HDD from one PC to another

[chewie8008]

I'm trying to put my HDD from a really old computer to a 5 yr old PC. I think they're both SATA drives. They both have the same plugins. The 4 prong plugin on one side and the 20+ pin (IDE I guess) plugin on the other side. Both drives look like the drive on the right in the following picture...

http://www.zive.sk/Files/Obrazky/TestCentrum/Barracuda/xunterbilder.jpg

I have a free plug of each in the newer PC which would plug into but have a few questions. If there is a free plug that plugs into the HDD can I just plug it right in. Or does it matter which one(as far as slave and master and all that mess)?

Also, I only have one free space for the HDD to fit into and it's directly below the original HDD, will that cause major overheating problems? Because on the HDD i'm installing it has a sticker on it that says "Warning: Do not cover breather hole". I don't see anything that looks like a 'breather hole' except a little spiral design with a very very tiny hole near it...

This HDD hasn't been formatted yet and still has the OS and everything the old PC had on it, if I install it will I be able to go in and format when I have 2 HDD with 2 OS's on it? Or am I going to have to format it in some other PC before I can put it in?

I have taken 5-6 pictures showing what i'm doing that I can post if necessary. I figured i'd see if you guys can tell me anything w/o them before I go and size them down and upload them(through dialup internet).

Any help would be great guys!

[psx_pirate]

The drive is actually a PATA not a SATA

Most likely the drive already on the cable (if there is one) will be set as master so set the drive you are adding to slave (this will apply whether the existing drive is a hdd or cd/dvd rom drive) ... if there is no other drive on the cable set your hdd to master

plug in the 4 pin power plug and the 40 pin ide plug (yes there are actually 40 pins and not 20) (making sure it is the correct way round ... ie the side with the stripe will connect to pin 1 of the hdd ... pin 1 is usually the pin nearest to the power plug .... in other words the side of the cable with the stripe should be nearest to the 4 pinn power plug)

Boot up the pc and enter bios settings and check the the new hdd drive is detected ... (you may need to select autodetect hard drives ... this will force the bios to scan the ide interface and detect the drive .... once detected save settings and exit bios)... pc will boot

Open 'my computer' ... you should now see the new drive ... right click and select format ... drive will now be formatted (WARNING: all data on drive will be lost)

Once fomatted the drive is ready to use...

[chewie8008]

Yeah, I knew it was over 20 pins, I said 20+, wasn't sure how many and wasn't about to count.

Anyways, that all sounds fairly simple, i'll give it a try and post back.

Thanks very much for your help!

[chewie8008]

I got it all put in, but before I turn it on let me ask about the "breather hole".

It has a little sticker that says 'warning do not cover breather hole'. But the only way I can install it is right next to the original HDD. Which is almost touching each other.

Look in this picture and I have pointed out where the breather hole is, facing the original HDD.

http://forums.2gss.org/index.php?&act=garage&CODE=14&type=garage_mod&id=912


Is this too close, will it burn up or what? It's the only available slot for the HDD.

[psx_pirate]

It should be just fine .... the breather hole is only there to allow air to escape (air movement is caused by the plates inside the hdd spinning) .... basically the warning is just there to warn you not to cover the hole with for instance a sticker or a piece of tape or similar

[chewie8008]

Ok, cool that's what I was hoping.

Last question, I promise. I got it up and running and i'm on the PC with the newly installed HDD now, working fine. I started to format it and it pops up and I can choose from FAT32 or NTFS. It is on FAT32 by default, but I need to format as NTFS, right?

The original HDD for this PC is NTFS. But this newly installed HDD is currently as FAT32...

Thanks!

[redwudz]

You would want NTFS. Fat32 limits individual files to 4GB or less.

The 'breather hole' is mostly to equalize pressures between the inside and outside atmosphere. Say if you moved the drive between 5000 feet and sea level. This can take a while. But that part really has nothing to do with the operation of the drive. As mentioned, just don't put labels over the breather.

For hard drives, good air circulation can make them last longer. I like to have a front intake fan in front of the hard drives to blow air over them. A lot of this depends on the make and model of the hard drive. Some run very hot. If it burns your finger when touching the drive after it has ran an hour or two, it could likely benefit from better cooling. Most drives run about 98F, 36C which is OK. A lot above that, not so good.