Easy Hard Drive Installation
By John J Rivera

Adding an additional hard drive to your computer system is a very easy and straight forward. We are going to make this as easy as possible and help you add some additional storage space to your computer.

So to keep this tutorial simple, we are going to discuss the two most common hard drive upgrades on the market as of this writing-The SATA hard drive and the IDE hard drive. You can discuss with your sales person which hard drive will work on your system depending on which motherboard (MOBO)/configuration you have.

You will need a Phillips head screwdriver, a light and you may also need a Y-Power cable if a free power connector from your power supply isn't available.

If you are installing an SATA drive you may need a power adapter cable or make sure you have an open SATA power connector. This will supply your new hard drive with power.

You will also need a data cable to connect your new hard drive to your MOBO. First inspect your system to determine if you need a power cable or data cable. In most cases you can use the existing Ribbon data cable for IDE drives (see below).

If not you will need to purchase a cable for your new hard drive if it does not include one. Your sales person can help you select the correct cable for your new drive. I also recommend a can of compressed air to clean out your system while you have it open.

To begin, shut down your computer system and unplug the power cord from your computer and remove system case. The system case will come of differently depending on the manufacturer of your computer.

Once you have the case removed take a look inside to see where your new hard drive is going to be installed. More than likely you will see an empty bay just below where your current hard drive is installed. This will be the easiest place to install the hard drive. Once you have chosen an empty bay, you will need to set the jumpers before you mount the hard drive.

To add an additional IDE drive to your existing computer you may need to set the jumpers. A jumper is a small plastic connector that connects two pins together to allow you to change the drive position.

An IDE connection can connect two drives per cable. Great! Right? Your current hard drive will be the Primary Master. This is your drive with your operating system on it now. Your new drive will be the Primary Slave.

The ideal situation is you will have an 80 pin cable with a blue red or green connector at your motherboard connection and black connector at your current hard drive connection (Primary Master). This means that you can put your hard drive in the Cable Select mode or CS that will let the cable control the set up instead of the jumper.

If this is your configuration just look at your manual or the metal casing of your new hard drive to determine the Jumper location and move the jumper to the CS setting. If you have the standard 40 pin ribbon cable then you will need to check the settings of your current hard drive.

Most hard drives come preset as master. You more than likely will just need to set your new hard drive jumper to Primary Slave setting. If you have chosen an SATA drive then it will have its very own cable and not be shared so there will be no need for jumpers.

All hard drives have some sort of specific setup for the jumper settings. If you can't determine where to set the jumper from the etching on the case of the hard drive (usually on the bottom of the case by the jumpers) or the manufacturer sticker, then consult your installation manual.

Now that the jumper is set correctly, mount your new hard drive in the empty bay with screws or rails based on your current configuration. Once your drive is mounted connect the power and data cables to you drive.

For an IDE hard drive, you will see a ribbon data cable going into the back of the hard drive and another connector down the same cable that will have nothing connected to it. Simply plug in your new hard drive.

The connector is keyed so you don't have to worry about putting it in the wrong way. For an SATA drive, simply use the cable that you purchased or came with your hard drive and connect it to your MOBO and your hard drive.

The connectors are keyed so don't be scared. The second cable you will connect to the drive will be the power cable. The IDE drive and SATA drive will have different power cables. Connect your power connection to your new drive by using a free power connector or a Y-cable and adapter or combination of.

Power on your computer and go into the BIOS. You enter the BIOS by pressing a key usually F1 F2 F10 F12. You will see your screen flash this key to press to enter setup during the power on self test (POST).

Check to make sure that your drive is being recognized by the BIOS. You will see it listed under drives. If you do not see your drive shows up. Make sure that your connections are secure and that your jumpers are set correctly. Once your drive is recognized by your BIOS, exit the BIOS menu and allow your computer to boot normally.

Now comes the easy part. Once your computer is booted you will need to format your drive for your operating system to recognize it. Your drive will not show up in XP until you right click the My Computer icon and select Manage.

Once the interface finishes loading, select Disk Management and a wizard will pop up that will allow you to initialize your drive. Do not choose the Dynamic option. Once the wizard is complete you will be able to start using your hard drive.

John Rivera,is the owner of PC Wrench LIVE! ( http://www.PCWRENCHLIVE.com), home of the [http://www.pcwrenchlive.com/]online computer repair shop

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