setting up 2 hard dr's?

[brian14]

I want to put another HD in one of my PC's. How hard is it to do?
I have worked with PC's for awhil;e but this is one of the things I have never done. I am doing it mostly for the experience.
Any info (web sites etc..) are appreciated.
Thanks
B

peace be with you

 

[jammydodger]

Its very easy to do as long as you have a a free IDE channel. In most computers there are 2 IDE connections to the motherboard each one can handle 2drives, one as a master one as a slave. This means that most motherboards can support a maximum of 4 IDE hard drives (DVD drives, CD drives, Hard disks). Im have a CD writer a DVD-rom drive and a single hard disk on my computer meaning i have one spare channel. Open up your PC case and have a look at the cable that is currently connected to your hard drive(s) and CD drive(s). One of these cables should have a free connector on it, if they dont then you could have a problem.

Once you have found a free connector then you simply plug it into your new hard disk, attach a molex connector from your PSU and turn on the comoputer. You might need to change some bios settings to detect the drive but that depends on your motherboard. Then you will need to partition and finally format your hard disk.

[Insert witty comment here]

 

[brian14]

Well that doesn't sound to bad. I am going to put it in my older box (first) and go from there. If I remember correctly, there is a free connection. Also I think it is "jumperless". Its an older Abit, and that was a big thing then.
Thanks a lot for the info. Its appreciated
B

peace be with you

 

[sjonnie]

Hmm "jumperless" means the motherboard settings for the processor speed and voltage can be set in the BIOS. It doesn't mean you can get away without a M/S/CS jumper on your hard drive.

<A HREF="http://www.anandtech.com/myanandtech.html?member=114979" target="_new">My PCs</A>

 

[brian14]

well Ive been reading and remembering some stuff but I have not had success. I may have a bumb HD. It was given to me with no gaurntee. I hookit as slave but at boot neither HD get detected. I tried the jumpers at CS and doing it master/slave, also set the bios to auto for both. still "none"
Then as a try to see if it would work at all, I set it up by itself as master and it still did not get detected. I booted with a boot disk to try and fdisk/ format it, and it says there is no drive. Can't format if it cant see a drive!
So I am stuck. Any ideas as to how I can make sure its the newer HD that is the problem?
I was gonna hook it intop the chanel that my CD player is on as a last ditch effort.
ASny help is appreciated.
Thanks
Brian

peace be with you

 

[brian14]

hi guys!
I had a thought after the last try. Maybe I should check and see if its a scsi?
Guess what?
It is.
Its a quantum fireball.(All the fireballs listed at quantums site are SCSI.)
I have a Quantum Bigfoot in the PC already and didnt think to ck it out. Nor did the guy who gave it to me say it was a SCSI.
Well, I was doing this to learn, and learn I did. Unless someone can tell me that it doesnt matter or not all Fireball's are SCSI, I believe I am at an end. Unless I want to get a controler card, and I have no idea of what they cost.
Thanks again, I appreciat all the help.


peace be with you

 

[brian14]

i wish i could erase that last post. In searchin the web I found fireball's that are ATA. Also I just read that the conectors on SCSI are 50 pin. Not 40, like the one I have.
Sooooo, bad HD?
ARGHHH
B

peace be with you