Adding another new harddrive so I have two.

[Guest]

I have a 80 gig harddrive on my AMD 1700+ Desktop PC an run !gig of memory. I
would like to install a second harddrive of the same make { Westerndigital }
80 gig. I would like to keep the old harddrive so I don't have to transfer
whats on it. Is there someplace in XP that would help a not to smart about
PCs to do this?? Will I still be able to access my old harddrive after
installing the new?? Thanks all and have a safe an great day. The harddrive
is a WesternDigital 80gig ATA 7200rpm, just like my old one.

 

[JS]

You would add the second hard drive as a 'Slave'. The existing drive that
Windows is installed on would be the 'Master'.
Look for instructions that came with your drive on the proper location for
the jumpers (Master/Slave) for both drives.

JS

 

[Guest]

I strongly urge you to find someone locally who can help, who is more
knowledged about this than you, if you insert the new drive and have the
jumpers set wrong, you can screw up the old one and ruin your current install.

The old drive should be set as master the new one as slave (check your
jumpers on the back of the drive) install the new one (each case may be
different) connect the cable from the motherboard to the drive, connect the
power supply to the drive, and boot, when you see that windows boot properly,
close the or attach the sides of the case and you're done. one 80g partition.

 

[Andy]

I have a 80 gig harddrive on my AMD 1700+ Desktop PC an run !gig of memory. I
would like to install a second harddrive of the same make { Westerndigital }
80 gig. I would like to keep the old harddrive so I don't have to transfer
whats on it. Is there someplace in XP that would help a not to smart about
PCs to do this?? Will I still be able to access my old harddrive after
installing the new?? Thanks all and have a safe an great day. The harddrive
is a WesternDigital 80gig ATA 7200rpm, just like my old one.

The thing you have to know about Western Digital drives is if the
master is jumpered as master as opposed to cable select, there are two
different master jumper settings: one as master with no slave, and the
other as master with slave connected.
Once the slave drive is connected, run XP's Disk Management to
partition and format the drive.

 

[Jonny]

I have a 80 gig harddrive on my AMD 1700+ Desktop PC an run !gig of memory.
I
would like to install a second harddrive of the same make {
Westerndigital }
80 gig. I would like to keep the old harddrive so I don't have to transfer
whats on it. Is there someplace in XP that would help a not to smart about
PCs to do this?? Will I still be able to access my old harddrive after
installing the new?? Thanks all and have a safe an great day. The
harddrive
is a WesternDigital 80gig ATA 7200rpm, just like my old one.

You are simply adding a hard drive to PC that has one existing hard drive.
Both of the same make and model number.

Two major steps are involved. First one is hardware connection, the other
part involves software to make the hard drive usable for use in XP. The
first part must occur properly in order to do the second part.

Since we don't know what's under the hood other than the one hard drive and
how they're connected, its impossible to be specific. You probably have a
cdrom, cdburner, or DVD as well as an example. Which cable and how this is
jumpered has bearing on this situation.

Try wdc.com for physically connecting the new hard drive. Pay attention to
both the new and former hard drives required jumper connections if on the
same ide cable.