adding another hard drive....

[bobwatford123]

From reading these threads, I guess most of my questions have been answered. Just to be sure...
It is possibe to just add an extra hard drive and use it to store data without an o/s??
My current hard drive is 20 gb and its pretty messed up with a tonne of crap, but there are many files I would like to save before I format it. Would it be possible to add a second hard drive and transfer the files I want to keep before I format my original....and how difficult is it?? I'm fairly good mechanically and have done a little upgrading (adding cdrw and ram). I'm currently running windows 98, but will probaby upgrade to xp after I do what I said.

[andyms18a]

yes its easy
1. Remove the case cover. Make sure you have room for another hard drive! You need to have an extra connector on an IDE cable (or an extra connector on the motherboard for which you would need to get another IDE cable). Just look in your case for the IDE cable(s) attached to your hard drive and CD-ROM drive. If there are extra connectors on the cable, you're in business. If there are no extra connectors, but there is another cable or a connection for another IDE cable (would need to be the same size and right next to the currently used IDE connector on the motherboard) then you are also okay but may need to get a new IDE cable.
Next, make sure you have a place where the hard drive can be installed! There should be a 3 1/2 inch bay for an extra hard drive (but not in all cases). If not, you don't want to get a new hard drive because it is unsave to have it in your case not properly mounted.
Last, make sure that the cable will be able to reach where you plan on putting the hard drive! If it can't reach without some reorganization of the cables, there's not much you can do!

2. Provided you have room for the hard drive, check all your current IDE devices to see what the jumper settings are. Most IDE devices (Hard Drive, CD, etc.) will have jumpers that will match up to a description somewhere on the device of what those jumpers mean. Your current hard drive should be set as master. For each cable, if there are two devices on it, one should be Master, and one should be Slave according to the jumpers. Keep this in mind when installing your new hard drive. You will usually want your hard drive to be master unless there is another hard drive on the cable (then one must be master and the other slave) i.e. if there is a CD-ROM drive on the cable you are putting it on, you will want to change the CD-ROM drive to slave and set the new hard drive as master. You also want to have your boot hard drive as the Primary Master (one IDE connector is Primary, the other is Secondary, labeled on your motherboard).

3. Place the hard drive in a proper bay (preferably where it will receive good air flow to keep it cool). You will want the silver side of the hard drive to be on top, and the connector facing towards the motherboard so that you can plug it in. Find an extra power cord (from your power supply) and connect it to the hard drive (you can buy splitters if you don't have extra power connectors). Plug your IDE cable into the hard drive. Close up your case.

1. Once you have assembled your computer, insert the Windows 98 boot disk . and power on your computer. Assuming you have no major error messages, you should boot to the A: prompt. Now type in fdisk and you will begin setting up your hard drive. You will probably want to press Y to enable large disk support (FAT32).make shore fdisk displayes the new hard drive then Press 1 to create a DOS partition. 1 to create primary DOS partition. Unless you need to create separate partitions, just allow it to use all available space in the primary partition . You can press 4 to display partition information from the front menu. Make sure C: is partition one and is set as active (A). Exit fdisk and restart your computer with the floppy disk still inserted.
*Note - fdisk may display a smaller amount of disk space that what you think your drive is supposed to be. That's normal so don't be alarmed (i.e. a 9 GB drive may display 8,754 MB).

2. After your computer restarts to the floppy, your hard drive is set up, but it has not been formatted. So, type format D: and press Y to confirm. It may take awhile to format your hard drive. Give the hard drive a volume name if you wish (a short name - perhaps programs or data). when its finished remove the floppy and boot to windows

[bobwatford123]

"1. Once you have assembled your computer, insert the Windows 98 boot disk . and power on your computer. Assuming you have no major error messages, you should boot to the A: prompt. Now type in fdisk and you will begin setting up your hard drive. You will probably want to press Y to enable large disk support (FAT32).make shore fdisk displayes the new hard drive then Press 1 to create a DOS partition. 1 to create primary DOS partition. Unless you need to create separate partitions, just allow it to use all available space in the primary partition . You can press 4 to display partition information from the front menu. Make sure C: is partition one and is set as active (A). Exit fdisk and restart your computer with the floppy disk still inserted.
*Note - fdisk may display a smaller amount of disk space that what you think your drive is supposed to be. That's normal so don't be alarmed (i.e. a 9 GB drive may display 8,754 MB)."


I am confused as to why I would need to put in the 98 boot disk.....if I just turned it on wouldn't it just boot up with my old drive anyways?? What is fdisk?? I've heard FAT32 can complicate things and I want to keep things as simple as possible. Sorry, I remain a little confused.......but I appreciate the help immensely...

[RJ]

No you don't need any boot disk. Just hold F8 on bootup and select boot into dos mode. Then type in fdisk.
You need to use fdisk to create partitions (at least one) on the hard drive. Once the drive is partitioned it will show up in Windows Explorer, so once you partitioned it just exit fdisk and boot into Windows. In Windows explorer you can format it.

RJ

[andyms18a]

fat32 is the file system you use for win98 and winme you can use fat16 but 32 is better and as rj says you can just boot from your win98 hard drive and select comand prompt i just gave you one way to do it he gave you the other witch ever way you go you must run fdisk to partition the new hard drive befor windows can use it just make shore fdisk is selecting the new hard drive not the old as if you muck up the partition on your old hard drive you will lose all your date and wood have to reinstal windows

[Confused]

Originally posted by bobwatford123 "1. Once you have assembled your computer, insert the Windows 98 boot disk . and power on your computer. Assuming you have no major error messages, you should boot to the A: prompt. Now type in fdisk and you will begin setting up your hard drive. You will probably want to press Y to enable large disk support (FAT32).make shore fdisk displayes the new hard drive then Press 1 to create a DOS partition. 1 to create primary DOS partition. Unless you need to create separate partitions, just allow it to use all available space in the primary partition . You can press 4 to display partition information from the front menu. Make sure C: is partition one and is set as active (A). Exit fdisk and restart your computer with the floppy disk still inserted. *Note - fdisk may display a smaller amount of disk space that what you think your drive is supposed to be. That's normal so don't be alarmed (i.e. a 9 GB drive may display 8,754 MB)." I am confused as to why I would need to put in the 98 boot disk.....if I just turned it on wouldn't it just boot up with my old drive anyways?? What is fdisk?? I've heard FAT32 can complicate things and I want to keep things as simple as possible. Sorry, I remain a little confused.......but I appreciate the help immensely...

Correct. You don't need to do this to add another HD. Just install as laid out and then use drag and copy to move over the files/folders you want to save.

After you have everything saved and then if you want to reload your OS to get a clean system, then you would boot with your CD and run Fdisk. Fdisk is used to format the HD prior to loading your OS. You will also have to reload your application programs. So be sure to back up files associated with programs such as Quicken.
Chas

[bobwatford123]

Thanks all....I'll probably buy a 120 gb in the near future or just get it for christmas.