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General discussion

Additional hard drive

Dec 6, 2003 12:46AM PST

My existing computer is running Win XP Pro, 13.6 hdd, 256 ram, 56k modem, burner, floppy, zip, and cdrom, also PIII, 500. I have just obtained a new 80Gig HD. I want to install it in conjunction with the existing 13.6 HD. What should I be aware of, as far as problems go? I am planning, (over a period of time) to utilize the 80gig for primary, and the 13.6 for backup. Thanks in advance for any input. Installed a 500w dual fan power supply a couple of months ago. Bill

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Re:Additional hard drive
Dec 6, 2003 12:51AM PST

"What should I be aware of, as far as problems go?"

Installing a second drive is easy if you read what came with the drive. You'll want to use the 80 conductor IDE cable and if this was my machine I'd use the supplied software to copy the drive NOW rather than later from the 13 to 80 GB drive. Most OS's seem to run faster on newer drives that are fairly empty.

The most common issue is old knowledge about jumpers. People remember the old setups and don't check up on what's new.

The second most common issue is trying to run on the old 40 conductor cables. I change those all the time.

Bob

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Re:Additional hard drive
Dec 6, 2003 1:36AM PST

If you want to use the 80GB as the primary drive, you'll have to reinstall Windows and all apps. If you hook it as the slave to the existing drive, then it's a matter of partitioning it, formatting it, and using it. All of which can be done inside Windows so long as it's not the primary disk.

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Re:Re:Additional hard drive
Dec 12, 2003 6:53AM PST

A great big thank you for all of the valuable input. The unit is now installed and running perfectly. Bill