changing 2nd hard drive - 3 ?s

[pc334]

I have an MSI KT4V board running a 60GB Maxtor main and a 40GB
Maxtor 2nd drive (XP pro).

I am thinking of buying a
Seagate 120GB / 7200 / 8MB / 9.3 / ATA-100 EIDE Hard Drive
to replace the 2nd drive.

Is it a bad idea to mix brands?
The main drive is currently NTFS, while the 2nd is Fat32.
Which should the new drive be, considering I want to copy old drive 2 onto new?

Is this something I should attempt myself or would taking it to a tech be necessary? (where I'm described as 'Technical User', Im a webmaster, not a tech)

 

[dkdude]

pc334,

There is no problem in mixing brands of HDs. NTFS is supposed to be better/faster than FAT32 so I'd go with NTFS.

Installing it yourself? -of course. It's quite easy:

Open the chassis and remove the ribbon cable plus the power cable from the old HD. Be a bit carefull -don't pull the ribbon cable but pull the connector. Then remove the 4 screws holding the HD in place. Remove the HD.

Check the jumper setting on the back on the old HD (usually there is a label placed somewhere on the HD telling you what the jumper settings mean). I guess that it's setas a slave drive.

Look at the new HD. Set the jumper(s) accordingly to the configuration description as a slave.

Mount the new HD in the chassis. Connect the ribbon calble and the power cable.

Power up. Go to BIOS settings and make sure the new HD is recocnized. Save settings. Boot....

That's all §;O)


Jakob