Questions About A New Hard Disk

[IAIHMB]

Hey guys. After a bit of staring and a big confidence builder (taking out my drive bay, noticing an extra space labeled "Slave," and sucessfully putting it back together,) I've decided to go with a new internal hard drive. I've just a few questions though:

-Do I need to buy seperate mounting hardware, or does that usually come with the hard disk?

-When installing the slave, do I just insert the extra plug in to the new hard disk?

-My drive bay is directly in front of the power button on the case, meaning that the power button's wires hang right in the drive bay, will this cause any conflict?

Thanks for any help, you can probably tell I am a newbie to upgrading computers. 8)

[Treebeard]

As far as mounting hardware, all you need is an open 3.5" drive space in your case and the new hard drive will come with the screws to mount it.

on the first hard drive make sure the jumper is set to master and the 2nd drive set to slave. plug the drive into the ide cable, and plug in the power cable to the drive

power wires should be out of the way enough, but hard to help on this since cant see it.

[IAIHMB]

Ah, thanks, off to the store.

[IAIHMB]

Run in to yet another problem. Got the hard disk home, went to install it, the holes on the drive bay don't match up with the holes on the hard disk. Any suggestions? It's been suggested that I drill the holes in the drive bay and get longer screws, but that don't seem to friendly.

[IAIHMB]

Damn, now I feel stupid. The holes I thought were the mounting holes aren't, they are the ones that prevent the drive bay from coming out. By any chance is the side with like 5436436432 holes the one I mount it in?

[DVD_Ripper]

Damn, now I feel stupid. The holes I thought were the mounting holes aren't, they are the ones that prevent the drive bay from coming out. By any chance is the side with like 5436436432 holes the one I mount it in?

If you are not going to move the computer very often don't even put any mouting screws in.... they are not necessary to the functioning of the drive.

[IAIHMB]

I figured that part out, I had to mount it to the case. I think it is stupid, it mounts right over the wires from the power button. But, I ran in to another problem. I have everything installed but I cannot format the disk because everytime I open up the MaxBlaster 3 software it performs and illegal operation and must close.

[IAIHMB]

Installed successfully, now I have one question and you can consider this thread dead. The second hard drive mounted on to the front part of the PC case, which is directly on top of the start button. Seing as there is a cord leading from that button, could the second hard drive cause any conflict?

[Hardcoreruss]

Obviously there is a chance, but I very much doubt it.

[IAIHMB]

This may sound stupid, but is there any chance of fire? :P Hopefully anything that can happen can hold out for at least 30 days, then hopefully some more upgrading.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

I don't think that fire is going to be a problem. The voltage is too low to ignite some parts of the system.
If it works, then your job is done!

[IAIHMB]

OK, all is good, no fire yet, but now I have a few more questions :P :

-When I installed my hard disk I couldn't use the included software to format and partition the disk. When I called Maxtor tech support the guy asked me if I just wanted to use new hard disk for storage space, is there any thing else I could use it for?

-When I open some files on my new hard disk from a program that is on my old hard disk, sometimes the program goes non responsive for about 10 seconds, is that normal?

-When I was reading reviews about hard drives it seems like alot of people have them fail, is that normal? On my first PC the hard disk lastest from '96 to '94 with no problems.

And the last question :P :

-If what happens in my second question is normal, how would I go about adding everything from my PCs original hard disk to a new hard disk? I really have no idea how to word this, here is kind of an example I guess:

Buying a new hard disk with the intent of using it as the master hard disk, installing all of the drivers and such that it needs that are on my PCs original hard disk.

Edit: I got to thinking, is everything that I need to fully restore my PC on my D drive?

Sorry for being such a pain in the ass, still learning.

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

IAIHMB
I called Maxtor tech support the guy asked me if I just wanted to use new hard disk for storage space, is there any thing else I could use it for?

You could install a second OS in it.

-When I open some files on my new hard disk from a program that is on my old hard disk, sometimes the program goes non responsive for about 10 seconds, is that normal?

Never happened to me

-When I was reading reviews about hard drives it seems like alot of people have them fail, is that normal? On my first PC the hard disk lastest from '96 to '94 with no problems.

I've had many HD's along the way, and most of them lasted years, others much less than that. If it fails, claim your warranty.

-If what happens in my second question is normal, how would I go about adding everything from my PCs original hard disk to a new hard disk? I really have no idea how to word this, here is kind of an example I guess:

Buying a new hard disk with the intent of using it as the master hard disk, installing all of the drivers and such that it needs that are on my PCs original hard disk.

Remove your old HD and install the new one as MASTER.
Install the OS normally, and all applications.
Install the second HD as SLAVE
copy from old HD to new HD.
Leave it work for a couple weeks, if it's ok, then format the original HD and keep it as storage space.

[IAIHMB]

I don't have an actual copy of my OS, it was pre installed on my PC. When I reformat with my new hard disk when it is the master will that install the OS on it, or am I stuck buying the actual OS and finding all of the necessary drivers every time? Thanks for the reply.

[redwudz]

As far as transferring the OS to a new drive, good luck. You really need a copy of the OS. There are times with dealing with video that your system can get totally screwed up. The investment in a OS disc is well worth it.

If you use XP (recommended, or W2000) the drivers will mostly install automatically.

If you filled out your computer profile it would be easier to give advice.

[IAIHMB]

Ah, I'll fill that out right now! Thanks for the help so far guys.

[IAIHMB]

I've filled out as much as I understand. :P The rest of the stuff I am having troubles finding. Here is a link to my PCs product specifications:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00058235

The only thing I done to my PC is add an additional 512MB RAM an an additional 80GB hard disk, I don't think they will have anything to do with drivers though.

Edit: For anyone that looks at my PCs specifications do you think that my PC will handle Half-Life 2 or Doom3 without any major upgrading, if not what do you suggest I upgrade? Sorry for all the questions.

[mujahid7ia]

processor looks ok, ram is 1 gig so it looks good also, but i also have a geforce fx 5200,

oh ya, just found this

The minimum system spec is currently targeted at a 700 MHz PC with 128 MB RAM and a DX6-level video card, eg: TNT2 etc, meaning you won't need a supercomputer to run Half-Life 2 but don't expect to see reflective water,dynamic shadows and bump-mapped textures.

The game running at reasonable detail eg: 25/40 fps, requires a 1600Mhz cpu, 256 mb ram, GeForce4 Ti or Ati Radeon card.

In real life you need the best from a new game so I would recommend a 2000 cpu, or higher 512 mb ram or higher, GeForce4 Ti4800 128 ddr or ATI Radeon 9600 pro.
IF you've got the money ATI Radeon 9800 pro. or Geforce FX5900 ultra
The more power the better but not essential with this game.

DOOM3=

id Software (Todd Hollenshead specifically) have finally spoken and have revealed the official minimum requirements these are:

Minimum:
P4 1.5Ghz CPU (or equivalent).
384MB of RAM.
64MB graphics card (see below for chip details).
2GB of free hard drive space.

Lowest supported GPU is a Geforce 4 MX (worse than Geforce 3).
Supported cards:
GF 4 MX.
GF 3.
GF 4.
GF FX (and higher).
Radeon 8500s, 9000s and higher.

PC Gamer were the first to review they themselves recommend:
2Ghz CPU.
512MB RAM.
Radeon 9800.
5-channel sound card and speakers.

[IAIHMB]

Hrm, sounds like my PC deserves more credit than I give it. :P Either way, come August 15th it's upgrade time! Thanks for the response.

[redwudz]

It looks like you have a good system. I wouldn't worry too much about upgrades for the moment. Thanks for filling out your computer profile. It helps a lot in seeing what assets you have to work with.

The rest of your profile as I can figure out:

CPU: P4 3GHZ
HD: 160G + 80G
RAM: 1024MB PC3200
Motherboard: ASUS P4SD-LA (HP)

Hope this helps.

[IAIHMB]

Ah, thanks. Is it normally hard to find the drivers?

[MeDiCo_BrUjO]

Nah!, most of the drivers are easy to find and download. I think you will find no problems in that matter.

[gmatov]

You don't show what brand your machine is, but most OEMs, Dell, GAteway, Compaq, store their restore files on a protected area of the drive. If you change drives and format the original drive, you will NOT have your setup files anymore, and I understand they will not send you the files for free.

Be careful what you do if you change the new drie to be Master and the old to be Slave and format.

I would suggest you buy Norton Utilities, with Ghost, Ghost the new drive as the Slave, then swap them. Everything on the original will be copied to the new drive.

If the machine is on the fritz, wipe the Windows folder and restore. I don't know how an XP setup works as far as that goes, no Xperience. With 98, I can just delete the Windows folder, boot with floppy, and re-install. Then, of course, have to re-install Win 2k. My version is Windows install only..

Cheers,

George

[IAIHMB]

After some looking on Symantec's website, the only version of Norton Utilities if for the MAC OSX. However, they do have Norton Ghost for PC. Now I get to thinking, if I were to set my new hard disk as the slave, run Norton Ghost and copy the files over, switch my new hard disk to the master, wouldn't that make my new drive an updated version of my old one? Could I then use the computer's system restore (if ever necessary)? Thanks guys.

[IAIHMB]

Oh hell, it looks like my new hard disk did affect my power button. When my computer runs it switches back and forth between sleep and normal mode, which is what that button is set to do when my PC is on. Does that make sense, could my second hard disk connecting with the wires to the power button on the front of my PC do that?