Adding an old HD to new PC

[wolfcriesboy]

Let me warn you, semi new at installing.
I have a new dektop pc with a HD already in there. I took an additional HD out of an older pc that was running win98SE. The drive tested fine. THe old pc wouldnt boot up so I have no idea what is on there, dont want anything from it anyway. I want to install this HD on my new pc as a slave. I know how to physically install it but I have no idea as to what steps I need to take to do install it as a blank HD and be able to use it. Please Help, a step by step walkthrough would be fantastic. Thank you.

[Cricket]

What OS are you using?

Cricket

[wolfcriesboy]

winXP home

[glc]

Without knowing exactly why the old PC won't boot, it's best to be safe - in case the old drive is virus-ridden.

Determine the brand of hard drive the old one is, and download the utilities from the manufacturer. If it's WD, you want Data Lifeguard Diagnostics, if it's Maxtor, you want Maxblast - etc. The end result you want is to have a boot floppy with the manufacturer's zero fill or low level format utility on it.

I would open up the new computer, temporarily disconnect the hard drive, and put the old drive in place of it. Boot with the disk you made in the previous step and wipe the drive.

When done, you can reconnect the main drive, and move the old drive to the slave connector. You will need to change the jumper to either Slave or Cable Select, depending how the main drive is jumpered. Boot it into Windows, and use Disk Manager to partition and format the drive for storage.

[wolfcriesboy]

Thanks for the help glc. Like I said, Im new to this, the only question that I have is, can you explain what you mean by change the jumper depending on how the main drive is jumpered? How do I tell? Maybe Im just not understanding what you are exactly talking about. I apperciate all the help!

[ja83]

I think he means if the first HDD is jumper for cable select, make sure the second HDD is also jumpered for cable select.

or

If the first HDD is jumpered for master, then jumper the second HDD for slave and not cable select.

The HDD jumpers are on the back on the HDD, there is pins and usually a black cap over some pins. You have to look in the HDD documents or usually the diagram is on the HDD itself for the jumper cap positions.

[Panama Red]

glc is referring to the jumpers on each hard drive that determine how it is recognized. Look closely at the end of the drive where the power and ribbon cable connects. There should be a series of pins (typically 6-10) with one or more jumpers attached. Somewhere on the drive near the jumpers should be a series of codes that id how to configure the jumpers - Master, Slave, Cable Select. If you have an older 40 wire ide cable connected the hard drives, you'll want the drives jumpered as master and slave with the master on the end of the cable and the slave in the middle. If you have a newer 80 wire ide cable, set them both to Cable Select (cs) and position them the same on the cable with the old drive in the middle.

Here's a link to Western Digital jumper info. Each drive manufacturer has their own settings so visit the web site of yours if it's not WD.

http://support.wdc.com/techinfo/general/jumpers.asp

[wolfcriesboy]

ROCK OUT, thanks to all of you. I'll let you know how things go.

[mXps]

the jumper is the little pin in the back of the drive that determines how the drive will be recognized; master, slave, or cable select.

if the the old hd is going to be the 2nd and the one not with the operating system it would then be the slave.

here is a picture of what the jumper looks like and where it is located. now the jumpers position (to deteremine the type of drive) depends of the brand of the drive. this could either be found on the top of the drive or you will have to look in the manual\online.

picture of hard drive and jumpers
another hard drive image

like i said these are not the correct setting for your jumper, but just an idea where it is and what it looks like.

[wolfcriesboy]

Thanks mike, I have the master currently installed with the OS on it. What I would like to do is install the additional HD as a slave and then I guess I can format and partition it with widows disk manager. I had the drive tested at work by our IT guy and he said its fine with no viruses. I think the pc that I got the HD from had a fried MB. I still plan on getting the boot disk and wiping it first. Thanks again.

Ill have another post in the software section soon. I have a laptop with xp that I want to wipe clean and start over from scratch, so I want to reinstall, wipe the HD and have it like it was when I 1st got it. Giving to my sister and she doesnt want any music or games or software that I have on there.

[glc]

Most laptops come with a restore CD, this makes it simple - just boot with it and let it do its thing, it will wipe the drive and put it back the way it came. If it's a generic XP, you can still just boot with the CD and Setup will give you the options of removing and recreating partitions, formatting, etc.