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General discussion

Increasing Computer Hard Drive Space

Dec 26, 2004 11:34PM PST

I'm looking for recommendations, I have Dell 4600C which has a 40GB hard drive. The computer has space for only one hard drive. Thanks to my music collection (already filling 12+ Gigs), I am quickly running out of space. I have thought about purchasing an external hard drive but have noticed that a lot of people complain about speed and lost files. Should I replace my internal hard drive? If so, how do I copy the existing one (OS, files, etc) with only one space for a hard drive?

Discussion is locked

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Before you lose your music collection
Dec 27, 2004 12:29AM PST

I would strongly suggest that you burn them all to music cd's.........then make a DATA copy of them to cdrw as well so that you can always bring the music back to your harddrive again if you need to burn a new music cd for any of it. Then you can delete them all from your harddrive knowing you have saved everything.

As for a bigger harddrive and copying what you, that's do-able.....to either an external or a new internal drive. If you copy to a drive that will be internal, you can leave the case open long enough to hook them together as Master and Slave, then get the new drive all set up with Fdisk and Format, and when you get to the desktop, the copy can be made. Then you just take out your old drive, put it on a shelf for safekeeping, hook your new one up as a Master, and boot up.

Step by steps on how to do this will be given when you let us know your version windows as the procedure is different if you use XP.

TONI

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hard drive
Dec 27, 2004 1:12AM PST

An alternative, would be an external HD. I use a Maxtor 120GB. (there are several sizes) I plug mine in using USB connection. It takes movies, stills, and any thing I put on it. It is very simple to conn, and operate. I also use it with my lap top to back up files.

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(NT) (NT) But hard drives fail.
Dec 27, 2004 1:54AM PST
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Are you SURE about the 2nd HDD?
Dec 27, 2004 5:37AM PST

Info I pulled up showed a 5 1/4 slot available for a 2nd hard drive. Yours may be older. chuck

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OS and 3.5 inch space
Dec 27, 2004 6:04AM PST

First, thanks to all of you for your advice and assistance. 1) I am running XP so would need advice or an already existing string to reference for installing a HD for XP. 2) I do have a space for a "slimline" 3.5 inch bay which is externally accessible (this is directly from the instruction manual.

I would like to either add a drive or replace the existing internal drive. I am open to either option. I would prefer to stay away from external drives because they seem to have a higher failure rate. I have all of my music already on CD but will pursue putting the data on DVDs since I have a DVD burner.

Once again any and all advice is welcome because I am hardware illiterate...