Hard drive help

[Hrun]

Hi folks,

Could I ask yet again for some assistance?

My hard drive is nearly full and I have just bought a new camera, Finepix S5100, which has approx 1meg pics. Simplist option is probable a second hard drive to use as storage, so here goes.

I could buy a usb external... or a man in a shop has quoted about 80 quid for 120gb fitted in my Packard Bell... or I could by a bigger one for similar money and fit it myself.

Question is... can I fit it myself (I have installed TV cards etc, but a slave hard drive)? Also where would I find the cheapest hard drives and what type/connections do I need?

TIA for any assistance

Giles

[kaitanium]

you can do it yourself, both internal or external

outpost.com has some cheap seagate drives after rebate, just saw one today (or was it yesterday?), 200gb for $30 after rebates. if you dont mind waiting, keep and eye out at places like slickdeals.net, spoofee.com, or techbargains.com for the lastest bargains, actually seems like youre out of the country, which makes things a little harder, but heres the rest of my advice (US based advice :D). check if they ship elsewhere, i dont know

i would go external if you are just storing things and not running programs from the drive. get a 3.5in external enclousure if you choose to go that route, there are usb, firewire, or both version of those enclousures. newegg.com has a wide selection (computer hardware > cases > external enclousures > select 3.5in under "size" and click search). externals are easy to setup. take the drive, take off the jumpers (or make them a slave), pop it into the case, plug in usb cord and youre good to go.

internals are pretty much the same thing too. set jumper settings to slave, hook it up to your motherboard via IDE cable. this setup could get slow if your running both drives at once and if you dont have a sata computer

[rhmorrison]

What you should do depends on some factors of your environment.

If (as I assume) you have just your single PC plus of course one or more PocketPCs (else why would you be posting here) then your cheapest solution with the best price/cost ratio would be to add a second drive.

Virtually all PC's support this. It would have to be a very small case indeed that does not have space for a second 3.5" hard drive. I would look for the best buy you can get. Usually you can get 200 GB drives very cheaply. Most PC's still use IDE drives (which are the cheap ones pricewise).

Open your computer and look at the drive. It should be a 3.5" (or 5" if it's a really old system in which case you may have to play with BIOS setting). If the computer is no more than 2 or 3 years old then buy the 3.5" hard drive that is the best deal for you (depends on where you live). Look in the internet. Price/GB and total price are the main factors you will want to look at. Rotational speed and cache size in MB are also of interest (2 MB is good, more is even better).

With your new drive you should make sure that your current drive is programmed as MASTER (it should be) and then program your second drive as SLAVE. Usually this is the default setting when you buy a hard disk drive! It is set by placment of jumpers on the back of the drive. Find a proper slot in your case to place the drive. Put it there and fasten with four screws (usually provided). The hard drive IDE cable will normally have a second connector that you plug into the hard drive. Plug in a free power cable and you should be good to go.

Any modern BIOS will automatically detect the drive which you should see in the bootup screen if activated.

This should actually be easier than installing a TV card since there is no software to install and only two cables, the IDE cable and power connector. The jumpers should already be set properly. You may have to format the drive but usually not.

[Hrun]

Thanks for the help folks, if I could just ask a couple more ? ...

... I have had a look inside and the current HD is screwed vertically to the front case with a ribbon cable direct to the motherboard.

Above this, horizontally is a floppy, also direct to the motherboard, a space (presumably I can put the second drive here) and a DVD rom. This last has a ribbon to the motherboard but with a second connector half way along. Is this what I connect the new drive with?

The original drive is a Seagate Alpine/Barracuda 7200.7 Type 3.5 inch IDE 40GB cache 2MB. Will either of the following drives have suitable specs/connections to do what I need?

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MAX-P8L20
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?SG-NQS8200

Lastly is there anything else I am likely to need?

Many thanks for your assistance. If this gets any more complicated I think I may get it fitted :oops:

TIA Giles

[kaitanium]

that maxtor ata133 drive will only work ata100 speeds since i dont know if your motherboard is ata133 capable (not too big of a deal, but you could be paying a little higher for a 133 drive). and that segate one u showed definetly wont work since its a sata drive.

im guessing the dvdrom is connected to the motherboard directly by its own cable correct? and that the cable connecting the harddrive has a second outlet correct? if so, the cable to the harddrive is where you will connect the second harddrive. leave the one to the dvdrom alone. i would be cautious about connecting a hard drive with the same cable as a dvd drive because when your reading a dvd, the speed of the harddrive will be greatly compromised since IDE cables are pretty darn slow.

remember the drive you get, set those jumpers on the back of the harddrive to slave. in case you dont know what jumpers look like heres a picture
http://www.cheap-discount-computer-parts.com/Install-HDD-Jumpers.jpg
they are tiny little removable tabs that allow electricity to flow through certain pins.

dont get someone to do it for you if they are going to charge labor, i say thats just a waste of money considering how relatively simple a hard drive upgrade is to do yourself

[Sven Johannsen]

Sounded to me as if the second connector was on the cable that went to the DVD. Is that correct? That would be a suitable connection for the second drive as well. It would technically be a bit better to hang it on a second connector on the current hard drive cable. There is a higher likelyhood that you wil;l copy from the CD/DVD to a drive, than from drive to drive. Having the DVD and hard drive on seperate controllers is more efficient.

The new drive will likely come with a cable that has two connectors, to replace a hard drive cable that only has one. The existing device would go on the end connector at the end with two connectors. The end with just one goes to the motherboard connector.

Use the cable that fits best. That is, will reach. Note there is usually another ribbon cable if you have a 3.5" floppy. It will have a second connector as well, for the old 5.25" drive. That connector won't fit on a hard drive, but it doesn't look that different, so hopefully that isn't what you saw.

Everyone keeps saying Slave, but it is possible the current devices are set for CS, Cable Select. Normal EIDE controllers control two devices, and there are generally two such controllers on a modern motherboard. So the board can control 4 things, such as two hard drives, a CD writer and a DVD, for example. If each device is set to CS on a single cable, the one on the end is device 0 and the second is device 1. Zero would be equivalent to Master and 1 would be Slave. You do need to look at how the current devices are set to decide whether to go M & S ( S&M maybe?)or both CS. Normally the strap settings (jumpers) are pictured on the device. You might have to remove it, or if you know the model #, you can google it and find a picture on line. Hopefully you can see the current jumpers. Sometimes that is tough.

In reality though, just for storage, if you have USB 2.0 ports. and external drive will do just fine. You can get these commercially. Maxtor makes several. Or you can build one very easily. TigerDirect had 250G hard drives for $69 after rebate, and the cases for $29 after rebate (U$D). Don't know what you can get them for in the UK, but that's a great price. Follow the instructions. The ones I've built in USB enclosures have all had me set the drive as Master.

[Hrun]

Hi again folks,

Thanks for your patience. I have almost done it! The new drive is in, the computer boots and I can see the drive in device manager, but...

... I cannot see it in My Computer or access it :cry:

I have fitted it where the old drive was with a new IDE cable. The old drive is in the CD bay with a fancy fan sticking out the front to keep it cool. The fan is grey in a black/silver case, but I degress and can sort that another day.

The new cable has a blue end connected to the motherboard. A grey center connector connected to the 2nd drive and a black end connected to the Old drive.

Both drives are set to CS as the old drive was already set that way. If I Rclick/properties on the C drive I can choose hardware and both drives are in the list. The Old (ST340014A) is drive 0(0) and the New (Maxtor 6L200P0) is drive 1(1). But I can do nothing else with it.

Sorry for the ramble but does anyone have any Ideas?

TIA Giles

[Hrun]

Hi again.

I have done it!!!! I have a second hard drive (with the aid of the Maxtor Knowledge Base)

In all the exitement no-one here, at PC world of Novatech had mentioned I needed to format it before I could use it. Doh.

Thanks for all your assistance

Giles.

Ps Anyone have a job going as an upgrade technician, I can do hard drives, TV cards and WIFI Cards! :lol:

[kaitanium]

hapy harddriving =P

[Hrun]

hapy harddriving =P

Cheers mate, and thanks for your help. Much appreciated.

Giles