Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!

Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!

  • Congratulations strongm on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!

Mutiple Hard Drive??

Status
Not open for further replies.

jungbaga

MIS
Sep 3, 2002
16
US
Hello
I was just wondering if it's possible to install multiple
hard drive on to my computer.
I already have a 40gb hard drive, and it's almost full..
so can i just get another one and put it on?
you answer would be appreciated.

 
Yes, you can install up to 2 devices on each IDE channel (you have 2 channels total). ~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein
 
When installing a new hard drive watch out that you set the master/slave setting right. If you put two devices on the same IDE channel then one has to be the master and one has to be the slave. You can set this with a jumper at the back of the device.

Also don't put a ATA100 hard-drive together with for example a ATA33 hard-drive. The ATA33 will slow down the faster drive.
 
Kocky~
what's ATA stand for??
i'm not sure what i already have on my comp but... the new one i got is ATA 100. so i was wondering what that's for.
and thanx for telling me about master/slave setting, i didn't know about it.
and... I also got a cd-rw, and i wanna install it...
is it possible??
how many IDE channels do i get?? i think i have 2.. but i'm not sure~ if i have 2 channes i can install up to 4 devices right??
 
Normal mobo - 2 IDE controllers - 4 devices.

btw, as long as slower hard drive is at least ATA33 speed, its ok to connect different speeds to same connector with no loss off speed on faster drive. But if slower drive uses PIO mode (which will mean its quite old), faster will only run at that speed.
 
jungbaga,
How old is the PC? Make sure you use the cable that came with the drive (which is an 80-pin conductor) to ensure the fastest speed. Older PC's used 40-pin cables which will restrict you to ATA/33.

Note: Of course, if your PC has a 40-pin cable, then chances are that ATA/33 is the highest setting your motherboard supports. In that case, you might want to invest $20-30 in a ATA/133 PCI IDE Controller card.




~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein
 
Wow.. lots of help!! Thanx
I got the new HD from my friend (ATA/100) but he never gave me a 80pin cable. I just used the 40pin(one that my comp alreay had). I erased the files in the HD from my friend, and i tired to format it, but I couldn't do it. I'm sure I deleted all the files, but some reason there is about 700MB of something I cannot see... Is it normal?? and how could i format the new driver?
 
HEY!!
I was just wondering around, and find the place where i could partition and format. I'm formatting the new HD now.
What's the difference between the partitions?? light blue, green, and dark blue... (I'm using window 2000 pro)
I see the different colors for my drivers in disk manager.
and What's NTFS?? I'm looking foward to intall Linux on my new HD... if NTFS ok for Linux?
and.. does anyone have any tips or things I should know for mutiple hard drives, and mutiple OS??
Thanks
 
Isn't there a colour key code along bottom of disk management window? (mine says dark blue is primary partition, bright green is free space and dark green is extended partition).

NTFS is M$'s filestore for NT/2k/XP - no good for Linux (but Linux installer will create its own partitions, assuming there's space on the drive to do so).

Tips for multiple o/s - would depend on what your are installing. You need a boot loader of some sort (eg, win2k has its own, which can boot NT/2k/XP and one of win95/98/ME/dos. Linux usually comes with Lilo or Grub, which can boot Linux and windows. I prefer to use a third party one ( - site also has some good info about multi-booting). Work out your strategy (after reading & getting advice). Eg, its often important which order you install the operating systems. Its often a good idea to 'hide' existing partitions/operating systems when installing additional ones. There are many sites with help and adive (try Google). If you have specific setup in mind, post back, I'm sure we can help.
 
Thanx for you help!!
I'm new to this area (mutilple HD and mutiple OS), and i've never used Linux before. My existing OS is Windows 2000 pro, and I wanna install Linux on other HD.
Anyways... today I encounter some freaky problem that (i think) I won't be able to solve. First, I tried to send some files from old HD to New HD. everything was fine until I try to transfer this folder...(i think i scripted this foler, or passworded... i don't know how to say it... but you know when you go to property of the folder and you can set it up in a way that files could be scripted) Anyways..I just can't access entire files and folders in that one =(
I tried to read help section and tried to do what they asked me to do, but i don't really understand what they are saying.... what i did was bring a certificate from the old comp to new one... but i still couldn't do it... is there any back up tools that would decode the scripted folder??
hmm...
then... my comp could detect the new CD-RW when I used the older HD... but when i tired w/ new HD... it can't detect the new CD-RW... I looked at the adding the hardware, but couldn't solve it...
Finally, i don't know why but the "light" on the floppy disk is ON all the time.. it didn't light up all the time until i installed the new devices... did i mess up something?? (maybe i touch the wires...=(.. or changed some set up in BIOS)
hmm... damn.. it's freaking long requests...and questions...
It woudld be very nice if someone help me out!!! THanX!
 
Don't worry about the CD-RW~ I figured it out!! thanx...
Oh could anyone recomand me a good CD-Burning Soft Ware??
thanx

 
I'd agree about Nero.

In earlier post, did you mean you encrypted the files?
 
yeah... wolluf... i think that's what i did=(
i can't figure out how to restore the files...
i see the files but can't access..
do you know anything about it??
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Part and Inventory Search

Sponsor

Back
Top