Replacing a bad harddrive

[mccoady]

I bought a new computer a couple of years ago when the harddrive in my old computer went out plus I just wanted a newer computer. Anyway I thought I'd fix up the old computer so I need to put in a new drive and install XP Pro and I've never did this before so I need some help:

1. Can you point me to a replacement drive it uses a IDE cable? My old one was a 120GB Western Digital WD1200 Caviar so something similar doesn't matter what brand just a good price.

2. What is the procedure of installing the new drive (besides plugging it in), installing XP Pro and formatting the drive if necessary?

3. In my BIOS when the computer boots from the harddrive under the heading "First Boot Device" I have several options:
A. LS 120
B. HDD-0
C. SCSI
D. CD ROM
E. HDD1
F. HDD2
G. HDD3
I think I must have been exploring around in the BIOS when I had trouble with the old computer so I'm not sure what the setting should be for the new drive. I do realize I will have to set it to CD ROM when installing the OS whenever that might be.

4. Will I need to install any drivers or will Windows find anything I might need?
Thanks!




Mike

[budz]

Get a Seagate 80gb IDE hard drive.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148247

First device to boot should be cd-rom since you're going to format that new hard drive with the windows xp cd disc. You can format & partition by using the windows xp cd disc. After all of that is done then just install xp.

[mccoady]

Didn't see a Seagate 80gb IDE hard drive but the link you provided to a 160gb looks to be a pretty good deal. I didn't realize you used the XP Pro disc to both format and install the OS. I found a site showing the step by step sequence of doing that procedure but still have some questions.

When I get to the step of asking about partitions I do not want several partitions so will I just select the default?

On the step formatting the partition there seems to be two options for using the NTFS file system one being quick, which do I select?

On the step of Administator Password do you have to select a password as I will be the only one using the computer?

I will be using this computer with a wireless adapter and I don't have one yet as I'll be ordering one along with a hard drive and installing as soon as I have the drive set up. There is a step towards the end saying it must connect to the internet so does this mean I need to have the computer connected to it directly during the XP installation?

On the last screen (I have a question about) it asks:
1. Yes, this computer will connect through a local area network or home network.
2. No, this computer will connect directly to the internet

Since it might be necessary to temporarily have the computer connected directly to the internet but I will end up connecting to a home network, how do I answer the above step?

[jagabo]

When I get to the step of asking about partitions I do not want several partitions so will I just select the default?

Yes.

On the step formatting the partition there seems to be two options for using the NTFS file system one being quick, which do I select?

Quick is fine for modern drives. The slower option will scan for bad sectors but modern drives use automatic sector remapping so the scan should find no bad sectors. Use the full scan if you want to be really safe. It will take an hour or two.

On the step of Administator Password do you have to select a password as I will be the only one using the computer?

You can leave it empty.

I will be using this computer with a wireless adapter and I don't have one yet as I'll be ordering one along with a hard drive and installing as soon as I have the drive set up. There is a step towards the end saying it must connect to the internet so does this mean I need to have the computer connected to it directly during the XP installation?

No. That step probably refers to activation. You can choose to activate over the phone instead. Or you can wait until you are fully set up to activate over the net.

On the last screen (I have a question about) it asks:
1. Yes, this computer will connect through a local area network or home network.
2. No, this computer will connect directly to the internet

Since it might be necessary to temporarily have the computer connected directly to the internet but I will end up connecting to a home network, how do I answer the above step?

1 will be fine. You can use the computer for a month before you must activate.

[mccoady]

Jagabo thanks for all the answers! One thing didn't get answered for in my original post so maybe you can educate me on this.

I listed all of my boot options above so how should these be set:

1. First Boot Device

2. Second Boot Device

3. Third Boot Device

I know the first boot device should be set to CD ROM when I'm installing the XP Pro disc but after the installation does it need to be changed to another option?

[jagabo]

Those are boot priorities. The computer will try to each device in order until it finds one that is bootable. Just make sure the CD/DVD drive comes before the hard drive:

1) CD ROM
2) HDD1 (or whichever you have installed).

Later, when there is no disc in the CD/DVD drive, the computer will boot from the hard drive.

[wtsinnc]

In case you haven't already found it, this site will provide answers to your questions.


http://www.windowsreinstall.com/

[DB83]

Those are boot priorities. The computer will try to each device in order until it finds one that is bootable. Just make sure the CD/DVD drive comes before the hard drive:

1) CD ROM
2) HDD1 (or whichever you have installed).

Later, when there is no disc in the CD/DVD drive, the computer will boot from the hard drive.

Just a word of caution. Windows installation re-boots several times. If the bios boots off the CD without warning you will just go through a loop of initial installation and it will not complete.

The bios should say something like 'Press a key to boot from the CD' which you ignore after the first boot

[mccoady]

On a related subject I have a hard drive still working in an even older Pentium 2 computer, what are the chances of that drive working in my Pentium 4 which is the computer I planned on buying the new drive for?

Whether or not I'm able to use the hard drive from the Pentium 2 is the procedure of formatting or reformatting (is there a difference?) and reinstalling the OS the same as when using a virgin drive? Say I want reformat and reinstall the OS for the working Pentium 2 hard drive just to give it a clean slate do I still use the OS disc to accomplish this?

[redwudz]

Do you want to use it as a boot drive or just a secondary drive?

For a boot, I would repartition and reformat the drive. As mentioned earlier, doing a full format for a older drive is a good idea. The XP disc can do that.

If you just want to use it as a secondary drive, easy enough to repartition and reformat it in 'Control Panel>Computer Management'. If it just has a single partition, then all you probably need is a reformat from the 'My Computer' menu.

Or if you were thinking to use the drive as-is as a boot drive and not reformatting, not generally a good idea. The drivers would be wrong for your P4 motherboard and the OS itself probably has a lot of extra 'baggage' in the form of registry additions, etc., that you really don't want or need.

I would also wonder what condition an older drive may be in. And what speed it is.

[mccoady]

I was thinking of using it as a boot drive but good to know (in case I did something foolish) that anytime you move a hard drive from one computer to another you should reformat and reinstall OS. Even if I end up leaving the drive in the Pentium 2 it still needs to be reformatted and OS reinstalled I just wasn't sure how to go about it. I lent this computer to my nephew a few month ago to play with and he reformatted and installed the OS and now the drive space only shows 9.0gb and in fat32 so I'm assuming it needs to be in NTFS and needs to be redone.

I don't know the condition or the speed of the Pentium 2 drive as I haven't opened up the case I just know it works but has little drive space.

So I guess you're saying though the Pentium 2 drive would work in the Pentium 4 should I want to play around with it?

[jagabo]

You can buy brand new 80 GB drives for less than US$50. I just bought a 160 GB drive for $52 (for experimenting with alternate OS installs).

[mccoady]

I'll go ahead and order the one you suggested. Thanks!

[zoobie]

MS doesn't tell you to disconnect any/all other HDD's during a reinstall
ruined my backup HDD last year
fortunately, had a 3 year warranty

[redwudz]

Good point, zoobie. I have a couple of computers that have three of the same model and size drives. When you format with the OS disk, it doesn't usually tell you which drive is which. It's best to unplug the other non-boot drives or you might accidentally format the wrong one.

Of course I've never done that........ At least more than once.

[DarrellS]

Ditto for what Zoobie said. Another thing that happened to me when I installed my new MB was that my boot drive got named E: instead of C: which I couldn't fix by just renaming. That was a pain getting that staightened out. Also, I installed an IDE controller card since the board only had one IDE connector and somehow both of my SATA storage drives got ruined (Windows could see the drives and said there was 127GB of data but couldn't see the data). Not sure how that could happen. I had a Tech guy get the 500GB drive working but he had to erase the drive. I decided to download a software called BackItUp and was able to rescue all the data from the 300GB drive.

As for the old Pentium II drive, if it's a 7200 rpm drive, I would use it for a boot drive. You don't need alot of space for the operating system and a few programs. I had an old Seagate 14.5GB drive that I used for a long time. It was perfect for a boot drive. You can find 500GB storage drives from $89-$109 all the time.

I'm getting my old HP back up and running since I can't use my newer PC as a capture machine without a new capture card. I put my AIW back in it and I erased a 40GB Maxtor and put W2000 on it and I'm erasing a 200GB storage drive right now. I'm using the free version of KillDisk to erase the drives.

[TooLFooL]

whenever you format & reinstall the OS, it's always best to unplug EVERYTHING, all extra drives, cards, etc.. you simply want one hdd and one optical drive connected to the mobo, nothing else. install windows, get it up & running, then shut down and reconnect your other hardware. power it back up and windows will install everything for you from there. always use a 'one-step-at-a-time' method.