Help: Need Guided Walkthrough Of Hdd Installation can someone walk me through it please?

[organicbmx 0]

ok here we are. my new harddrive came in the post today. 300gig ide maxtor.i need to install it into my computer, but this will be the first hardware anything i've ever done so im sort of anxious. basically what do i do? i know that i have to put the hardrive into it's slot and screw it in. then plug in the ide cable. * but the hardrive is in it's anti-static bag and i dont own one of those earthing gizmos. will i ruin it if i just handle normally, or is there an easy way to earth myself?* i think the cable running into my current drive has another end on it that i could plug into this hd, or is that not likely. i'm pretty sure i have free ide ports, if so should i buy another cable for the new hd? would a sperate cable be faster?* i know nothing about slave drives or whatever, i've just heard it said. will the way i plug it in affect how it works in the computer?thanks in advance

Edited December 31, 2005 by miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG (see edit history)

[juventino79 0]

I am sure if you do a search on google you can find all the instruction you will need to format partition you hard drive and then reinstall windows. its actually very simple you can break anything....

[Houdini 0]

With the cable that is going to your present hard drive the way it is plugged in allows for you to add a hard drive to that IDE channel so unless there is not a little extension to that cable (it goes only to you present hard drive) then you will not require a new cable, plus prevent any other complications.Do not worry too much about the static but there are components on the bottom of the hard drive avoid touching them if at all possible. Handle the hard drive by its sides. Not having a grounding wirst strap and all that is not necessary. To make sure that you are not carrying a static charge after you have turned you PC off and removed the access panel just toughing the chassis will discharge any potential static that might be in your body. So if you are holding the chassis of the PC and the hard drive there is no possiblity of a static charge zapping your hard drive. Truthfully I have never installed anything into a PC and killed it in the process, just be sure that your PC is off completely some motherboards even when turned off still have power going to the mother board, it might require you to unplug the power cord to the PC also to make the light you will see (if any), if you don't see such a light you are probably OK.If you look carefully at your hard drive you will see three different sections there. One is for you to plug the IDE cable into and will only go in one way. Usually you will have to take the extension that is for the slave hard drive and twist it 180 degrees to plug it in. The cable will only plug into the hard drive one way. If you look closely you will notice a pin missing on the hard drive and if you look at the IDE cable you will see a 'key' and that key would fill the void where the missing pin is. If you were to try to insert the cable in wrong it would not work because the key would hit the pin of the hard drive. The other two sections of the hard drive are the one on the extreme right which is where your power cord will go. The other section has little jumpers on it that tell the drive whether it is to be used as a Master or Slave or possibly CS (not likely). If you look at the hard drive carefully there will be a little diagram that show how to set these jumpers to make your drive either a master or slave.In you case at this moment you would want to make your new drive a slave so referring back to the diagram of your slave settings set up your new drive as a slave then install it into the PC case and connect you IDE calbe and power calbe (also has a key and will only plug in one way). Power your PC back up and depending one your system (Windows will find the new drive and assign it drive E unless you have to DVDs or CD roms or any combination there of ,then it will assign your new drive as F.Your new hard drive will not have any information on it so you will have to low level pormat it and get it ready for the PC to use, again I dont know your operating system so that is another topic. You should be ready for that after you have done the above.

[organicbmx 0]

i was just about to do it but i found out i didnt have any screws! and its a bank holiday so the shops are shut. i'l post when its done.p.s. what is cs on the jumper - just for further knowledge.

[Khymnon 0]

Actually, bmx, you don't really *need* the screws for the HD to work. It's simply a safety major, so get them whenever you want.As for "CS," it means Cable Select. You see, when you connect your HD, you have basically 3 options, it can either be MASTER, SLAVE, or you let the computer decide depending on the current number and condition of HDs and CDs and DVDs present. Personally, I never resort to cable select, since I found it seriously varies from a computer, or even an operating system, to another. So just check the jumper on your original HD, if it's on MASTER, set the jumper on the new one to SLAVE, and vice versa. It'll help if you know a little bit about how to configure the motherboard setup, but it usually works fine.And about the low level format, I think all the new HDs come formatted already; all you need to do is to setup partitions, you know, like C and D, etc. It's pretty intuitive as well so you shouldn't have a problem, but if you need help, just let us know what operating system you're using (eg., Windows 98, Windows XP, Linux ..)Let us know how things go :-)

[organicbmx 0]

well i put in in just now. i can find it on my system infomation but not in My Computer at the moment. but thats becasue it has no partitions.im installing it on windows. could you guy's help me partition it? all i want is one big ntfs partition, because im going to partition it further for linux later but i want some of the drive space to be ntfs.thanks so far.

[Khymnon 0]

alright then, organic, it's partition time. :-)the good thing about you setting up Linux later is that it will handle the Ext2 or Ext3 (which is the filesystem it most commonly uses, much like FAT and NTFS for windows) very flexibly. so let's do what you want now and set up one big fat 300GB partition.let's open the START menu. choose CONTROL PANEL. double click on ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS. double-click COMPUTER MANAGEMENT.now a window should be opened up. from the left pane, expand STORAGE and then click on DISK MANAGEMENT.you probably now will have to choose between a Basic and a Dynamic disk types. choose Basic. don't worry, you're not missing much here, Dynamic has to do with Windows Server 2003, RAID systems and the like.after that, it gets pretty easy. you'll see your current and your new HDDs. choose the new one. right-click and choose the appropriate command. remember to set it as a Primary partition. then choose the NTFS filesystem, and determine how much of the HDD space you'll allocate. I understand you want the whole 300GB as one partition, which should be fine.I suppose that's all. oh, and one other thing. if you'll set only one partition, I suggest that, before you set up Linux, do a defragmentation on your partition. normally, Linux will handle everything correctly, but it never hurts to be cautious, now, does it? :-)good luck

[Killer008r 0]

I see these people got to this post before I did . If your HD is going to be the 2nd one make it slave, if it's alone make it master or leave the jumper off which pretty much means it's a stand-alone drive, but don't throw away the jumper, but it on the bottom 2 switches. And where did you get the HD and how fast is it?

[organicbmx 0]

its a diamond max 10 and i got it on ebay. 16mb buffer and not sure on spin speed but i guess 7200.looks like you are not too late on the topic. i seem to have quite a problem. i used the windows disk formatter tool as recomended and it worked away, when it finished [quite a while on 300gig] it told me it had been unsucessful. i dont know why it just plainly said that. so i tried again and the same happened. but after the second time the drive has disappeared to windows, its not in system infomation or in the formatter program.help - what has gone wrong?

[organicbmx 0]

well i rebooted and up came the drive in my computer. i opened it and it asked me to format again. so i did a quick format to see if that would work and it was formatted in a split second.

[iGuest 3]

I really think you should have partitioned your drive into many parts, than one great big partition. Also formatting on Windows for something that large would have taken ages.Windows XP System files requires at minimal 4GB (it was 3GB), I usually opt for around double the amount.You should also have created a seperate paging (swap) file partition (using FAT32, larger blocks than NTFS and slightly faster for this type of swapping), so that fragmentation is reduced, plus try defragging 300GB!!!Then you could set up partitions for your Program Files, Your Documents/Downloads, etc.Your hard drive won't be used efficiently and will result in your system becoming unbearably slow.I think you should reconsider your option.Cheers,MC

[James_K 0]

Notice from szupie:

Copied from http://www.pcguide.com/proc/physinst/fdd-c.html
I'm leaving this here because even though it was plagiarized, it may still be helpful to our members.

* Hardware Required: Screwdriver and screws; you may need additional screws if using a mounting kit. * Software Required: None.
* Time to Perform: Usually about 5-10 minutes. Can take slightly longer if there are fit problems or adapters are needed.
* Preparation / Warnings:
o If you have not already done so, please read the section on general installation and assembly tips.
o It is always wise to make sure you have a backup of any drive before moving it to a new PC or reinstalling it. Of course, it's generally too late to do anything about this if the drive is already out of its system. :^)
o Ensure you have already decided how you want to configure the hard disk drive, and that you have already set the appropriate jumpers. See this procedure if you have not already done this.
o Make sure that the interface cable will reach the drive in its intended location. Refer to the system layout planning procedure if necessary. Unlike with floppy drives, you cannot just get a longer cable in most cases when you are dealing with IDE/ATA drives. The length of the cable is limited to 18" and in some cases less. See here for more details.
o Ensure that a power cable from the power supply will reach the drive.
o Make sure that you don't mount the drive upside-down or backwards. The label of the drive goes up, and the circuit board down. The connectors should face into the middle of the case so the interface cable can reach them.
o The system case should be open before you begin. For instructions on opening the case, refer to this procedure.
o Some cheap cases are made from very flimsy sheet metal and may require you to flex them somewhat to get the drive to slide in properly.
o Internal hard disk drives have an exposed circuit board on the bottom (the drive's integrated logic board). Be especially careful not to damage this board, and ensure during installation that nothing contacts it. Check after installation to ensure that nothing can accidentally contact the board.

Procedure Steps:

1. Find Pin 1 On Drive: Take a close look at the drive and determine which end of the interface connector is pin 1. There should be some sort of a marking near pin 1 to indicate it, which may be a small number "1", a dot, an arrow, a square around the pin where it connects to the circuit board, or some other indication. You'll need to know where pin 1 is when you connect the drive up, which may be much later on. It's much harder to determine which end is pin 1 after the drive is installed.

Tip: Hard disks usually have pin 1 of the connector next to the drive's power connector.

2. Install Mounting Kit, If Necessary: Virtually all modern cases have internal 3.5" drive bays meant specifically for hard drives. However, if you are installing into an older case or one that has its internal 3.5" bays full, you will need to use a mounting or adapter kit. To use this kit, place the drive into the middle of the adapter, and then use four screws to mount the drive to the inside of the adapter. Some adapters mount using screwholes on the bottom of the drive and some using screwholes on the side. Make sure you orient the drive correctly. Then test the mounted drive by sliding it into the drive bay. Ensure that it fits properly.
3. Mount Drive Into Case: There are three common ways of mounting a hard disk drive into the system case that I have encountered. Determine which of the following matches your case and follow the appropriate instructions:
* Direct Mount: The simplest and most common mounting method is the direct mount, where the drive slides into the bay and mounts directly to the drive bay walls. Slide the drive into the bay and align the holes on the side of the drive with the holes in the drive bay. There may be more than one place in the bay where the drive will fit into the case. When the drive is lined up correctly, secure the drive to the bay using four screws.
* Drive Rails: Some cases, especially older ones, use two thin rails that are mounted to the drive, and then used to slide the drive into the drive bay. If your cases uses these, select two matching rails, one for either side of the drive. Place the drive into the bay without the rails first, to allow you to visualize where the rails need to mount onto the drive so that once inserted, the drive will fit properly into the bay. Attach the rails to either side of the drive, using two screws per rail. Then slide the drive into the bay. Verify that the front of the drive lines up correctly. Some drive rail cases have spring-loaded clips on the front that snap into place when the drive is inserted all the way (mostly newer cases). Others require you to screw the drive into the bay anyway, using holes in the front of the drive bay. Either way, make sure the drive is not free to move around when you are done.
* Mounting Box: Some cases, especially desktops, use a removable metal box into which the drive is mounted. The procedure here is similar to that for direct mount, above, except that you have to remove the box first and insert the drive into it, then remount the box.
4. Double-Check Installation: Make sure the drive has been fitted properly into the case and that there is no interference with other components. In particular, make sure that the logic board on the bottom of the drive is not touching anything. Ensure that it is not loose in the case.