Running out of hard disk space can be a major problem. Find out here just how simple it is to add or install a new hard drive in your computer and eliminate this problem.
1. Power down your PC and unplug the power cord from the back of the unit.
To access your hard drive you need to remove the side cover. Some computers tend to be a little tricky in taking the side cover off. There should be a release button or either screws that you back out to get it off. Once inside you will notice two flat cables about two inches wide that run from the mother board and plugs into your existing hard disk drive and your CD Rom drive.
2. You can hook up to four devices to the flat IDE cables. There will be two
places on the mother board for these cables to plug into. One will be the
Primary IDE and the other will be the Secondary IDE. Your C Drive hard disk has your operating system and will be on the Primary IDE and most likely set as a master. The CD Rom Drive may be set as its slave on the Primary IDE or it
might be the master on the Secondary IDE cable. The jumper settings in the
back of each device will verify how they are set up.
3. You most likely will need your new hard drive setting to be set as a slave to
either the existing hard drive or the CD Rom Drive. Then you just plug-in the
Primary IDE cable, if it’s available, into your new hard drive. If it is being used then you can use the Secondary cable. Make sure your jumpers are set right and plug the power cable into the back of your disk drive device right beside the jumper setting area.
Add screws into the side of the hard drive to lock it in place and replace the side cover.
4. When you reboot the computer you will need to go into the Bios and set the
CMOS to auto for the new hard drive. Most computers will go there on boot up by repeatedly hitting the delete button on your keyboard. Once you are in the CMOS settings you will see the Primary Master, Primary Slave, Secondary
Master,and Secondary Slave settings. Just set them all to auto and hit save
and exit. When you reboot it should recognize your new hard drive and you are set up and ready to go.
Tips & Warnings:
- When connecting your IDE Cable to your hard disk drive there should be a red stripe on one side of the cable, this side of the IDE cable will go towards the power plug on the disk drive.
- Be sure to power down and unplug the computer before doing any work to it.
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