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richard_a16 |
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saintly |
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[08-25-2000] richard_a16 : Hi,
This is rich out here.I'm a 8th grade student and enjoy working on my machine.I am quite good at programming.At the moment i'm working with c++ and HTML.
My problem is that I've got a hard drive with a mere capacity of 1g.b.
I've taken my parents permission and am going to upgrade my machine.
Well! i've heard that we can use two hard disks
simultaneously(as a primary and secondary drive).
So how should i go about doing this.
I wanna do it myself and not call someone else to do it.
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[08-26-2000] saintly :
I think you can probably handle it without calling in someone else. Especially if you're already into programming and working with computer hardware!
You can have up to 2 hard drives on PCs up to 486s. After that (with most pentium computers and later computers) you can have 4. CD-ROMs usually count as one hard drive though.
Take your computer apart, and look inside your computer to see the hard drive. Make sure there is enough room inside to put another one in. Many desktop computers don't have much extra room, but mini-towers and bigger have plenty of extra railing and slots to put the new one in.
Also make sure that the long flat ribbon cable connected to your hard drive has an extra connector on it for the second drive. If it does, then you're in business. If not, then you need to buy a cable long enough and with two connectors on it. If there's a CD taking up the same cable, then you might have a problem:
Look at where the cable connects to the motherboard. If there is another connector there just like it right next to where the first cable plugs in, then you can connect the CD to the other connector. You need to buy another cable to do it though. If there is no other connector, then you have to decide between the CD and the second hard drive!
Each ribbon cable can support up to 2 drives, provided the drives know how to share the cable. Most drives can be set to one of three settings; "Single" (it is the only drive on the cable), "Master" (it is the main drive on the cable) or "Slave" (it is the secondary drive on the cable).
There are usually several pairs of pins on one end of the drive, usually the same end you plug the cables and power into. Most drives have directions on top telling you how to connect the pins to make the drive be Single, Master or Slave. This involves putting a little plastic 'Jumper' over two of the pins.
Take out the drive that is there and adjust the jumper so the drive is set to "Master". On some drives, "Single" is the same as "Master". Set the new hard drive to "Slave". Now just connect them in any order to the cable, screw them into the computer and hook them up to power. One side of the ribbon cable should be marked (it usually has a red, or red-striped edge). This end goes closest to where the power plugs in, unless you have a strange hard drive and the manual says otherwise.
If you had to take the CD off the cable to put on the hard drive, make sure the CD is set to "Single" or "Master" now, plug it onto the second cable and hook it up to the other connector on the motherboard.
When your computer boots up, go to CMOS/system setup. This is usually the "DEL" key, but whatever your system tells you when it starts up...
If there is something there that says "Auto-configure hard drives", auto-setup, auto-detect or something like that, go pick it. Then exit system setup. Your new drive probably needs to be FDISKd and FORMATted, but it should be fine. It will push your CD to a higher drive letter (if your CD was D: before, it will go to E:)
Do you need specific help with some aspect of this? Just reply and I'll expand on it.
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