Installing new SATA hardrive help

plumberman

plumberman

plumberman

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I chaps im a bit new to this so i could do with some help if poss please

ok i have bought a new 320GB ATA/IDE hard drive, and i just want to change it over from my old one which is Also A SATA but 60GB

I need to know what setting to sett up the jumpers...? is it

device0 [master]

also were in the BIOS, do i need to look to see if the BIOS Confirms the drive is recognized in the System
BIOS,


And do i need to do any thing else or change any thing before i attempt format the drive

cheer guys I would be very greatful for any help
 
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Welcome....

1, your drive is either ata/ide or sata. Are you sure you know which one you have?
2, If it is the only drive you are putting in and IDE you want Master

Are you installing an operating system on it (xp or Vista)?
 
Hello chrisystix and thx for your welcome

It says ata/ide MODEL HDT725032VAT80 RATED 5V 530MA 12V 640 MA on the drive and my os is xp m8 and it says ata100 MODEL
:J360 on the drive i have already got

thx
 
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Hi, the new drive you purchased by looks of things is IDE, and your old old drive is SATA!

What motherboard do you have and how many DVD/CD ROM'S and DVD writers you got, as newer motherboards only come with 1 on board IDE.
If you have got 2 dvd/cd roms then you may be stuck, but if you have only got one
then you will need to set one master and the other slave.

Hopefuly I have given you some help.

Rob
 
hi rob

my motherboard is a

N2PAP-ultra
Features
nVIDIA nForce2 IGP North Bridge,MCP South Bridge
Support Socket-A for AMD Athlon /Duron at 266/333MHz
- 8x AGP VGA Mode
- Onboard VGA
- Support Dual Channel DDR333 RAM
- Support ATA133
- Support USB2.0
- 6 Channel Speaker.
- Onboard LAN (N2GAP only)


I have 1 DVD ROM and one cdrw

not sure what you meen about only one IDE but im sure my cd drives are set up as master and slave

thx for help
 
I can't work out if your new drive is IDE or SATA? I will assume it is IDE (wide data cable, same as your current optical drives), as your motherboard does not support SATA.

That board has 2 IDE channels, so if you move your optical drive cable onto the secondary channel (white) and plug in your new hard disk as master (look on the drive for jumper setting) at the end of a new IDE cable going into the first IDE channel (red). The BIOS should show the drives when connected up correctly. You may need to select 'Auto' again on the menu for it to detect the change though.

As the hard disk is blank, you'll need to install Windows/drivers again.
 
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Ok. I am thinking both drives are IDE. To confirm, is the cable from the old drive to the motherboard a wide ribbon cable.

IDE will run 2 devices (master and slave.) many new motherboards only have one IDE socket. Your motherboard will probably have 2. In that case it ought to be a case of swapping over the drives (set as master). You will need to re-install all your drivers (including motherboard) and software though.

XP disk will format the drive for you.

Alternatively you could leave your existing drive in and set the new one up as a slave. I am thinking that might be your best option. we can talk you through how to format it if you like
 
HI guys thx for your help its much appreciated

yes my motherboard as a wide ribbon with two wide connection attached to it and yes it as got two IDE sockets 1 goes to the dvds and the other goes to the hard drive

I thought it may be more difficult to leave my old hard drive in and try to set up the other as slave so thats why i said i would just change them over but if you think it would be better to set the new hard drive as slave then i would like to be able to do that thanks but yes i would need your help for sure

I have done a basic format meny times but just one drive and so im not sure about the procedure

also can you please tell me were in the BIOS, do i need to look to see if the BIOS Confirms the drive is recognized in the System
BIOS, and how would i select 'Auto' again on the menu for it to detect the change though


thx again

kev
 
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The hard disks should be listed in the first BIOS menu screen.

If you want to put the new one as slave, just set the jumper to Slave (make sure the current one is on Master). Once in Windows, right click My Computer -> Manage -> Disk Management. You should see the new drive (should be called Disk1) listed at the bottom. Just right click it and initialise the disk and create the partition(s) you need on the drive. The drive should then be usable.
 
Dont worry about BIOS unless it does not work. Most BIOS are very simple but do their thing without you.

You might need to do this;

Control panel-performance and maintenance-administative tools-computer management-disk management. Right click on the new drive and format NTFS. It will auto assign a letter (F maybe). You then need set up some files on the new drive. media/photos etc
 
cheers duke & chrispystix

just a couple of questions ?

if i set the new hard drive as slave does it restrict me from what i put on the drive or use the drive for ie can I install both data or games and run them as normal?

also you say i can put partitions on the drive ...do i need to put partitions on the drive and if i do why and what size

these may sound like daft questions and im sorry if they are




thx
 
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I have learnt most of what I know in the past year from this site and trial/error.

Setting the drive as slave will make no difference.

Some people like to put partitions on to divide up areas for games/media/stuff. As far as I can guess the main advantage is that Windows sees them as seperate drives so if you have a software issue you dont loose everything. Downside is it makes everything more complicated and if you have to reinstall windows you are likely to have to reinstall your other programs anyway because there will be registry issues.

It all depends on why you want the bigger HDD??
 
"BIGGER HDD so i can fit more games on"


A big thx to chrispystrix and all you other chaps for all your help so far

I will give this a go and i am sure i can now work this out ,thx to you guys.

I will tell you how i get on later and hopfully it will be sorted ,,if not

ILL BE BACK LOL.........If i havent blown me pc up by then that is.... he he he

cheers kev
 
As chrispystix said, it is down to personal preference. There is no point installing applications on a separate partition as they won't work if C: buggers up and you have to reload. It is useful for keeping media/documents on though.

i.e If Windows (on C: ) corrupted and you had to reinstall it. You could just boot off the XP CD, format the C: partition, and install it again. It will leave you other partitions intact and ready to use.
 
cheers duke

before i do this i would be greatful if you give me your opinions guys on your preferred method and why

1..just keep the new hard drive and format OS on that,

2.. or use both drives as disgussed and use the new drive as a slave remebering that the reason for a bigger hard drive is mainly to install games on

i would be interested to find out what you would do

cheers kev
 
Ideally you want the new drive to have Windows on it, so I would boot off the XP CD, create a partition (C: ) say 40GB big and install onto that. Then later in Windows (or you can do it during setup ) create any other partitions you need. I would slave the old drive in and copy any data you need to the new drive once XP is installed.

Your new drive will be much quicker than the old 60GB, so I would use that for the OS etc. The old drive may well be noisy as well, so unless you need the space, I'd just remove it and keep it aside.
 
I would just use the new drive as Duke describes with one caveat;

Any applications you have installed (office/games/programs)will need to be re-installed too. If you have the CDs go for it. You will also want to visit your motherboards web site for the drivers and run widows update.

Otherwise......slave the new disk.
 
I took out my old hard drive and fitted the new just as was said

i installed the hard drive as said but when i reboot with xp cd the message i get is

"error loading operating system" and thats it i go no further


i have checked all connections also and the bios as reconised the drive is there so i am stumped ...and now im disheartened to say the least

any one help please
 
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Dont be disheartened. This is where the fun starts!

Lets start with the cd. What is it? is it an original XP cd, a back up disk or some other?

Even without a hard drive XP will launch, load the drivers and then search for a Hard Drive.

I guess you have put the other one back in now??
 
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