computer question, possible to add another hd?

[SweetWagon]

hey all, iv had this computer (compaq presario) for about a year now and iv nearly maxed out the hard drive (120G) with the usual, dvd's, songs, games etc. and i'm thinkin about adding another hd if possible. now i know a fair bit about computers, by the looks of things theres room and wires to hook up so i guess thats always a start. do i need any software to set it up and i just want to have it appear as another drive. cheers everyone.

[Heffer_Slayer]

Ok im quite the computer nerd, all you need to do is buy a hard drive from any computer shop, cheapest shop i know of is msy.

www.msy.com.au

Buy one, make sure it will plug into your motherboard, there are two types of connections. a IDE and a SATA. seeing your pc is about 1yr old it may or may not have SATA. You can get a IDE just to be sure. Now you can run the Hard drive off a totally new IDE Connector, or the same one. If both your CD and HDD drives are on there own channels (connector) you will have to plug it into one of the spare plugs on the cable. As a IDE Cable has 3 Plugs, one to the board, and the other 2 for devices.

You basicly just buy the drive, screw it into your case, and plug the cable in. Just make sure you set the jumper correctly!

|......|...| < What the cable should look like, as far as connectors go

I assume your hard drive is on the end one, last on the right. That means its the MASTER jumper. so your 2nd hdd will be on the SLAVE jumper setting.

Very simple, just PM or what ever if you need anymore help


Cheers hope it all works out.

Ha ha im new hear

[DavidPartay]

Make sure you keep a part of your body touching the case of the computer while you're working inside it to discharge any static electricity you've built up.

If you're going to get a second IDE hard drive, you'll need to make sure it's plugged in to the end connector of the IDE cable and set to Master as you'll have the CD/DVD drive running off the cable as well. It may take a little bit of fiddling, but the problem is if you have the CD drive at the end connector, then both drives will run at the ATA33 speed of the CD drive, rather than the hard drive running at its ATA100 or ATA133 speed, and you WILL notice a difference.

Your best bet would be to check the Compaq website for your model to see if it supports Serial ATA (SATA).

[SweetWagon]

thanks for the help so far, i think i know what im doing now. ok, i'm pretty sure its IDE, the computer is older than a year, i just came into possesion of it then. the connector is the same as my xbox which is IDE so im pretty sure the pc is IDE aswell. The original HD runs of its own channel, as does the DVD drive, there is a spare connector on the dvd drive, and the dvd drive is on the end plug. So... i need to swap that around so the new hd is on the end plug?? and set the master/slave?
once its plugged in will it simply appear in amongst the other drives or do i have to install it somehow?

cheers

[Heffer_Slayer]

Windows will install the drive all for you, seeing it is a IDE no drivers are required! You may have to format the drive in computer managment though, thats really easy but.

To get into that just go, control panel/administrative tools/computer management then hit the storage tab then diskmanagment. And you drive should appear As unpartitioned, just allocate all the space of the drive and do a full format if you got time to kill, and if your on XP make it a NTFS Drive, as FAT32 and FAT are just getting to old.

Hope i could help

[SweetWagon]

ok yeah u'v been very helpful thanks. and I just set it up how DavidPartay described? cheers

[Patrio7]

side tip, if you pop the front face off the pc tower it has some spare screws which have round heads ( 2ph screw driver needed ) this should allow you to mount your new hard drive in the stock racks inside the PC ( hp's and compaqs love their slide->click type racks for drives.
the IDE cable that is in the PC should be sufficient but they're dime a dozen.

also with regards to formatting to ntfs i don't think windows can do that by itself as the drive wont appear until it is partitioned.
enter Administrative tools! (found in control panel) then open
Computer management
then click on disk management
in there you should find an overview of your hard drives + cd/DVD-roms etc.

all you do from there is right click where it says unpartitioned space, and choose Create partition and away you go ( follow the wizard )

[SweetWagon]

side tip, if you pop the front face off the pc tower it has some spare screws which have round heads ( 2ph screw driver needed ) this should allow you to mount your new hard drive in the stock racks inside the PC ( hp's and compaqs love their slide->click type racks for drives.
the IDE cable that is in the PC should be sufficient but they're dime a dozen.

ok had a bit of a fiddle just then, i poped the front of and found the screw's which are used BUT they dont fit either the existing HD or the test fit HD im using, it seems the screw are used on the dvd drive and the multi card reader in the front but not the HD. secondly, how do i gain access the the opposite side of the rack?? only one side of the case is removable? other than that all should go well.

on another note. it seems there is another spot available on the MB for an IDE cable so should i use that instead?

cheers

[Heffer_Slayer]

Really you dont need to take off the other panel as long as you can see all the wires and what not, just make sure you chuck in 2 screws so the drive doesn't fly everywhere. I hate pre build PC's like Compaq and HP. I build my own

Well how many IDE Connectors does your board have? Most only have 2.... Maybe it is a floppy connector or something...

You will be fine. Relax

[SweetWagon]

Really you dont need to take off the other panel as long as you can see all the wires and what not, just make sure you chuck in 2 screws so the drive doesn't fly everywhere. I hate pre build PC's like Compaq and HP. I build my own

Well how many IDE Connectors does your board have? Most only have 2.... Maybe it is a floppy connector or something...

You will be fine. Relax

yeah i hate those slide, clip type racks. the drive will be supended mid air so it'll need screws either side. the board has 3 connectors. but yeah just gotta sort out this mounting thing which is not the easiest thing since it wasnt made for 2 HD's.
anyway cheers

[Patrio7]

normally the HDD pressess up against the bottom front of the case to my knowledge, as for the screws normally they're CD-ROM only ( fine diameter ) but some models also had a further 4 for HDD's and the like. as for the second side, there shouldnt be a need to remove it you bolt the screws into the drive and then clip in the drive to the rack....

got pics? i need a refreasher

[SweetWagon]

yeah ill get pics in tomorrow if i remeber, im pretty sure i know what im going to do, the other slots werent made for hd's, and i have to somehow get a scewdriver around the other side to secure it in which might be a bit fiddly

[Patrio7]

could always get one of those drive adaptor cradle things, takes the HDD to CD-rom size would allow you to make use of the screws and clips and it keeps the "easy to pull apart" theme happening

[SweetWagon]

yeah was hoping they made something like that i'll probably go and buy the bits next week sometime. thanks for all your help