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Spare Hard Drive


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G'day folks,

I currently have a second PC which is gathering dust and want to use the hard drive in my current system.

What I'm after is steps of how I go about installing the secondary hard drive as I've never attempted this before and don't want to screw up my current PC by doing stupid finger faults.

Cheers :wave:

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Yeah, I've been under the bonnet a few times, changing out Video Cards, Ethernet Cards and RAM.

Sooooooo, I'm not a COMPLETE numpty..... however, never having installed a harddrive this is all new territory to me.

However, having just a quick thought, how about detailing it down to it's most basic steps?

That way, someone who's never done this before, but has often thought about it can follow it step-by-step.

Cheers :wave:

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You'll be fine then. Do you know what kind of connection the other hard dive has? (SATA or IDE)

I'm betting it's an IDE. You'll just need to install it into the drive bay which is very easy to do, have a small phillips head screwdriver. Once you get it mounted into the bay, plug in the IDE cable and four pin power cable, close the case and boot it up.

SATA drives are much easier. You literally just load them into the bay, plug and go. :wave:

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Okay, maybe I am a numpty after all.

How do you tell the difference between a SATA and IDE drive? I'm guessing it's by the plugs (but this could be a bad shot in the dark)?

Once it's installed, do I need to mess with my BIOS to recognise the extra drive or will it pick it up automagically?

Yeah, okay, I'm a numpty after all

Cheers :wave:

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Welp, that was a waste of time.

Fired up the old dust collector to see what was on it, and found a WHOPPING 2.5gb hard drive.

Needless to say I'm not going to worry about installing it.

Now, all I have to do is find a nice new one to add in. And when I mean new you can also read cheap into that :D

Cheers :wave:

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At this stage it's on the backburner.

The finance manager has vetoed buying anything new as I'm also looking at getting a complete new system as this one is approaching 5 years and that's when I normally get a new one.

Cheers :wave:

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Then I think it is better not to buy anything new, and wait until you buy a new system.

A good choice of a computer today would be;

* Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

* Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS4

* Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 2x2048 MB

* Geforce 8800 GTS 512 MB (or 9600 if you want cheaper)

* Samsung or WD disk 500-750 GB

In some month, Intel's new P45 chipset will be out.

But I am assuming you will be buying a new computer later.

Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, you learn that way.

If something goes wrong, re-wire it, and look up stuff on the Internet, and you can learn a lot.

I've been messing with stuff under the hood ever since I was a kid.

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I have 2 Samsung drives from the Spinpoint series and they have worked well with me.

WD have a solid reputation too.

Seagate I don't want to buy from since the cannot innovate so instead they litigate. New technology is coming (solid-state disks), and instead of adopt their business to produce that new technology, they stick to their old stuff and sue others.

* http://vendors.bluwiki.com/#Seagate_Technology

* http://bigtech.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2008/...attle-heats-up/

* http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/15/1632232

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I have both a 80GB Western Digital as well as a 500GB Sata both work great. Samsung reputation for maintaining quality in a vast array of product line is unquestionable. I wouldn't hesitate at all to use their harddrives. I never knew they had harddrives.

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Then I think it is better not to buy anything new, and wait until you buy a new system.

.............

Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, you learn that way.

If something goes wrong, re-wire it, and look up stuff on the Internet, and you can learn a lot.

I've been messing with stuff under the hood ever since I was a kid.

Yeah, I'm going to wait and get a new system altogether.

As for building it myself, that's a no-go area, especially with all new gear as I don't want to fry any components and then have to try to explain to the better half why I have to go and get a new MOBO...... again.... :wave:

However, once I do have the new system, that will give me 2 old boat anchors which I can rip apart and put back together again to see how things tick and how they go together. That way if I fry anything it won't matter.

I've been messing with stuff under the hood since I was knee high to a grasshopper as well, however the things I tinkered with ran on distilled fossil fuel, not electrickery. :D

Cheers :D

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