Was wondering how to add a 1TB HDD to my current SSD?

[k3u]

So after being fed up with only 40GB or so to use with my "64 GB" SSD that I had originally used to build this new computer from the ground up. I have decided to jump on a 1TB HDD for storage use until the SSD prices drop down to a more affordable rate (which they are falling like crazy but not fast enough). Anyways, now I'm stuck and do not know how to install a second drive to use as storage. I'm currently on a 64GB Patriot SSD and my OS is installed on there. Do I just hook up the second hard drive to a different sata port and that's it? And what's raid?

 

[itzdanielp]

Yes, you are correct. Just hook up the drive to one of the other SATA ports, plug the power in, and boot up to windows. Then right click on "my computer" and choose "manage" Choose "disk management" and initialize the new drive.

RAID is the ability to combine multiple identical drives in different ways that will either give you higher performance, or redundancy.

Due to your setup RAID will not work, so there is nothing to worry about there

 

[wanderer11]

Plug in the hdd into the psu and mobo. Boot up then go to disc management. Initialize the disk and assign a drive letter. That's it.

 

[Isaiah4110]

The short answer: RAID is a method of using multiple physical drives as a single letter drive on a computer. You do not need that in any way with your current setup.

Yes, all you need to do is hook up a 1 TB HDD to another SATA port in your motherboard. It should then show up as a new drive letter on your computer. Your computer will still boot to the SSD and you can move data files over to the HDD.

 

[Isaiah4110]

You may wish to consider moving your user profile folder to the new drive (once it is initialized) and performing some of the other tweaks people often do to SSDs in Windows 7. Take a look at a couple of the articles in this thread.

 

[k3u]

Wow thank you guys for the really quick response!

 

[k3u]

Best answer selected by k3u.