[Hard Drives]

[Mixolydian]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to get a Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD for my PC. I currently have a Seagate Barracuda 1TB in there, and i'm just wondering if I need to know anything before installing a new HDD to an existing PC. My specs are in my signature. I've partitioned my existing HDD into 2 drives. Is it as simple as plugging the new 3TB HDD into the SATA port on my motherboard and that's it? I don't have to re-format my existing HDD do I? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

 

[Dr_JRE]

Hello everyone,

I'm looking to get a Seagate Barracuda 3TB HDD for my PC. I currently have a Seagate Barracuda 1TB in there, and i'm just wondering if I need to know anything before installing a new HDD to an existing PC. My specs are in my signature. I've partitioned my existing HDD into 2 drives. Is it as simple as plugging the new 3TB HDD into the SATA port on my motherboard and that's it? I don't have to re-format my existing HDD do I? Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!!

Normally these days with SATA drives, it's a matter of just plugging it in and you are good to go.

If you install the drive and it doesnt show up in Explorer, the manufacturer didn't initialize the drive for you.

Post if you need further help.

 

[Paperdoc]

I'm presuming you intend to use this new drive only as a data storage device, and not your boot drive. (You'll continue to use your older drive to boot from.) So it is quite simple - physically mount the HDD in your case, plug in power and data cables, boot into Windows, and Initialize (Partition and Format in one step) the drive in Disk Management. For an outline of this last step, check WyomingKnott's sticky at the top of the Storage ... General Discussion forum, particularly his Step 5.

HOWEVER, your new drive exceeds 2 TB, so look up info specifically for such a large drive. Its Initialization steps are a little different - you don't do a common MBR Partitioning. I have not used one of these, but I think the tools you need are included in the Disk Management system - you just need to choose the correct option to do it.