Help Needed To Add A Second Hard-Drive

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Hi Folks,

I have what I hope is a simple problem regarding hard-drives.

I want to transfer the hard-drive from my old PC into the second slot in the new(er) one I've just acquired, so I can still access my old system and files, and give more all-round storage.

Already I've sucessfully managed to transfer a 128MB RAM card and an Ethernet card, but the hard-drive appears to be a little more complex, what with all the cables, screws and software settings needed to make it work.

Ideally, I'd like:

1) To have the PC boot from the new hard-drive by default (i.e. I don't have to do anything fancy)

2) To be able to enter Set-Up and change to boot from the "old" hard-drive relatively simply, on the odd occassion.

3) To be able to access the old hard-drive when I've booted from the new one (as drive X: or whatever), and vice versa.

I'm not sure what specifications will be needed, so please just ask and I'll stick them in here as soon as possible.

Thanks very much in advance for any help.

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The easiest way would be to buy a external case, pop in the hard drive and then to plug the case in through usb.

This will give you access to the drive (plug and play with anything after win 98).

Putting it in the case shouldn't be much more difficult.

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Grand Duke, are we talking about an IDE hard drive or S-ATA? If the cable is a ribbon type cable it should be the former. Then you simply plug it in on either the IDE-1 or IDE-2 port on your motherboard. It's possible to plug in two IDE-devices per cable, but normally it's best to have different hard disks on separate cables for performance reasons. When you've connected the cable, make sure you connect the power cable as well.

To get things working the hard drive need to be properly configured too. IDE-hard drives can normally be set up either as master, slave or cable select. Only one drive per IDE-interface can be master, though. The best thing is probably to set it to cable select. Then it's settings will be set depending on the cable instead, which is easier. These settings are normally configured by a jumper settings somewhere on the hard drive. Consult the hard drive manual to know how the jumper should be set.

When all this is done the next step should be to check if your computer has detected the hard drive. This you should see when booting the computer. If it is unable to find it, it probably means that the drive settings are erroneously configured (master/slave etc). Another reason may be that the BIOS-settings are not properly configured.

If the computer has successfully detected the hard drive, there shouldn't be any problem accessing files on it. It should simply pop up as your other hard drive but with another drive letter.

Good luck!

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The hardest part will probably be if you want to boot from the old drive. You will have to work your way through recognition of all the new hardware when you first try to boot from it. You might need install disks for some of the hardware and probably the motherboard.

I would suggest not booting from it at all. It would be easier to just load any software that might be on it on the new drive and access files from the old drive.

The existing hard drive should be the boot drive on the new computer and will stay that way until you change it. Your old hard drive just needs to be plugged in and jumpers set as needed. (Derevon explained master, slave and cable select. Use cable select if both drives have the jumper. Don't use cable select on one drive and master/slave on another on the same cable.) Most computers will automatically recognize new drives unless that feature has been turned off in set up.

The simplest way is to boot the computer before you put the old drive in. Go to the set up utility. F1 or Del are 2 of the common keys to get to it. Make note of the drives that are on there at that point. If you are getting a new(er) computer but it isn't brand new, I am guessing you have IDE drives on both the old and new.

If you boot your old computer and go into setup, you can get the drive type. As long as the drive is only a few years old, you should have no problems installing it on the new computer. Post the drive manufacturer and type if you can't find info online to help you with it.

If you put the drive in and the computer doesn't boot up it usually means you have a cable on backwards or 2 drives that are both master or both slave. Removing the drive should allow you to reboot without a problem. Check your settings and try again.

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Craven de Kere wrote:

The easiest way would be to buy a external case, pop in the hard drive and then to plug the case in through usb.

This will give you access to the drive (plug and play with anything after win 98).

Putting it in the case shouldn't be much more difficult.

Thanks for that, Craven. It's not something I would have thought of. I had a look a putting the old drive in, and was immediately hit by stuff like Primary Master, Secondary Slave and jumper pins etc, and the existing drive appears somehow to be plugged into the CD/DVD drive as well as the main board. It just looked like if I didn't know what I was doing, I stood no chance of guesing right.

Just one thing, will I be able to boot from the old drive if it's on a USB link, or will access be restricted to via the existing Windows installation?

Thanks again.

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Devedon, parados,

Thanks to you also. I re-read your posts after sticking my head back inside the case, and perhaps it can be done, even with my skills. The real reason I was wanting to be able to boot from the old drive is because it has programs installed where I've lost the CDs or serial keys or whatever. No problem. I'll just have to save up some cash for new ones. Surprised

I'm going to have another attempt later today. The only drawback with Craven's idea which I've just realised is that I'm pretty low on funds and if I can get it inside the main case and save a purchase, that's fine by me.

There were a couple of things I noticed when I tried before.

1) Power - There seems to be a set of power cables (2x black, 1x yellow, 1x red) coming from the power unit, and linking all the other drives in parallel. Can I just put the new-old drive on any spare plug on the chain?

2) I think that the IDE-1 ribbon cable goes from the motherboard to the existing hard drive, then to the floppy drive. The IDE-2 cable is empty at the first slot, then goes to the CD/DVD drive. I put the new drive on this empty one? There is a diagram on my old hard drive which shows where to put the jumpers for different settings, but there isn't on the existing one. Do I need to change them both to cable-select, or can I leave them both as master, as the existing seems to be Primary Master, and the new one can be Secondary Master, with the CD/DVD drive as Secondary Slave?

3) My old drive is a Seagate one, so hopefully Windows should have the driver for it, as I gather Seagate are fairly common?

Thanks for your help. I'll come back with the results.

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Grand Duke wrote:

Devedon, parados,

Thanks to you also. I re-read your posts after sticking my head back inside the case, and perhaps it can be done, even with my skills. The real reason I was wanting to be able to boot from the old drive is because it has programs installed where I've lost the CDs or serial keys or whatever. No problem. I'll just have to save up some cash for new ones.

If you solve the first problem with getting Windows to find the second hard drive you can move onto the boot problem later. It can certainly be solved by for example installing a boot loader on the MBR (Master Boot Record).

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I'm going to have another attempt later today. The only drawback with Craven's idea which I've just realised is that I'm pretty low on funds and if I can get it inside the main case and save a purchase, that's fine by me.

No need to buy a new hard drive. This should work just fine. It's not THAT hard.

Quote:

There were a couple of things I noticed when I tried before.

1) Power - There seems to be a set of power cables (2x black, 1x yellow, 1x red) coming from the power unit, and linking all the other drives in parallel. Can I just put the new-old drive on any spare plug on the chain?

Check what power cable you have in your primary hard drive, and locate a free identical one from the power supply. The power cable can only be inserted one way, so no risk of making a mistake here.

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2) I think that the IDE-1 ribbon cable goes from the motherboard to the existing hard drive, then to the floppy drive. The IDE-2 cable is empty at the first slot, then goes to the CD/DVD drive. I put the new drive on this empty one? There is a diagram on my old hard drive which shows where to put the jumpers for different settings, but there isn't on the existing one. Do I need to change them both to cable-select, or can I leave them both as master, as the existing seems to be Primary Master, and the new one can be Secondary Master, with the CD/DVD drive as Secondary Slave?

I doubt the same IDE-cable goes to the hard drive and to the floppy drive. The floppy should go to a separate place on the motherboard. It sounds like a good idea to connect it to the free slot on the IDE-2 as you suggested. Remember to make sure you plug in the IDE-cable to the hard drive the same way as the one on your primary hard drive is connected. There should be a red marking on one of the outermost wires of the ribbon cable which you can use for orientation. If you put it wrong you're not going to break anything, but it simply won't work. As for the Master/slave/cable select-settings you suggested, they should work if you make sure the CD/DVD is set to slave mode.

If you don't get the computer to find your old hard drive, simply experiment with different jumper settings and perhaps by connecting your drives differently. You could, and should probably leave the IDE-1 out of this altogether, and only change things on the IDE-2. There aren't that many combinations to try really. Eventually you should get the computer to find both your CD/DVD and your hard drive.

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3) My old drive is a Seagate one, so hopefully Windows should have the driver for it, as I gather Seagate are fairly common?

No need to worry about drivers when it comes to internal hard drives.

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Thanks for your help. I'll come back with the results.

No problem. Good luck! Just have some patience and I'm sure you'll get it working.

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Yes,
you can put the old drive on IDE2. If you go to setup first it will tell you where the CD drive is mounted as slave or master. This should give a clue as to how to set the drive you are installing. I would try cable select first and if that doesn't work then master/slave opposite what CD is.
Devon already explained power cable. Use any open one. You can also buy Y power extenders if you need another one.
You don't have to worry too much about blowing up your computer if you set jumpers wrong. If the jumper setting doesn't work, the computer doesn't recognize drive or doesn't start up. Just try another one.

If you only need to transport a program that you no longer have the disks for there are programs designed to do that. Not familiar enough with them to tell you which one to get. Basically they search the registry and transfer all necessary registry keys and programs to the new drive. They will probably cost you $50-100 and are cheaper than buying new programs.

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All sorted now thanks to your help, guys. I put the new drive onto the same ribbon as the existing drive (IDE-1), left the CD/DVD where it was on IDE-2, set the jumpers on the new drive to cable-select, and left the jumpers on the existing drive as they were (assuming that they were already set to master). Booted up and there it was, "Local Drive E:", in all it's glory.

Following on from that sucess, I tried to boot from the new drive with some sucess. I went into set-up and just changed the boot drive order to start with the new disk, and it kinda worked. As you all pointed out, I had to go through all the hardware recognition stuff. As I no longer have my Windows 98 disks for the set-up on this drive, it couldn't load all of the necessary drivers, and as a result the display was stuck at 16 colours 800x600. It's okay for an emergancy and I can't really be bothered just now to hunt down and install all the necessary drivers to make it work properly. Some time in the future I'l have a go, just for the experience.

Thanks again to you all for your help. Nice one, fellas.

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The drivers you need won't be on the win98 disks. They will have come with the new box since they are hardware drivers.

Since you already have a working system you can just check the devices there and then probably find drivers online if you don't have disks.

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Thanks, parados. Is it simply a case of copying the necessary *.dll files into Windows/System32, or there more to it? Will it matter for the sake of the drivers if the driver needs to work in W98? Basically, are any of the drivers in the existing XP set-up ONLY for XP, or will they work with any Windows system, including W98? Thanks again.

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Help Needed To Add A Second Hard-Drive

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