How do I install multiple hard drives

[m4j2t]

I am building my first computer, and need to put my old hard drive in it to get some files off, plus it'll make good storage for mp3's. How do I connect it to the mother board. I want it to be a storage drive only, so I can run the OS off my new better faster hd.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

mike

 

[ironique]

It's not hard really, all you have to do is:

- Check for hard disk jumper settings (next to HDD power socket) and set the drive as a slave
- Connect the two HDDs to your IDE cable - If you have a HDD and Optical drive already installed, you might need to get a second IDE cable to connect the old HDD.
- Make sure the new HDD is set as master (using jumpers).
- Boot the system, proceed to install your OS.

 

[m4j2t]

okay, I follow your instruction, but here is another question it brings up, my cd is connected to the same cable you want me to put the second hard drive on--does that new cable your talking about connect "hd-hd-cdrom" into ide 1? Or should I plug that cd-rom drive into ide 2, and if so can I slave a second cd-rewrite drive off that like I did with the hard drives? Waiting for my new video card to get here, turns out the old one is a 3.3v so I can't use it in the meantime. the new one should be here in a couple days. I will let you know how it turns out, but if I could get some help on th cd drive question I would greatly appreciated, AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your advice.

mike

 

[SandLizard]

Originally posted by: m4j2t
okay, I follow your instruction, but here is another question it brings up, my cd is connected to the same cable you want me to put the second hard drive on--does that new cable your talking about connect "hd-hd-cdrom" into ide 1? Or should I plug that cd-rom drive into ide 2, and if so can I slave a second cd-rewrite drive off that like I did with the hard drives? Waiting for my new video card to get here, turns out the old one is a 3.3v so I can't use it in the meantime. the new one should be here in a couple days. I will let you know how it turns out, but if I could get some help on th cd drive question I would greatly appreciated, AND THANK YOU VERY MUCH for your advice.

mike

you can only put two devices on a single channel (i.e., two hard drives for ide1, or hard drive and cd-rom...etc)
i would suggest making your old drive a 'slave' as mentioned above, setting the new hard drive to 'master' --both on ide1. then sett up the CD-RW as a 'master' on ide2.

if you have two cd drives (one just a cd-rom, the other a cd-rw) i suggest always making the burner a 'master'. not sure about this anymore, but i know some older burners don't like to be anything but the master on the channel.

 

[concreteDonkey]

You can only have 2 devices on each ide ribbon.

So you have to make a decision. Which two devices do you use the most at the same time:

Like, if you are going to be swapping files from your old HD to the new one, put it on the 2nd ide ribbon so they are not sharing.
Or if you get two cd devices (eg, reader and writer) put them on separate ribbons so one can read and one can write without taking turns.

So just decide which two devices get used the most at the same time, and put them on separate ribbons.

OK?