Adding second HDD

[Daytrader889]

My system set-up:

Abit IT7 mobo with 6 IDE channels
WinXP Pro
512 mb ddr ram

IDE 1 master - Lite On DVD ROM
IDE 1 slave - Lite On 32x CDRW
IDE 2 master - NEC 100 DVD + R
IDE 3 master - Maxtor 40GB HDD
IDE 3 slave - WD 120GB HDD

When I click on my computer the drive does not show up at all, but if I go into device manager it shows up.

Also, just wondering if I could just connect this new HDD drive to IDE 4 and set it to master would that work, too??

 

[n0cmonkey]

You should be able to hook the drive up to IDE 4. Have you formatted the drive yet? I'm not sure if it shows up in "My Computer" if you haven't formatted it (it's been a long time since I upgraded a Windows machine ).

Does it show up in the BIOS? Have you double checked the jumper settings?

 

[Chaotic42]

You need to partition it and format it.

Go to:

Start->Settings>Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Managment->Storage->Disk Managment(Local)

It should show up as unparitioned. Right click on it, then choose "New Partition" and go from there.

 

[Daytrader889]

Thanks everyone for your help on this HDD question from noob like me. Just one thing though, would it be better if I just connected this new HDD on it's own IDE channel?? Would it access data faster as a master drive?

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Daytrader889
Thanks everyone for your help on this HDD question from noob like me. Just one thing though, would it be better if I just connected this new HDD on it's own IDE channel?? Would it access data faster as a master drive?

I would.

IDE devices can only write to one device on each controller at a time. With your setup, to copy from your 40GB to your 120GB would require the 40 to send info to the controller, have the controller ask the 40 to let it write to the 120, write to the 120, then start the whole thing over again. At least, this is how about 7 or 8 people have explained it to me (let me say that before I get flamed into oblivion for missing some minute detail about how it works ).

If it's on another channel, it can read from the 40 and write to the 120 at the same time.

 

[Daytrader889]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42

Originally posted by: Daytrader889
Thanks everyone for your help on this HDD question from noob like me. Just one thing though, would it be better if I just connected this new HDD on it's own IDE channel?? Would it access data faster as a master drive?

I would.

IDE devices can only write to one device on each controller at a time. With your setup, to copy from your 40GB to your 120GB would require the 40 to send info to the controller, have the controller ask the 40 to let it write to the 120, write to the 120, then start the whole thing over again. At least, this is how about 7 or 8 people have explained it to me (let me say that before I get flamed into oblivion for missing some minute detail about how it works ).

If it's on another channel, it can read from the 40 and write to the 120 at the same time.

Thanks! Guess it's time to open the PC case up again to make some additional changes.

 

[Daytrader889]

I just noticed something funny, the HDD only states that there's 111.6GB on it not the 120GB it's supposed to be. What happened to the other 8-9GB?

 

[corkyg]

There are different ways of measuring capacity - 1KB really equals 1024 bytes - but manufactuers just round down to 1,000. When you carry that policy into today's larger drives, the difference can be seemingly big. 120 GB is the manufacturer's marketing designation - and perfectly legal. The actual size is being stated by the system info query. By the time you get that delta carried out into the gigabyte range, it becomes your lost capacity. But - it's not really lost.

 

[Daytrader889]

Thanks for the information about the capacity of the HDD

 

[jagec]

Originally posted by: Daytrader889
I just noticed something funny, the HDD only states that there's 111.6GB on it not the 120GB it's supposed to be. What happened to the other 8-9GB?

short story? The hard drive manufacturers lie to us, hard drive always are a few GB smaller than rated.