Check your documentation to be sure that the new hard drive you buy is compatible with
your system. If you don't have the documentation, you can run the system info Utility.
Here you will be able to see what type of hard drive you have.
Your PC's system setup program will do the same. Write this info down and take it with
you when you go to purchase your new drive. The hard drive's Access Time is another
consideration you should check into.
The Access Time is the normal time it takes for the information requested from the disk to
arrive to the memory of the PC. The larger this time is, the slower the hard drive will be.
Hard disk drives can be either internal, (inside the system unit) or external, (outside in its
own case) and they can be removable in some cases. When installing a hard drive, there is
a slight difference, depending on the type of drive you own.
The following steps to installing a hard drive may vary slightly. Be sure to check the
installation procedures that came with your new drive to check for any differences in
installation. If you purchased or was given a hard drive from a friend and don't have any
paper work for the drive, the following steps should suffice in installing and configuring
your new drive.
To install the original drive or to install a new hard drive, following these steps and take
extra care in getting rid of any static electrical buildup that your body may have
accumulated. Take your time. It would be to your advantage to invest in a PC Repair Tool
Kit if you plan on working inside computers as a hobby or to earn extra income.
Before you remove the system unit cover to gain access to your hard drive, remember to
remove any and all ESD (Electrical Static Discharge) from your body. This is done by
touching an object such as a doorknob or the case of the system unit. After this safety
precaution is done, remove the system unit cover and locate the drive.
Depending on the location of old your Hard Drive, you may have to remove other
components just to have access to it. If so, take very good notes of everything you
disconnect or remove, you can refer to them later as you replace the components. Look to
be sure you have empty drive bays to install extra drives should you decide to add a
second drive.
Once the drive is clear of other cables and components, carefully remove the power and
data cable from the drive and remove the drive retaining screws. Some drives are mounted
on rails, if this is the case,just slide the unit out through the front or top of the system unit
chassis.
Separate the drive from the rail and now install the new drive to the rail. Watch those
screws, they are small and can be easily lost. Remember to ground yourself from time to
time to remove electrical static buildup.
When the drive is mounted on the rail, (if you have one) write down any
information on the front of the drive that may give you the type, model number,
sectors, cylinders, access time and other information that seem important. You may
need it when you configure the hard drive. Nearly all new hard drives have software that
does this for you.
Now connect the power supply cable to the power connect and the ribbon cable to the
drive's controller, SCSI adapter, or to the motherboard. IDE drive's have their controllers
mounted on the drive, so the ribbon cable is hooked from the controller to the motherboard
or Expansion Slot.
If you are installing a SCSI drive, you need to terminate the chain by connecting the
terminator at the end of the daisy chain, or by switching the DIP switches on the drive's
board.
When installing an external drive,you need to install the SCSI adapter into an empty
expansion slot on the motherboard. Be sure to use the card's DIP switches or jumpers to
give the card a SCSI address. Check the drive's manual or documentation for this
information.
After being certain that all cables, connections and all other components are in place,
replace the system unit cover, reconnect all peripherals to the system unit and plug it into
the wall outlet.
Turn on the computer. Now you will need to tell the computer that it has a new or different
hard drive. You will have to start your PC with a bootable floppy disk if you replaced or
installed a new hard drive.
The new SATA Hard Drives now come formatted and if not, you can simply use your
Operating System CD to format the drive and go right into installing the Operating System.
The Boot Floppy can still be used on older Computers.
Remember, if you're working on an old computer and don't have a bootable floppy, you
may have to find a computer with a floppy drive and perform the following.
Create a bootable floppy disk by formatting a blank diskette with the command of
FORMAT A:/S. Then edit the Autoexec.Bat and Config. Sys files and change all files
where you see something like C:\DOS\ANSI.SYS to A:\DOS\ANSI.SYS and change only
the C: after the = sign. After editing all files, save all changes and copy both the
Autoexec.bat and Config.Sys files to the diskette.
It would be good to copy some of the helpful Dos utilities such as Scandisk.exe and
FDISK. exe to your bootable diskette. Once you have started your computer with the
bootable diskette, enter the setup by pressing CRTL-ALT-S, CRTL-ALT-INS, or whatever
combination of keys will access of your computer's setup program.
Then enter the new drive's type, cylinder and any other very information it needs to
complete the setup. Then be sure to save the new information in the setup. There are many
older computers out there that you'll need the boot floppy.
If your new drive came with a owner's manual, keep it handy for future reference and you
may need it to config your drive. Even though you have installed the drive with its cable,
the computer doesn't know that you have done this. So we must tell the PC and while we
are at it, we must make the drive useable by partitioning and formatting it.
If your new drive is an old IDE or the new SATAhard drive, device drivers are normally
not needed, and you may have to use the CMOS Setup to tell the computer that the drive is
there. For the SCSI drive, the disk controller takes care of talking with the computer.
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