I'm out of hard drive space.

[Poni]

I purchased my computer a couple years ago thinking 30gig would be enough space, duh.

Can I install a second hard drive? internal? external? What does the installation involve?

Thanks.

 

[RadiclDreamer]

Yes, you can install a second hard drive in many computers. The installation depends on your setup. The best case scenario is you get a hard drive that your bios supports, 80gb would be a safe bet being that your pc is a little old. You just open the case, slide it in a free 3.5 inch bay, put in 4 screws. Set the jumper to master or slave depending on your setup and then put an IDE and power cable to it and you are done with the hardware part. Just boot to windows and make a partition and then format

 

[qbek]

Before you buy a HD open your case and check if you have the second bay. That should be no problem if you build the rig yourself, but some OEMs remove the bay.
I have found out the hard way that my wife's Dell does not have one, even though there is an IDE port you could use to hook up the second HD.

 

[Alex]

what they said ^^^^^

if you have the extra bay (most ppl do) you can get another internal HD, even if you don't but you have an extra 'CD bay' you can get a HD rack and leave it there instead, alternatively, you could get an external and carry it around with you... you have tons of options!

 

[Spike]

Just delete all that pr0n and you will free up alot of space

Actually the above guys covered it, your PC more likely than not has a second 3.5" bay (internal) for a new HDD. Intallation is a snap and all retail drives come with decent instructions for someone who is not familier with the process.

If you have any other questions go ahead and ask

-spike

 

[dragonballgtz]

Don't delete the pr0n just back it up to CDs or DVDs and you will be fine.

 

[ribbon13]

Get a AMS DS-2316B2BK or AMS DS-2316CBKif you do get an external enclosure.

 

[Poni]

yeah, I'll check to see if the bay is there first, thanks everyone.

oh man thats funny, about the pr0n. I cant keep any of that stuff.

 

[qbek]

One more thing. If you will go for the external hard drive and your computer supports only USB1.1 you might want to upgrade to USB2.0 (i.e. via PCI).
USB1.1 offers quite a low bandwith (up to 1MBps or thereabouts).

 

[Poni]

i ended up going with the Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only, http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-122&depa=1

installation was easy and is set for cable select. i downloaded Data Lifeguard Tools from the Western Digital website and the setup was a snap.

Thanks to everyone that helped me out.

my recent upgrades:
ati radeon 9600xt
+512MB PC2700
NEC 3520a DVD burner
80GB WDSE Hard drive
ACER AL1715smd 17" LCD Monitor w/ 12ms Response Time - Retail

and did it all myself, booyah!! love it. :beer::thumbsup:
cant wait for more upgrades.

 

[The Green Bean]

Originally posted by: Poni
cant wait for more upgrades.

:thumbsup::evil:

 

[FlyLice]

Burn pr0n on DVD. Burn mp3s on DVD. Burn movies on DVD.

 

[Promethply]

Originally posted by: Poni
I purchased my computer a couple years ago thinking 30gig would be enough space, duh.

Can I install a second hard drive? internal? external? What does the installation involve?

Thanks.

Depending on the motherboard used in your computer, and how many optical drives are installed, etc.

You probably can install at least one more internal harddrive.

Currently, the best deal in harddrive are the ones with 200GB capacity

such as this one:

Seagate 200GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive

 

[Budmantom]

Google, virtual drive


Tom