Topic: Installing second hard drive

[Simon]

This seems like a stupid question, but I am thinking of installing a second hard drive, as my primary drive is getting quite full.  The second drive would be just for storage, but would I need to install an operating system on it for it to work?

[Tony]

Nope  

Thats assuming your Master drive with the OS on does not go "walkabout"

Why not partition the new HDD, into three partitions, "Spare"  "Data" and "Backup". Then store a "image" of your Master Drive with the OS on it, on the Backup partition. Put your Data on the Data partition. Then if your Master goes walkabout, you just "re-store"  the saved image [using Hirams Boot CD] of your Master onto the "Spare" partition, and your up and running again.  

Go On, you know it makes sense



 

[Simon]

Thanks.  

[Tony]

Simon ....see edit  

[Simon]

Go On, you know it makes sense

But it also sounds bloody complicated!    I thought if I got a new larger hard drive, I could just transfer the data from the old one, much like burning to a CD or DVD.  Perhaps then, I could play 'Partitions' with the old drive, at no risk of losing my data.

[joudi]

Simon,

If you don't do what Tony is suggesting, (which is a good idea), you'll notice that, adding a new HDD will appear as an extention of the first HDD, (even if you set the second one as "slave").

In that case, what is necessary is to set the second one as - at least one partition, different than the partion/partitions of the first hard drive.

I think, you'll then be able to use that new partition (HDD) as a storage partition.

[Simon]

Mmmm.... thanks guys.  Will give it some further thought.  

[Sandra]

Just to confuse Simon further  
I can never see the point of multiple partitions on a slave drive, or more than 2 on the primary master.
I guess some habits are left over from the days of a maximum of 2 gig per partition prior to FAT 32.
I partition my primary master so that I have a reasonable size for the first partition for the OS and the rest of the drive for storage of anything else.
This means that if I have a problem with the OS I can wipe that partition and re install.
I always set my second drive as a single partition, even if you do as Tony suggests and store an Image of your OS drive on it, most imaging progs will create its own partition to store it on anyway.
It must be really annoying to have a few gig spare on this partition and a few on that and few here etc that in total adds up to about 50 gig but you havent got 30 gig available in one chunk if needed.
Can anyone explain the reasoning behind having multiple partitions other than for what I have already said that I do them as  

[Simon]

Thanks Sandra!  

So let me get it right (I have another problem, but I'll come to that in a minute), I can theoretically buy a new hard drive, install it, reboot and the PC will see it, yes?  Can I then just move files from one drive to the other?  Does it not have to be formatted?  What about size limitations?  If my motherboard won't take a drive over, say 60Gb, and I already have a 40Gb as my Primary, can I therefore only have another 20Gb HD as a slave, or can I have, e.g. two or more HDs, providing none of them are larger than 60Gb?

Now the other problem - I have no more IDE connectors available, as I already have my Hard Drive, DVD Rom, CD Writer and DVD Writer connected.  How do I get round that one?

[Sandra]

It does need formatting before you can use it Simon but XP will detect it and say that it needs formatting and I think will give you the option of doing it at that point.
If it doesnt do that just go into admin tools/computer management/diskmanagement then format it from there.
I would be suprised if your pc cant see a 120 gig drive Simon but it would be wise to check the bios limitation of your mobo, it may even have a later bios that will overcome a limit if it is smaller than you require.
Also most drive manufacturers have a utility that will overcome a bios limitation although possibly not up to the full size of the drive.
XP itself has a 137 gig limit without SP1 or SP2 being installed.
The second drive is only limited by the bios on you pc, you can have a 20 gig mster and a 250 gig slave if your bios will see it.
If you have run out of IDE primary and secondary and master and slave channels and are reluctant to ditch say your dvd rom drive in favour of a slave hard drive then you wil need another PCI card with an IDE controller on it, this will allow you two further IDE channels with 2 IDE drives per channel.
I think they usually have their own bios on the card too so if you had an old pc with a limitation of say 65 gig these would probably alow the later larger drives  

[Simon]

This PC is now about 18 months old.  I'll have to check the motherboard website.  It's an Abit KG7.  I'm off out shortly for the evening, and probably won't be in a fit state to do anything sensible when I get back, so I'll check it out tomorrow.

[Sandra]

If its later than this one Simon then you can go for a real biggie  

Version 68 (9 February 2002)
Supports AMD Athlon XP 2000+ and Morgan Duron 1300
Fixes ACPI error message in Windows XP Event Viewer
Supports 3.5GB memory while four sticks of 1G DDR memory installed
Fixes performance drop after STR mode by Sisoft Sandra 2000
Fixes SCSI CDROM boot issue for TekrAm SCSI card
Supports 48 bit LBA for HDD larger than 137GB
Changes the default year to 2002
HPT370 BIOS Version: 2.0.1024
BIOS compile date: 1/28/2002.

[Simon]

Looks like I might need to upgrade, San.  

[Sandra]

This chap appears to have the same bios as yours Simon and has a 160, a 120 and a 100 gig drive in :

http://www.geocities.com/pshifter00/

[Simon]

Well, I suppose I could just get one and try it.  I'd need to find one of these PCI IDE controllers too.  I could get rid of my CD-RW, but it's faster then my DVD-RW for burning CDs, and I burn CDs more then DVDs.  Besides, it fills up the slots in the case nicely.