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I Need Help Please. URGENT

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - I Need Help Please. URGENT

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Winly   02-23-2007 at 04:13:20 AM

Hi everybody, I’m a newbie in this things and I have some questions that I would like to know. I am planning to buy a new Hard Drive which is this one
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Pro [...] riveID=214 WD Caviar SE16 W5000KS.
But my questions are, what I have to do to set this HD and also how I can format this HD, because I don’t have experience doing these things. Somebody told me that I have to use a program called Fdisk, but I don’t know about that. Finally my last question is why I have to do a partition on my new HD in order to install it.

PS: I'm going to use this driver just for install programs, save documents and things like that.

My Specs:
Sony VAIO VGC RB-30
1 GB RAM
200GB Serial-ATA (SATA)
Windows XP Home.

I'm learning English, sorry for my mistakes and bad grammar if i have.

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sandmanwn   02-23-2007 at 06:36:15 AM
- 0 +

Will you be using this drive to replace your current 200GB hard drive or will this be an add-on for additional storage.

If you are going to make this your boot drive and put your OS on it then you should think about a two partition setup. The first partition for your OS around 50-100GB and the second partition should be 400-450GB and use it to store your data files(movies, mp3s, documents, games, etc). With this setup you will not lose your data in case you need to reinstall your OS in the future.

If this is simply an add-on to your current system then keep the drive at the full 500GB.

You can get much more complicated with your partitions but you call yourself a newb so its probably best to keep it simple with the two partition setup.

Reply to sandmanwn
Winly   02-23-2007 at 09:52:09 PM
- 0 +

I,m planing to use this new HD as a second HD (slave). my 200GB HD is good and that one is the Master, I just want to have this one as a second one (slave) with its original size 500GB. what procedures i have to do, in order to do that. thanks

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sandmanwn   02-23-2007 at 10:25:37 PM
- 0 +

easy enough.

Im assuming you have at least Windows XP SP1 or greater.

-attach the hard drive as the slave.
-boot into xp.
-go to the control panel/administrative tools/computer management
-under storage/disk management right click on the 500gb drive and create a logical partition.
-right click again and format the partition with NTFS and it should show under "My Computer" when finished.

Reply to sandmanwn
Winly   02-24-2007 at 12:26:22 AM
- 0 +

thanks but know im confused, because the new HD i want is SATA 300, and the one i have right know is SATA 150. i dont know if i can installed, also i was looking for information about if my mobo can support SATA 300, but i didnt find nothing.
the motherboard is a Intel D915GRO
Intel Media Accelerator 900. and in intel.com they dont have any info, also i use Sandra to find that but i didnt appear any info about the interface.
i need some help now. thanks for everything

PS i have SP2, and i would like to have the entire HD (500GB) if possible.

Reply to Winly
sturm   02-24-2007 at 12:43:57 AM
- 0 +

Check the drive info and see if it has a jumper to switch between 300 and 150 speeds. Use the 150 setting if it has it.
Otherwise just install the drive and check the bios. If the bios sees it then windows should see it.
Then follow the instructions from sandmanwn.
Although You might want to just use a primary partition on it instead of a logical so there is no problems if you format the other drive.

Reply to sturm
sandmanwn   02-24-2007 at 01:48:45 AM
- 0 +

as sturm just mentioned their should be a jumper for western digital hard drives that allows them to work in either sata150 or sata300 modes.

last time i recall doing this it was jumper pins 5 and 6, but double check your manual to be sure.

Reply to sandmanwn
Winly   02-24-2007 at 02:04:57 AM
- 0 +

thanks for everything

Reply to Winly
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