Upgrading your Hard Drive
*If you are only installing a second hard drive or a new one, you can skip
down to step 5, although this might help as a reference.
- Back up your old hard drive, turn the computer off, unplug it, and take
the case off. You’ll want to make sure you back up your old drive first. You
can do this with a tape-backup drive or some other form of removable
storage. I’d recommend the later of these options, due to their speed
and capacity. Also, you may want to make some quick sketches of just how
everything is in there: Which direction is everything facing? Where and how
are the cables connected? For some people, such sketches help to put
everything back when you are done. - Remove the cables from the old drive. You will see both a wide IDE ribbon
cable and a small 4-pin power plug. Do not force them out. The ribbon cable
is usually quite easy to remove. Sometimes, though, the power connector can
become stuck. Just rock it back and forth, taking care not to rip the
connector off the drive. - Remove the mounting screws that hold the drive to the case frame.
Sometimes, you may need to tip the case or get into some strange positions
to reach all the screws. But, that’s part of the fun. - Remove the old drive from the case. Be sure not to bump anything too hard
on the way out. - Slide the new drive in right where the other one came out. If it is
smaller than the drive bay ( if you are installing a 3.5" drive into a
5.25" drive bay ), you may need to add rails or a mounting bracket to
make it fit. If you are adding a second drive, just pick any empty drive
bay. Screw the drive into place. - If you need a separate controller card, install it now into any unused
motherboard slot. If you are replacing a non-IDE drive with an IDE drive,
you’ll need to throw a new IDE controller card in. Most of today’s
motherboards have two built-on IDE controllers. It is easiest to use these
controllers when available, and it saves a slot for something more fun. - Attach the cables to the hard drive. Just like a floppy drive, connect the
ribbon cable and the power cable. The ribbon cable goes from the controller
to the drive. Make sure the red edge of the ribbon cable is in line with Pin
1 on the drive. If you place the cable on backwards, you may get strange
errors that make your new drive sound like it has died already. If you are
adding a second drive, simply choose a connector on the same ribbon cable
that is not used. Most ribbon cables come with three connectors: one on the
end and one mid-way, then one further away on the other end which connects
to the motherboard. In this case, it doesn’t matter which plug goes in what
drive. The computer looks at the master/slave jumpers to see which one is
Master. Make the second hard drive the slave. The manual should show you how
to do this on your particular drive, although many drives have the jumper
settings conveniently labeled on the drive itself. - If you have not yet done so, replace the screws. First double check your
work, though. Also, make sure you use screws short enough not to damage the
drive when tightened. Do not force the screws to tighten. - Plug the system in , and turn it on with your system disk in Drive A:. It
is best to leave the case cover off for now in case you need to fiddle with
something or troubleshoot the installation. - New hard drives need to be prepared before they will work. You will need
to configure it and set the CMOS. When you turn the system on, immediately
hit the Hot Key sequence necessary to enter CMOS setup. A lot of times, this
is Delete. Go to the section on IDE auto-detection, if your BIOS has this
option. Follow the prompt under this section and it will auto-detect the
drive. If your BIOS does not support this, then you will need to manually
plug the necessary information into setup for the drive. When this is done,
exit CMOS and save your changes. The system will reboot. Leave the system
disk in Drive A:. - When the system completes boot up, it should stop at the A: prompt. Type
"fdisk" and hit enter. Follow the prompts to partition the drive.
For info on the various prompt and what to do, see this
section on partitioning. - When FDISK is done, you should be able to switch to the C: drive, or
whatever letter the new drive happens to be. Now, all you need to do is
format the drive. At the A: prompt, type "format x: /s". Replace
"x" with the letter of this new drive. This will proceed to format
the drive and copy necessary system files to it. After that, you will be
able to boot the system off the new hard drive. Go to Formatting
for more info. - Now you can copy files to it or whatever. If this is to be your main
drive, you can install your operating system now.
SCSI Drives
- Take the case off. Find the drive that’s in there, if you have one in
there. Inspect the ribbon cables. The red edge of the cable should be facing
Pin #1 on the drive. Take any notes you may need to help you install the new
drive and get the cables right. Then disconnect the ribbon cable and the
power supply wires. It may be necessary to remove some other parts to get at
the drive. - Remove the old drive. It comes out the same way an IDE drive does.
- Now you need to set any switches or jumpers that need setting on the new
drive. In SCSI setups, each device gets its own SCSI ID, numbered 1-7. #7 is
usually given to the adapter card. You may pick, then, any other unused
address. You may need to take into account any little quirks in your
adapter, such as special likings to other addresses that could cause
problems a little later. You’ll need the manual for this one. - Check for the correct termination. In SCSI setups, the adapter can hold up
to seven SCSI devices. These devices are hooked up in a chain, usually with
the adapter at one end and another device at the other end. This ending
device must be set to be the terminating device, therefore ending the SCSI
chain. Usually, SCSI devices come with a terminator plug. In some cases, the
adapter is in the middle of the chain, therefore you must terminate at both
ends of the chain. You may need to consult the manual for any special
termination techniques particular to your brand of drive. - Slide the drive in and connect the cables. This is the reverse of what you
did in steps 1 and 2. Make sure that pin #1 on the ribbon matches up with
pin #1 on the drive. - Plug the system in and turn it on with a system disk in Drive A:. Continue
as normal.
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