How hard is it to install a 2nd hard drive?

[punqsux]

and is this a good drive?:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-140&depa=1

what do RPM and Cache mean in terms of hard drives?

can i tell what interface my current hard drive is?

thanks guys!

[Quackzilla]

It depends on whether you have a big case or a peice of shit dell/gateway/emachine/etc.

[bignick]

Spend the extra cash and get teh 8mb cache version. Its a little faster. the 8mb cache allows it to prefetch data making load times faster.

Its easy to install a new hard drive.

[coffman]

See the following site for directions on installing a hard drive:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/computers/2004/6/change_hard_drive/

[punqsux]

something like this nick?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-152-014&depa=1

[bignick]

Ya, thats good. this is better if you dont mind rebates.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=423018&Sku=THD-2000JB%20P

[punqsux]

See the following site for directions on installing a hard drive:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/computers/2004/6/change_hard_drive/

wow thats explained well! thanks for the link, i might just do this myself! ( i was planning on having a friend do it)

[punqsux]

Ya, thats good. this is better if you dont mind rebates.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=423018&Sku=THD-2000JB%20P

any free shipping codes or anything? 11 bucks is kinda rough

[Randomthts]

Do you have a Frys near you Punq? They usually have the best prices with and without rebates. Just picked up a 250 gig drive there for $94 out the door, no rebates.

[punqsux]

Do you have a Frys near you Punq? They usually have the best prices with and without rebates. Just picked up a 250 gig drive there for $94 out the door, no rebates.

i WISH!

is that still going on?

[epobirs]

The next best thing if you don't live near Fry's is their online partner, Outpost.com

http://shop1.outpost.com/category/Outpost/Hard+Drives+&+Memory/Hard+Drives/Internal+Retail+Kits/Parallel+ATA/

[MorPhiend]

Check this one out...

http://store.bestbargainpc.com/frshma1672id.html


edit: Free shipping

[epobirs]

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3492233

200 GB Maxtor 8 MB Cache 7200 RPM ATA133

$99 plus shipping of probably $5.

[bignick]

Damn, I didnt realize shipping was that much! What a rip off.

[epobirs]

Damn, I didnt realize shipping was that much! What a rip off.

There shouldn't be any sales tax for his region so it works fairly well.

[punqsux]

http://shop1.outpost.com/product/3492233

200 GB Maxtor 8 MB Cache 7200 RPM ATA133

$99 plus shipping of probably $5.

this looks like a good deal. any other opinions?

[GuilewasNK]

Installing a 2nd HD is pretty straightforward. If you ever installed anything in a PC before it should be simple.

[MorPhiend]

oops.

Sorry, the search I used listed that as a 200GB...

[MorPhiend]

epobirs' find is the same price as the cheapest 200GB HD's I can find.

[punqsux]

thanks to all you guys for helping! im prolly either going to go with the 200 gig for 99 or wait until black friday (i dont mind rebates)

how do i know that the 200gig maxtor will be compatible with my pc?

its a dell about a year and a half old if that elps. are hard drives more or less universial?

[Rich]

I installed a second HDD without any knowledge of installing second HDDs--so easy. You just have to know how to set the master/slave

[punqsux]

I installed a second HDD without any knowledge of installing second HDDs--so easy. You just have to know how to set the master/slave

thats good to know, because im planning on revamping my computer a little at a time.

last night i ordered some ram which i was in desperate need of. and after i get this hard drive, im getting a dvd-r drive and possibly a graphics card after that.

hopefully i have all that junk done by the end of the year, because in 2006 i was planning on getting a new system, but i could prolly get away with just having someone build me one with a new mobo and the stuff ive already bought!

[epobirs]

thanks to all you guys for helping! im prolly either going to go with the 200 gig for 99 or wait until black friday (i dont mind rebates)

how do i know that the 200gig maxtor will be compatible with my pc?

its a dell about a year and a half old if that elps. are hard drives more or less universial?

By and large they are. There used to be more issues when there were a lot more brands but the consumer market is pretty slim these days. For desktop PCs it down to Maxtor, Seagate, Western Digital, and Hitachi (neeIBM). Other brands exist but are effectively meaningless for most purposes in North America.

They only possible issue is whether your system uses Serial ATA or Parallel ATA for the hard drives. Serial is becoming standard for hard drives and eventually will replace Parallel entirely (optical drives currently get no benefit in terms of performance or capacityso they don't bother yet) but it isn't a given yet. Probably a machine of that age still used Parallel for everything.

The most visible difference is whether the drive connects to the motherboard via a wide ribbon cable or a narrow cable. The ribbon cable indicates Parallel.

[punqsux]

thanks to all you guys for helping! im prolly either going to go with the 200 gig for 99 or wait until black friday (i dont mind rebates)

how do i know that the 200gig maxtor will be compatible with my pc?

its a dell about a year and a half old if that elps. are hard drives more or less universial?

By and large they are. There used to be more issues when there were a lot more brands but the consumer market is pretty slim these days. For desktop PCs it down to Maxtor, Seagate, Western Digital, and Hitachi (neeIBM). Other brands exist but are effectively meaningless for most purposes in North America.

They only possible issue is whether your system uses Serial ATA or Parallel ATA for the hard drives. Serial is becoming standard for hard drives and eventually will replace Parallel entirely (optical drives currently get no benefit in terms of performance or capacityso they don't bother yet) but it isn't a given yet. Probably a machine of that age still used Parallel for everything.

The most visible difference is whether the drive connects to the motherboard via a wide ribbon cable or a narrow cable. The ribbon cable indicates Parallel.

thanks for the explanation, ill check it out when that ram gets here.

you all are so helpful! :grouphug:

[kaw]

Seagate drives now come with five-year warranties. Just something you might want to consider when most companies are trimming back on their guaranties.

[basketkase543]

I remember during the HDloader discusssion that someone said something like windows can only read harddrives that are under a certain amount of gigabytes and that having to much is pointless (kind of like the HDloader only reads up to about 133gb). Am i tripping or is there any validity to this claim? Basically, will my comp be able to use all of a 200gb hard drive? Thanks.

[shrike4242]

Installing a hard drive is normally an easy prospect, as Dell I think shows you how to do it on the support page for the type of computer you own.

If your system is a year and a half old, you should only have parallel ATA, which is the wide-ribbon cable, not the skinny little cable used by serial ATA.

That drive from Outpost should work OK, and Maxtor just changed their warranty terms from one year to three years, which should take effect very quickly:

http://arstechnica.com/news/posts/20040904-4157.html

The one from TigerDirect after rebate is another good deal, and the SE version of the Western Digital drive has a 3 year warranty on it, as well as it being a good performer.

If you go to the Dell support site, you should be able to put in your Service Tag and have it tell you all the disgusting details about your computer. This link should be one you could use:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/en/product_support_hub?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Every PC is a little different in where the drive goes, but the main process is the same. Take your time, don't rush it, and work where you have lots of room to work on your PC. Most of the time, it's pop it in, connect the cables, and the PC does the work for you.

I've done a few thousand drive additions/replacements in my time, so I've had a little experience in it.

[shrike4242]

I remember during the HDloader discusssion that someone said something like windows can only read harddrives that are under a certain amount of gigabytes and that having to much is pointless (kind of like the HDloader only reads up to about 133gb). Am i tripping or is there any validity to this claim? Basically, will my comp be able to use all of a 200gb hard drive? Thanks.

The cutoff points for hard drive sizes:

512MB - Back in the Windows 95 days
2GB - A little further into the Windows 95 days
8GB - Pentium II 266 days
32GB - Older BX boards
63GB - Some odd BX-based motherboards
133GB - Anything pre-ATA100/133
Much bigger than 133GB - Serial ATA and PATA/133

Anything bought in the last year and a half should see anything out there, thought it might take a BIOS upgrade to fix it. If not, there's always the software solution or the add-in ATA133 controller card route.

[alongx]

On a scale of 1 to 10, it's ridiculously easy. I got a new cheapass harddrive a few months ago and got it installed and formatted in under a half hour (most of that time was the formatting)

[Moxio]

Hah, there's a sale around Fry's for a 200 GB HD for $60 AR. You should pick that up if you're cautious about price.

It's waaay easy to install a 2nd hard drive, also. Hell, I've got 2 installed as we speak.

[basketkase543]

I remember during the HDloader discusssion that someone said something like windows can only read harddrives that are under a certain amount of gigabytes and that having to much is pointless (kind of like the HDloader only reads up to about 133gb). Am i tripping or is there any validity to this claim? Basically, will my comp be able to use all of a 200gb hard drive? Thanks.

The cutoff points for hard drive sizes:

512MB - Back in the Windows 95 days
2GB - A little further into the Windows 95 days
8GB - Pentium II 266 days
32GB - Older BX boards
63GB - Some odd BX-based motherboards
133GB - Anything pre-ATA100/133
Much bigger than 133GB - Serial ATA and PATA/133

Anything bought in the last year and a half should see anything out there, thought it might take a BIOS upgrade to fix it. If not, there's always the software solution or the add-in ATA133 controller card route.

Thanks for your help, i feel better now. I bought my comp a year ago so i should be ok with a BIOS update.

[KingDox]

yeah it's easy to put in a new HD. I've done it and let me give you some advice, since your new HD will usually be larger and faster then your old HD, make the new drive the master drive. That way your games and programs will run faster.

Some HD include software to copy your old drive to your new drive. When I did it I just used an old copy of Norton's Ghost.

[MorPhiend]

Have you opened your Dell? Many Dell's and Gateways have metal protestive guards riveted over the slots so that you have to send it in to upgrade. Other than that, yeah, it will work with your PC.

[nneace]

The cutoff points for hard drive sizes:

512MB - Back in the Windows 95 days
2GB - A little further into the Windows 95 days
8GB - Pentium II 266 days
32GB - Older BX boards
63GB - Some odd BX-based motherboards
133GB - Anything pre-ATA100/133
Much bigger than 133GB - Serial ATA and PATA/133

Anything bought in the last year and a half should see anything out there, thought it might take a BIOS upgrade to fix it. If not, there's always the software solution or the add-in ATA133 controller card route.[/quote]

so for a pentium 4, 1.6 ghz, a 200 gb harddrive would be cool? i hope so!!!! i so need a new one, and yall said 8 mb cache is the best

[hutno]

Has anyone bought from here?
http://store.bestbargainpc.com/frshma1672id.html

[punqsux]

so i could be buying a hd too big for my computer? how would i know what my computers max HD size is?

it wouldnt shock me if i have a dell chastity belt on my current hard drive. Xop

i was planning on using my current 30 gig for my OS and important stuff (office, photoshop) and my new big drive for music, games and movies...good idea? bad idea?

[epobirs]

so i could be buying a hd too big for my computer? how would i know what my computers max HD size is?

it wouldnt shock me if i have a dell chastity belt on my current hard drive. Xop

i was planning on using my current 30 gig for my OS and important stuff (office, photoshop) and my new big drive for music, games and movies...good idea? bad idea?

No, this is not a problem. The limitiation is on the size of a partition, not the entire drive. For instance, when the 2 GB limit was common, if you installed a 4 GB drive you had to treat it as at least two partitions. Thus a single physical unit would appear as both drive C: and drive D:. For a variety of practical reason drives would occasionally be partitioned into sections much smaller than the limit for purposes of segregating items for security, separating OS and application code from user data, etc. So partitioning was useful even when you weren't up against the size limit.

If your motherboard features ATA100 controllers the upper limit for a partition is 137 GB. This works out to more like 128 GB of usable space after all of the formatting information is written to the drive. So, if you installed a 200 GB drive on such a system it would need to be treated as at least two partition to access all of its capacity. Those partition could be any size desired so long it doesn't exceed the limit.

ATA133 is a faster generation of Parallel ATA that also increased the maximum partition size. This was created by Maxtor and supported by many motherboard chipset but not by all the competing drive companies. Intel was pushing a major change to the ATA standard that would allow for major leaps in future throughput and eliminate a lot of the traditional annoyance of Parallel ATA. Since the entry level speed for Serial ATA or S-ATA was 1.5 Gigabits per second (which like ATA133 is only achieved by groups of drive bound together in a RAID) those other drive makes figured they could just ignore ATA133 and avoid giving MAxtor a boost.

So, worst case scenario is you have a drive represented as two massive partitions instead of one.

[MorPhiend]

so i could be buying a hd too big for my computer? how would i know what my computers max HD size is?

it wouldnt shock me if i have a dell chastity belt on my current hard drive. Xop

i was planning on using my current 30 gig for my OS and important stuff (office, photoshop) and my new big drive for music, games and movies...good idea? bad idea?

It's not a problem. That's what I have going. The only problem is if your HD is so old that it is too slow for you personally. But, since that is what you are currently using, you probably don't mind.

[evilmax17]

http://www.issue-resolved.com

I'm looking to add a 2nd harddrive to my Dell Dimension 2400 (and punq, I think I remember you saying you had one of these), so I thought this link might be useful.

[punqsux]

http://www.issue-resolved.com

I'm looking to add a 2nd harddrive to my Dell Dimension 2400 (and punq, I think I remember you saying you had one of these), so I thought this link might be useful.

YOU are the man!

[Moxio]

http://www.issue-resolved.com

I'm looking to add a 2nd harddrive to my Dell Dimension 2400 (and punq, I think I remember you saying you had one of these), so I thought this link might be useful.

YOU are the man!

True, but why would you need to purchase a bracket for $25? You can easily install a 2nd hard drive on a Dimension 2400, it's just there isn't a slot to put it. You can just tuck it under something so it doesn't move.

[punqsux]

http://www.issue-resolved.com

I'm looking to add a 2nd harddrive to my Dell Dimension 2400 (and punq, I think I remember you saying you had one of these), so I thought this link might be useful.

YOU are the man!

True, but why would you need to purchase a bracket for $25? You can easily install a 2nd hard drive on a Dimension 2400, it's just there isn't a slot to put it. You can just tuck it under something so it doesn't move.

i travel between school and home with my system tho

[Noodle Pirate!]

Be careful about getting anything with rebates from tigerdirect, they arent very good about sending the rebates out. If you dont mind all the extra work to hassle them about it, it might be worth it.