Topic: Installing secondary hard drive

[Jaminxz]

Yo dudes,

i'vegot a spare 20gb hard drive with lots of old files on and i would like to fix it to my new pc.

how do i do this?? do i need to put drivers etc on it??

[Sandra]

Have you only got the one hard drive in your pc at the moment ?
If so check the jumpers on the one thats already in are set to master (some drives are different for single master or single master with slave) and set the jumpers on the 20 gig drive to slave and add it to the connector on the primary IDE channels cable and connect a spare power lead to it, there are usually plenty of spare power connectors inside the pc.
Switch the pc on and it should identify it and allow you to access it or it may say you need to reboot before you can use it after its found it and added it to the system  

[Jaminxz]

Ok thanks Sandra,but i have a few questions. what is the IDE channel?

and by trying to install it if i get it wrong can i totally destroy my pc?

[ketamininja]

The IDE channel is what your main disk devices connect to.
(Integrated Drive Electronics).

Each IDE channel can connect 2 devices (hard drive, or optical device). A standard mainboard has two channels, therefore a max of 4 devices. Some advanced mainboards have more channels.


you shouldn't be able to destroy your PC.
Worst thing that can happen is you set the jumpers to a conflicting setting, and the computer may not start, but removing the drive, or correcting the jumper setting will make everything good again.

As I said an IDE channel can connect two devices, so the first device is MASTER (which is connected at the end of the IDE ribbon, or cable), and the other must be SLAVE (connected in the middle of the ribbon).

[Sandra]

On the motherboard there are usually 2 very wide multi ribbon cables with 2 connectors on each, plus another cable one about half the width for the floppy drive.
The 2 wide ones connect to the Primary and Secondary IDE channels.
Each IDE channel can have a Master and a Slave drive attached.
You can connect up to 4 IDE devices ( hard drives, CD roms, DVD roms and CD/DVD writers etc ).
The usual arrangement is to have the hard drive/s on the Primary IDE channel and the CD/DVD drive/s on the Secondary IDE channel.
If you have 2 IDE devices on one channel you have to set the jumpers on each one so that one is the Master and the second one is the Slave.
If you only have the one device on a channel then it is set as a Master or with some hard drives as a Master without a Slave.
The hard drive usually has a pictorial diagram showing how it should be set for however you intend to use it  



Edited to add :

Or like "K" says above  

[ketamininja]

^^

[Simon]

I know there is usually a 'cable select' (or similar) jumper option on most drives.  I have mine set to Masters and Slaves, but is there any reason not to use Cable Select on all drives?  That would seem to me to be an easier option, but there may well be a technical reason why it's not advisable.

[Tony]

I use cable select Simon  8)

[Sandra]

I dont think it really matters but as I like to be in control of most things in my life, including pcs, then I set mine to Master and Slave