hard drive compatiability

[Ronco Rox]

i'm going to be formatting my hard drive soon and instead of saving files on a disk that i need i was thinking about switching them over to another hard drive and then load them back up when i'm done reformatting.

now do the hard drives need to have the same OS and do i need to set something up in the BIOS for it to reconized? thanks in advance

 

[xguynameddavex]

nope, you can just pop it in, run the software (maybe not even that if its not included) and you it should recognize it right away, with some you have to go into some sort of registry to name it and what not, but alot you dont.

Good luck.

 

[Ronco Rox]

alright i have the hard drive plugged in on the same IDE cable as my main hard drive and its running. but i can't find it on my computer.

 

[xguynameddavex]

do you have the pin set to slave on the back of the hard drive?

Look online in an online manual, and it should say which one is the slave drive, or it might even say it on the hard drive itself.

I hope you have a copy of windows to put back on your OG hard drive...

only on hard drive needs an os to boot from, just make sure its that hard drive that is set to boot from.

 

[Ronco Rox]

yes i have the pins on in on the hard drive.

and i have restore disks from eMachines to install windows back on but thanks anyway.

 

[xguynameddavex]

you have the pin on one hard drive set to master, and the other to slave.

Ok thats done.

You should be able to go into windows and register the hard drive, if you dont know how, there are online manuals, just go to google, type in the name of your hard drive, and then manual...

So say: e.x. "Maxtor 160gb hard drive manual"

and you should be able to pull a PDF from somewere.

 

[Ronco Rox]

nah i have a simpiler idea. i'm going to use my 20 gig iRiver as an external hard drive just for my song playlist, movies, and some saved games.

but thanks again

 

[xguynameddavex]

np man.

 

[Deathstar1]

Right click My Computer > Proprties > Disk Management > Right click your new drive > initialise and format it > insert the volume name during this procedure.

The reason you can't see it in my computer is that it has not been initialised or formatted.

 

[Nik00117]

HDs are generally plug and play. No drivers or anything really when we install a freash Hd this is how it goes.
1. pop it in
2. If there is a HD set to master or SATA I we simply boot up into windows
3. Go to my computer right click HD and hit format NTFS
4. Done.
5. Unless of course you want patritions then youc ould use XP disc to boot up and just partion it format it then reboot back into windows