hard drive install help?

[habba]

Want to install new hard drive. Would like to know best way. Not a techie. For example, can I put new hard drive on same ribbon as current one and drag the whole drive contents over? Do new h-drives come formatted? Help a rookie become a pro. semi-pro anyway
http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif
PS> Where do the little smiley faces come from?

[Richard_Cranium72]

You can cut and paste files and pictures to the new drive, sometimes a drag and drop only puts a shortcut on the new drive then when you remove the old one,, the old browse flashlight looks for the nonexistant file.

HD's do not come formatted.

Before attempting to paste files, install the os first.

[Bsdboy]

The new hard drive should come with all
you need to format and to copy your old
drive.You can also get the software from
the mamufacturer's web site.

[habba]

Can you be more specific on the OS install?
I have the OS on CD but can I install it on the new drive while both drives are installed. Your dealing with a real rookie here.

[RenaissanceMan]

Hello Habba, you might follow this link and do some reading. if you are as inexperienced as you confess, you should be prepared. http://www.pcguide.com/_vti_bin/shtml.exe/search-c.html

also for installing your operating system,if for windows98
http://www.pcguide.com/proc/sw/index.htm

take your time, and good luck
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[Fingers]

Hey Habba,

1)Yes, you can put the new hard drive on the same cable.
2) Yes, it possible to drag and drop your old hdd onto the new one, but it's not the best method.
3)No, hard drives aren't already formatted, you have to partition (Fdisk) and format them.

I've got a couple of questions before I give any specific help:

1) What is the size of the old hard drive, and what is the size of the new one? What brand is the new one?

2) Do you know if your system will support the full capacity of the new hdd? (how old is your system) Was it built after Jan 1998?

3) Is your CD on the same cable as your current hard drive, or is the hdd the only device on that cable?

4) I'm assuming you simply want to copy the entire contents of the old drive onto the new one, then make the new one your "primary" drive...Right?

If you simply want to "clone" your existing drive onto the new one, I recommend that you download Data Lifeguard Tools v2.60 (http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html) from the Western Digital website. This software will check your system to see if your BIOS can support the full capacity of the new drive and install translation software if it doesn't. It will partition, format, and copy the contents of your old drive onto the new one. We'll try to walk you though it after you give us some more details.

[habba]

Thanks Fingers,
Thinking of replacing daughters old HD. Its a 1.25 gig inside a Pent100 with 98 megs of ram. Works great, and she's happy. Win 95, 4 yrs old. I know its a clunker. Don't have a new drive yet. May buy one from the forum, anywhere from 3 to 6 gig. What doyou think? I wanna know if I'll get in over my head.

thank you

[Fingers]

habba, I kinda agree with RayH, but there's nothing wrong with adding a second hard drive to a system that you’re otherwise satisfied with.

But…
-If your system was built prior to Aug. 94, it may not support hard drives larger than 528MB (probably not your case)
-If your system was built prior to Feb. 96, it may not support hard drives larger than 2.1GB (possibly your case)
-If your system was built prior to Jan. 98, it may not support hard drives larger than 8.4GB (definitely your case)

You will need to check your manual or your BIOS to see how large of a hard drive is supported. You may be able to "flash" your bios with an updated one that will make your system compatible with larger drives.

There is also software available to help you overcome all these barriers, but I'm not the one to give advice on it. (My only experience with drive overlay software was when I was really green...it failed and ultimately resulted in a complete system upgrade anyway, which BTW, wasn’t a bad thing) http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/wink.gif

Depending on how much additional storage you need, RayH's suggestion to locate a drive that your system already supports and use it just for additional storage may be a good option. Thats a pretty simple operation, even for a rookie. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[habba]

thanks guys

[RayH]

habba You have a computer in which the whole is worth less than the sum of the parts. With such an old machine, you'd be better off just looking for an old small drive that someone is tossing and just slave it to your present system.

A drive that small isn't being made anymore. At $100 +/- $20, you're talking about 10 GBs to 40 GBs depending upon manfuacturer and where you're buying it!

But I wouldn't sink any money into that system. You can buy an e-Machine complete for $49 w/17" monitor if you want to commit to internet for 3 years! It would need some more RAM though!