Will Windows recognize new hard drives automatically?

[OmniShinzui]

Yeah, I want to add an 160GB Seagate Barracuda ATA/100 and 80GB Maxtor ATA/133 into my rig that has a 74GB Raptor SATA (Main Drive) and 300GB Seagate Barracuda SATA ("Media Drive"). Will Windows recognize everything, or will I have to re-install windows? Just asking cause the two new drives (really from my old rig) are IDE Drives while my current drives are SATA.

My main reason to adding these drives to temporarily hold my data from my 300GB so I can RMA it to Seagate. I just wanted to ask before adding the drives and not know if I forgot something or not. Im sure I have to set them in the BIOS before I format them in windows tho.

Thanks in advance

 

[fireontheway]

I don't think you would have to re-install but you will have to go to disk management to see the other partitions.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Just make sure it's set to boot from SATA first in the BIOS, everything should be recognized...

 

[OmniShinzui]

thanks. I just wanted to make sure. I just realized I hope I have two free PSU slots for them, but I think I have another modular cable for just those kinds of power connectors (cant remember name *bangs on desk* lol) for my Antec SmartPower...

edit: My Antec P180 case has 4 slots for 3.5" Internal Drives on the bottom, is it ok to use them all? (I mean installing four drives on top of each other, temperature wise)

 

[cpacini]

shouldnt be a problem, turn up the fan a notch if it gets too warm

 

[newuser]

yes they will work fine w/o reinstalling windows

if they are already formatted and have data, windows will automatically install and see them and you old data will be fine

if they are blank and unformatted, i would get a win 98 boot disk with fdisk and partition them first and format in windows. or download seagate seatools which will let you partition and format them very easily (seatools can also zero out a drive...good for that RMA drive)

another "easier" way to backup would be to ghost your 300GB...

 

[OmniShinzui]

Thanks for the suggestions

My drive im RMAing is actually all media. Music, Pictures, Videos, etc. I have been meaning to add the two IDE drives anyways, and nows the best time to. Back my music to the 160GB and all the other stuff to my 80GB. Then im going to move all my data from my C: Drive to an external hard drive (80GB) so I can reformat (I added a lot of crud, bad drivers, so much clutter) since nows the best time to.

 

[OmniShinzui]

Sorry to bump, but im having real trouble.

I installed the two IDE Drives, then when I turned my PC on, I go into bios and change everything. Well, looks like the IDE Master Drive, my Maxtor wont show anything. I think it might be dead. Anyways, back onto point, I rebooted, and I try and load into windows, it freezes. So I try again, it freezes, until I finally get some BSoD (it just flashed, so I couldnt see why).

I put in my WinXP Repair Disk, and finally come to realize the Seagate IDE Drive with my old WinXP on it was trying to boot. Somehow it became the C: Drive. So I formatted the Seagate (which took almost 2hrs for 160GB), and go back into BIOs. For now, it seemed to have fixed getting into windows, but now the Seagate wont show on WinXP (tho SMART Apps show it, not windows). I dont even know what to do with the Maxtor. Is there a way to check on it? Its not showing in BIOs, WinXP, etc. Shows as blank, and the Seagate is the IDE Slave.

I also have seemed to accidentally plugin my Raptor into the SATA1 port instead of the SATA0 Port on my motherboard (basically just put cable into wrong Hard Drive, got them switched, Raptor/Seagate SATA).

 

[newuser]

check power cables to the maxtor?