Can i just plug an extra hdd or ssd in to my pc and use it

sidewander · Jan 1, 2014

hello every body! first of all I'm sorry for the spelling mistakes I'm on mobile. ok so the question is, I'm looking to get an extra hdd or ssd i currently have a nice mobo with sufficient sata ports and a 500gb hard drive currently in there i already have windows installed and all can i just purchase a hdd plug it in and use it or do i have to do those complicated things like RAID or jbod (please note i don't have much knowledge on raid or jbod) all i want is extra storage i don't want mirroring or raid 0 (i dont know if my mobo supports raid all i know is it has the uieff (i believe thats bios?) bios and gives me a list of drives) ultimately the question is can i just "plug n' play"?

USAFRet · Jan 1, 2014

Mostly, just plug it in. It will have a new drive letter. You might have to mess around a bit in Disk Management and give it a drive letter.
But no RAID foolishness needed.

If you're getting an SSD, then you should really install the OS and applications on that drive.

nukemaster · Jan 1, 2014

Sure you can just plug a drive in an use it for storage(you will need to initialize/create a partition and format it within your operating system). If you get an SSD I would suggest you install or clone Windows onto it to get the performance boost.

sidewander · Jan 2, 2014

nukemaster :

Can you post a link on here on how to do it?, thanks by the way this really helped and saved me time and money

nukemaster · Jan 2, 2014

To initialize a new drive you just enter disk management (Start + R and type diskmgmt.msc and hit enter). Windows will ask you to initialize the new drive then you can create a simple volume and partition on the drive.

For cloning some drives come with a software others do not. Software like Reflect from Macrium is free for personal use and can help with cloning.

In general, you want to clone all partitions before and including the Windows partition( c : on most systems). At this point you would remove the hard drive to ensure you can boot with just the ssd. Once you are happy everything is working the way you want it to, you can repartition the old drive and use it for storage or programs. When you install a program most have an option(sometimes Advanced) to allow you to change the install location.

You can alternatively use an old hard drive as storage for your personal files. Windows allows you to move these folders with ease. folders under c : /users/yourloginhere/ should have an option(right click -> properties) called location to move the folder to another drive. If you have LOTS of files this can save ssd space.

Example of some of the users folders moved.

sidewander · Jan 3, 2014

nukemaster :

To initialize a new drive you just enter disk management (Start + R and type diskmgmt.msc and hit enter). Windows will ask you to initialize the new drive then you can create a simple volume and partition on the drive.

For cloning some drives come with a software others do not. Software like Reflect from Macrium is free for personal use and can help with cloning.

In general, you want to clone all partitions before and including the Windows partition( c : on most systems). At this point you would remove the hard drive to ensure you can boot with just the ssd. Once you are happy everything is working the way you want it to, you can repartition the old drive and use it for storage or programs. When you install a program most have an option(sometimes Advanced) to allow you to change the install location.

You can alternatively use an old hard drive as storage for your personal files. Windows allows you to move these folders with ease. folders under c : /users/yourloginhere/ should have an option(right click -> properties) called location to move the folder to another drive. If you have LOTS of files this can save ssd space.

Example of some of the users folders moved.

Thanks! I'll be getting a new drive soon, I'll use this info.

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Can i just plug an extra hdd or ssd in to my pc and use it

sidewander

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