Hard drive installation in a nutshell
Jun 09 '00
Ok, first let me say that even though most hard drives now come with "Installation software", I do not advise using it because out of the last 30 or so hard drives I have installed, over 70% the manufacturers software was either bunk or defective. Installing a hard drive is easier than using some disk manufacturers installation software anyway. This review is for IDE and EIDE drives only. I will address SCSI in a later review but for the most part it is a similar installation.
Installation procedure for IDE hard drives
1)Check for space:
With that said, the first thing you need to do is check for sufficient space inside the computer for the new drive. If you are simply adding a new drive this is easy as pie, but if you are replacing your current hard drive it can be a hassle to save your data not to mention a real nightmare with proprietary systems like Compaq. Open the case and look for an empty 3.5" drive bay. If you don't have an empty 3.5" bay you can install it into a 5.25" bay using the drive brackets that come with most hard drives.
2)Setting the jumpers:
On the back of the hard drive should be a series of pins. 40 of these pins are grouped together and this is where you will plug in the IDE cable that is attached to the motherboard. There are also 4 larger pins where the power connector will plug in. The other smaller set of pins are the jumpers. These jumpers determine the drives place on the IDE chain. The manufacturer should provide the settings for the jumpers, but if you are adding this drive to an existing system configuration you will want to set this drive to "slave" if it will be on the same IDE cable as your original hard drive. This is your "Primary IDE" chain. If you are adding this drive to your "Secondary IDE" chain, it can be either "master" or "slave" device, it won't make a difference to the computer unless you have a CDROM or other device on this chain, and your operating system will still boot correctly. If you have a CDROM or other device on the secondary chain, you must know whether it is set for slave or master. If it is set to slave, then the hard drive must be master and vice versa. If both drives on the chain are set to the same, neither will be detected by the computer.
3)Physical installation:
To install the drive into the bay is simple, just insert the drive and screw it in place. For people installing into a 5.25" bay screw the brackets onto the drive then screw the drive into the bay. Once this is done, and you have decided where on the IDE chain you want the drive, you can attache the IDE cable from the motherboard. If you are installing this drive as a "slave" to your existing drive (after setting the appropriate jumpers) attach the second connection, on the same cable as your original hard drive, to the new hard drive. If your hard drive's cable only has one connector on it check to see if there is one in the box your new hard drive came in, most manufacturers give you a dual IDE cable when you buy your new drive. When plugging in the IDE cable, make sure the red strip on the cable is attached to pin 1, this is usually the pin closest to the power pins.
If you are adding this drive to your secondary IDE chain, you can connect it to either place on the chain, no matter what the jumpers are set to. Setting the jumper for either slave or master determines where the drive shows up on the computer, it's physical location on the drive chain has nothing to do with this what-so-ever.
4)Plug in the power cable:
This is a simple step but one of most importance. Many times I have seen people put in their drive and wonder why the computer doesn't recognize it. You must plug in the power or the drive won't run. You will notice on the right side of your existing hard drive, a white or clear plug in it with 4 wires running out of it. These wires are red, yellow and 2 black on most computers. You must find one of these free in your computer to plug into your new drive. If you don't have a free power plug, you can buy a splitter from any mom & pop computer store and attach it to your existing power cable. It will split the power into two different plugs. Make sure if you have a newer or a powerful computer, your power supply is at least 250W or higher. I don't suggest splitting power if it is not at least 250W.
5)Starting up:
I won't go over BIOS settings because most computers now will automatically detect the new drive, and the ones that don't, well, I could write a few opinions on setting those up alone. If your computer does not detect the drive in the BIOS, you either have a very old computer or the drive you just bought is bad. After you boot the computer and the drive is detected in the BIOS, go to MS-DOS command prompt if you are using Windows 95, 98 or NT. At the "C:\>" type "FDISK".
You should get a paragraph and a question asking if you want to enable large disk support. Choose "Y" if you wish to have the entire capacity of the drive under one drive letter. For example you can create logical drives on the physical drive and set their size as well. If you are installing a 10GB hard drive you can install it as D: and E: both having 5GB or one with 3GB and one with 7GB and so on.
You will then get a screen with 5 numbered choices. The top of the screen will read "FDISK Options" then "Current fixed disk drive:1" Be careful what you do here, you could possibly wipe out your existing hard drive data if you do not do this correctly! From the list of choices, choose 5. Change current drive and hit "Enter". This will change from your primary drive to the new drive to work on. If you do not do this first and continue with the next steps, you will loose all information on your existing hard drive! Now you will have a screen that reads "Change Current Fixed Disk Drive". At the bottom choose "2" and hit "Enter". Once you have done this you will get the same screen but at the top it should read "Current fixed disk drive:2"
Now your ready to partition the drive for use by an operating system. From the list of choices now choose "1. Create DOS partition or logical DOS drive". Now you will see a screen that has 3 choices, choose "1. Create primary DOS partition". You will be asked if you want the entire capacity of the drive as one partition, if you do choose the appropriate number and hit "Enter". If you would like to split the drive then choose the appropriate number and then designate the size of the primary partition. If you choose to create logical drives you will have to run FDISK again after you reboot to create them. I will not go into that but will continue with single capacity installation.
Once you have designated the partition space you must hit ESC until you are back at the "C:\>". Now exit back into Windows and properly shut down the computer and restart it. The drive will now show up in your "My Computer" area of Windows, however you will still not be able to use it until you Format the drive.
6)Formatting:
To format your new drive for use with Windows, double click the "My Computer" icon on the Windows desktop. Now your new drive should be shown as D: and your CDROM or other drives should be moved down the alphabet one letter. Right click on the new drive and you will get a pop-up menu. From this menu choose "format...". Then choose Format type - Full and enter a label for the drive if you wish. The label is not necessary but gives the drive a name. Then click "Start" at the top right side of the window. A few minutes later you are done and able to use the drive as you wish.
Replacing your existing hard drive is not quite as easy if you want to save your data. I suggest, if you do not know how to do it, to let a professional technician do this for you. It is possible to loose your data during a hard drive installation if done improperly. I hope this was informative enough for you to decide for yourself if you want to try it on your own. Good luck.
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