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Install a Hard Drive in Windows XP


Chris
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Installing a new Internal Hard Drive is relatively easy, you install the drive, boot into Windows, initialise, partition and format your drive..

To do this...

All you need is a screwdriver, good light, any reference manuals and a bit of patience.

Note: Installation of an IDE type hard drive is only covered. SATA, SCSI, USB and Fibre are not covered.

RETAIL Hard Drive: Please consult ALL documentation on installing your drive.

OEM Hard Drive: Please consult ALL documentation [if any] or visit the hard drive manufacturer website for instructions on installing your hard drive.

The following should been seen as a guide ONLY and does relate to any specific hard drive installation in particular...

Prepare:

1a. Be safe and unplug your computer from the mains.

1b. Disconnect all cables so the base [or case] can be removed to a table instead of being tucked under a desk.

1c. Layout all components so they are ready to be used or installed.

Removing the side panel of the case:

2a. Locate the screws on the case.

2b. Unscrew and place these screws in a little jar so you do not lose them.

2c. Place the side panel out of the way.

IMPORTANT: Whilst you may not think it your body is actually statically charged and this static could cause damage to the components when touched.

For this reason you should buy a ESD wrist strap this simply fits around your wrist and connects to the chassis of your case. Any static will channel to the chassis and not the components.

Find the Hard Drive:

3a. Locate you currently installed hard drive.

3b. Carefully pull outwards on the IDE cable from the back of the hard drive.

3c. The hard drive that is already installed will be set as MASTER. Depending upon the hard drive you may leave this setting as it is. However on your new hard drive you will have to set the hard drive to SLAVE. If you look on the shiny side of the hard drive, there should be a diagram. Now on the back of the hard drive locate the jumpers.

Re-position these jumpers to there correct position. [see pic below]

Cable Select Position both jumpers on each hard drive to cable select. Now when using a cable select configuration, the Drive which you intend to be master but be connected to the IDE connector on the end of the cable. The SLAVE drive must be connected to the middle IDE connector.

1.JPG

FITTING:

4a. Move your new hard drive into place, push the screws through and let them find the hard drive. Just "wiggle" the hard drive a little bit so the screws locate properly.

4b. Tighten up these screws, but do NOT apply to much torque.

4c. Push the other end of the IDE cable into the back of the Hard drive and do the same for the other hard drive. There are three connectors on this IDE cable, one for the motherboard and two for two hard drives.

4d. Your new drive will now require power, find a spare power connector and connect it up.

Check your system:

5a. Make sure the hard drive is secure.

5b. Make sure all cables are fully inserted.

5c. Make sure you have the jumper configuration set up correctly.

5d. Cables are not obstructing fans.

Note: if you want you can place the side of the PC back on, but you do not have to. Just as long as you don't go poking inside the PC whilst it is turned.

Remove ESD wrist strap

Reconnect to the mains and all connectors such as keyboard, mouse back to the base.

Power UP:

6a. Press the power button to turn the PC on.

6b. Look at the POST screen and see if you can see the hard drives being detected. If they are then it means that the jumpers have been set correctly.

However the above is not on all BIOS's you may have to enter the BIOS to see if the Hard Drives are being detected correctly.

Not detected: If you find that the second hard drive or even both hard drives are not detected, double check all connections to the hard drives. Also check the jumper’s settings...

Replace the side of the case.

Windows XP and your new hard drive:

Boot Windows to your desktop and then click Start, Run and Type:

diskmgmt.msc

Click OK.

Your new drive is shown as Disk1 and you need to initialize the disk before you can partition and format.

So right click on Disk1 and choose initialize

Now you can start to partition the drive, so right click on the black line and choose New Partition.

Now follow the wizard as it's very easy. [see pic below]

wiz.jpg

Information: Partition Types

Primary

Logical Drive

Extended Partition

You can create up to a maximum of four primary partitions. A primary is used and created for the purposes of starting an operating system.

You can create an extended partition and then you create logical drives. You can use these for storage, backup etc.

Generally you can delete partitions except for the partition that Windows XP is installed onto - Windows will not let you.

Free Space is space that is not being used and you can leave it but you’re not making the maximum use of you hard drive. However at anytime you can create a partition from this free space.

In Windows XP Professional you have more configurations to choose from, click here for information on this.

Using My Computer:

diskmgmt.msc can be used to format and partition your hard disks, however you can format a partiton from My Computer very easily.

Open My Cpmputer and you should see your disks partitions. You cannot format the partiton that Windows XP is installed onto but you can with any other partition.

Right click on the Drive and choose Format [see pic below]

format.jpg

Now you can choose which file system you want to use from the drop down menu under File system.

Depending on how big the partiton is, it may take some time to format. So you can choose Quick Format if you want.

Click Start to format the partition.[ see pic below]

start.jpg

Looking Back:

a. Install your hard drive

b. Initialise

b. Partition

c. Format

You have to create a partition for it to be seen under My Computer, you can then format the partition from My Computer or diskmgmt.msc.

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