which is a Windows based partition manager with some extra programs. Then format in Windows and you're done.

[Lycia]

Originally posted by Kymera:
No, if you followed lycia69's advice your second HD should show up as the d: on your My Computer window. Usually the next step would be to fdisk your new drive and then format it before you can actually start putting data on it. Also, does your MB recognize the drive. Older boards have trouble recognizing the LBA used by newer multi-gig drives.

I'm not sure how to do that in ME because it kinda does away with the good old DOS prompt. But you can still boot with a DOS disk with the FDISK program and accomplish the same thing. I'm assuming that your HD is pretty big, so you're going to want to use FAT32. The important thing is to make sure that you are on the right HD. Once you've FDISKed the drive will show up in My Computer and then you can format it the same way you would format a floppy.

You can also use PartitionMagic which is a Windows based partition manager with some extra programs. Then format in Windows and you're done.

Sorry, what the above is true. Once inside windows, the Drive should show up as D drive and move your CDrom to E drive. Just Click on My Computer.

OK, if you have stuff on the second drive then do not format it. just open it up as you would your C drive. If however you want to erase everything, just RIGHT click on the drive, which should be D drive and select Format. This will open a box, some where on the box should give you a drop down selector that will let you choose to format in FAT16 or FAT32. choose FAT32. Then Click OK/Start. it should now be useable.


If you are going to use FDisk do the following.

use a bootdisk to reboot the computer into DOS mode. at the command prompt type fdisk, then make sure the Y is selected and click enter. Inside the menu, click on option 5 to select the second hard drive! This is important. Your second drive needs to be selected or you will partition your C Drive!! To make sure your D, or Second Drive, is selected, use the #4 option in the main menu. this will give you information on the drive and tell you what drive you are going to be working with. Again type in Fdisk and again select the #5 option and choose the second or D drive. Then in the main menu, choose to Create Primary DOS partition. It should ask if you want to use The Full amount available, or something like that, choose YES!. then follow the steps, it will ask you to reboot. Do so using the dos boot disk. Then at the command prompt type, and this is important!! type format D:
FORMAT D: DO NOT FORMAT C:


FORMAT D:

then choose yes. After it is done, remove the floppy disk, reboot and go into windows. Click on My Computer and you should see the D drive. Right click it and select properties. In the box it should say FAT32.

Ok now that the second drive, or Drive D, is selected, choose Delete Primary partition. follow the steps and reboot still using the DOS boot disk.

[dasygirl128]

Thank-you for all of your help. You have givin me a faster responce than I had expected. Plus you also, answered my questions that computer techs would do over the phone. Thank you again so much.

[Lycia]

So tell us!! Did it work? Everything ok??

[Kymera]

Yeah, did you manage to get it to work?

Lycia69 really typed up some good directions for you. It should have been a breeze.

[Keybone]

What someone was saying earlier is true, but with one exception. Depending on what OS you are using, say for instance Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000, you should not have to FDISK the HDD(hard drive) Once you get into Windows and to the Explorer you can then format the drive and use it as you would your 1st hard drive.

[Sowulo]

Originally posted by Keith Scruggs:
What someone was saying earlier is true, but with one exception. Depending on what OS you are using, say for instance Windows 98 SE or Windows 2000, you should not have to FDISK the HDD(hard drive) Once you get into Windows and to the Explorer you can then format the drive and use it as you would your 1st hard drive.

I'm sorry....with Win98 you certainly do have to run fdisk and partition the drive before it can be used, however you can then go into Windows and format it. Yes, W2K can do the partition from within Disk Management or you may create a Simple Volume which doesn't need to be partitioned first.

[AlienDyne]

Well, since you emailed me about this, I've replied to you via email.

Good luck!

[dasygirl128]

thank you, everyone. I got my second hard drive working!!! I didn't have any problems except one. When I went to connect my cd-rom to the same cable as my primary hard drive, it didn't have that jumper switch thing, so luckily I had a spare cd-rom drive that did have the switch, so I had to switch the cd-roms. But everything works. Thank you all again for your time and effort. It is appreciated greatly.

[Lycia]

Originally posted by dasygirl128:
thank you, everyone. I got my second hard drive working!!! I didn't have any problems except one. When I went to connect my cd-rom to the same cable as my primary hard drive, it didn't have that jumper switch thing, so luckily I had a spare cd-rom drive that did have the switch, so I had to switch the cd-roms. But everything works. Thank you all again for your time and effort. It is appreciated greatly.

Actually, you shouldn't do that. The performance of the primary Harddrive will degrade. What you should do is have the Primary harddrive as Master and the Second harddrive as Slave on the same IDE channel #1. Your CD-Rom should be Master on the Secondary IDE channel #2.

[dasygirl128]

well that is what aliendyne(?) told me to do in the email that she had sent me.

Everything works, which is what I wanted, so I am not going to play around with it anymore. Then I know I won't mess anything up.

[imd14u]

One thing to take into consideration!!! If you have games or apps that run off your CD-ROM, they may not run, because your drive letters for your CD-ROM has changed. You'll have to do some editing in the shortcut paths and registry.

I'ts always easier too, to make the whole 2nd HD as an extended partition instead of making a primary, because the drive letter order will be mixed together:

e.g.

single HD config
HD1 (2partitions) Primary=C Extended=D
CD-ROM=E

dual HD config
HD1 (2partitions) Primary=C Extended=E
HD2 (1partition) Primary=D
CD-ROM=F

If you installed apps or games in your extended partition, and installed the 2nd HD, then the shortcuts will all be off. It's better that the 2nd HD is made as an extended partion so that they'll look like so:

dual HD config
HD1 (2partions)primary=C extended=D
HD2 (1partion)extended=E
CD-ROM=F