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Second hard drive

Empty Wallet

Got change?
Nov 10, 2004
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Toronto, ON
Hey folks, hoping for input from those who'd know better:

I'm looking to get a second hard drive for my PC and with the 619 or so out there to choose from, I want to make sure I get the right one so that I don't blow away my machine. I assume one can just install one and have it as simply a storage unit and nothing more, which is what I'm going for. From what I've been told so far, Windows will recognize it automatically upon start up and nothing technical would need to be done by me. I've also been told to have the drive indicated as being the "slave" drive before plugging it in. Please correct any of that if it's wrong.

Simply, I'd like any "must knows" to prepare me before I go out and spend money on a drive. Any help would be appreciated and suggestions on what drive (or company) to consider as well.

The technical stuff: I've got a Intel P4 CPU @ 1400 MHz on a mainboard by Intel, 1280 of RAM, my OS is Windows XP. I currently have a 40GB drive and would like to add an 80 or 120 and try to keep things under $100.

Thanks!
 

basketcase

Well-known member
Dec 29, 2005
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You can get good hard drives, maybe up to 200 GB for $100. I would assume that your mobo won't support SATA you would be looking for an IDE drive. Make sure the power is off when you plug it in. If you are putting it on the same ribbon cable as your current HD, setting it to "slave" would be the way to go. Once it's plugged in, windows should do the rest.

To get an idea
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProdList&cmd=pl&id=HD.443

If you are really into it (which I doubt by the age of your computer) you should have windows installed on your fastest HD but it might be too much of a hassle.
 

Keebler Elf

The Original Elf
Aug 31, 2001
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The Keebler Factory
Finally, a tech topic I know something about! :p

You can easily get a drive for under $100, and probably a lot larger than 80-120 GB. Probably more like 150-200 GB.

You want your OS on the primary drive and the other (new) drive for storage. Buy an IDE cable (I'm assuming you're using IDE and not SATA or SATA II?) that is "cable select" compatible; it will make installation easier.

You'll have two major hurdles. The first will be jumpers (assuming IDE drives). With an IDE cable that supports cable select, put the jumpers on both drives to cable select. It should say on the drive label which jumpers are cable select; if not, go to the website of the drive manufacturers. The other route is to put the OS drive jumper as primary and the new drive as slave. Cable select is simpler and easier and you don't have to worry about master/slave (just make sure the OS drive is plugged into one end of the cable and the slave is plugged in to the middle, with the motherboard on the other end).

The second hurdle is the size of the drive. Once you get over 137 GB, you could run into issues with your system recognizing the full drive capacity. If you have Service Pack 2 installed, you should be okay. I'd recommend buying Western Digital b/c they have good drive support and fixing drive capacity issues is much easier with them.

I would recommend buying either Western Digital or Seagate. Best case scenario would be to have the same brand of drives in your system but you may not want to depending on what your current brand is. WD, IMO, is the best. And make sure to buy 7200 rpm, not 5400 rpm.

If you're in the west end, I'd recommend Logic Computer House in Mississauga (google it). Best prices that I've found around the GTA.
 

samcan

New member
Dec 1, 2005
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kitwat
I know you suggested under 100 but if you can I like the idea of
extrnal drive with firewire, if you have it,some are usb only which is quite abit slower reading data. You can buy the drive and encloser for around 150 and can take it to other machines and use as back up of impt files.
Keebler, most drives over 120 will come with software to install drive regardless of bios or os limitations.
I would also suggest not useing cable select if you have a burner
or rom on other ide channels. EX 1hd 1 rom IDE1, 1hd 1 burner on IDE 2. Just my 2 pennies
 

Keebler Elf

The Original Elf
Aug 31, 2001
14,572
203
63
The Keebler Factory
Unless you buy from the big retailers (and pay top dollar), drives usually don't come with anything. Of all the hard drives I've bought over the years, I can only think of one or two that I had the supporting materials for (manual, drivers, cable, etc.). Thus the need to get software support online.
 
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