New Hard Drive

Jokah

I want to change my hard drive on my dell computer.

Can I backup my old hard drive,get rid of it, fit a blank 60 gb hard drive to my computer, and reinstall all my software?

Can I buy any hard drive? or do I have to get a specific one?

This is the first time i have "modded" my computer and just want some sound advice..


Thanks.

Fabre

any 3.5" IDE hard drive should do, just be carefull not to get a serial ata hard drive if your motherboard don't support it.

Creamy Goodness

take your pick,

all these here will work

http://www.komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?AvdID=1&CatID=9&GrpID=1&t=715&l=2

click the link twice

Jokah

Thanks for your help guys.

What do you mean Fabre by a serial ata hard drive?

Thanks Cr3m0. I want to upgrade my 30 gig to a 40 gig harddrive.

I take it these drives come blank and when I connect it appropriately I can start the computer and insert my Windows XP cd and it will install properly?

That is my main concern, is when I buy a new hard drive i cannot install my OS software.

Thanks again.

Creamy Goodness

make sure u disconnect the your 30 gig drive first.

then install the O/S, then reconnect your old 30gig drive as a slave (move the jumper settings) and then connect them both up and then finally transfer all your documents and files over from the 30 to 40 gig hard drive.

then enjoy the extra space.


S-ata is a new form of hard drive and requires special connectors. i havn't seen a dell that supports them so you're better off sticking with the IDE ones in that site i posted

Fabre

Cr3m0 beat me to it

Do like he says

One thing tho, check in the bios that your machine will boot from the cd-rom when you will want to install your OS.

Jokah

Ok,
Make sure B4 i do all this, that in the BIOS it is set to boot from CD

So I disconnect the old drive.
Reconnect the new drive like the old drive.
Turn on the computer and the XP home edition CD should kick in. Then install as normal.

Then follow the usual setup and bingo I have a new hard drive. Then if I want to, instead of using backup CDs, I connect the two hard drives and transfer what I want between the two....

Or I could just use the new one as is and away I go...But I will probably use your suggestion of hooking both drives up and transferring between the two...

Does that sound right? Sorry I like to get things right and proper b4 I go ahead with a project.

Thanks for you help guys, much appreciated.

Fabre

To connect the second drive on the same IDE Cable you have to set the jumpers at the back of The Hard drive.
Your new one in master and the old one in slave, there is usually a diagram on the drive to show you how to position the jumpers.

or

If it just temporary you can connect your old hard drive on a second IDE cable and choose in the bios the HD you want to boot on (your new one).

But if you plan to use it has secondary drive work the jumpers and put both drives on the same ide cable.

Fabre

btw for a 60go drive it could be a good idea to partition it.

Jokah

Ok, that makes sense Fabre.

I use the instructions you gave me just there, when I want to connect the two drives together. Ok excellent.

And what I said about doing the first time, i.e. installing my OS on the new drive is ok?

Then I follow the instructions you gave me just there to transfer the files back and forth from the old drive to the new drive..

This modding thing isn't so hard I suppose when you find out how to do it.

Again, many thanks for your help...

Fabre

Yes it is fine

Just set it to boot from CD in the bios.
If you want to be double sure you won't loose any data, when you install your OS leave only the new drive connected, that way you will be 100% sure you won't mistakenly install over your old data.