not sure what to do.

[darrenvox]

I have an older computer that has survived a virus/crash earlier this year and after i fixed it and get back in action im starting to notice i only ever had 60GB on the HD and by the standards that exist today its way low.

Im thinking of either getting a new HD much bigger and can hold more or just somehow adding some sort of secondary drive and just allowing that to add more memory on the HD. As you can see in the attached file im getting very close to the full extent for the HD which is more than 3/4 full.

With that asked, is there a way to just add more memory to the computer and keep on going or do i have to start again?

Computer is quite old and im very attached ot it...any ideas??

 

[The_Other_One]

Are you simply asking how to increase the size of your primary drive? Is this a desktop? If so, simply purchase the larger drive and find some kind of cloning software. Most drive manufactures offer some kind of cloning software. Once the drive is cloned over, you should have an exact duplicate of your drive, but with more space.

 

[seanspotatobiz]

Computers surviving crashes is not noteworthy. My computer crashes occasionally and has almost always recovered after terminated the crashed program or, if needs be, resetting.

I'm guessing that your motherboard will accept only IDE HDDs (without purchasing a SATA card). If you've happily used that machine for all these years, I'd recommend finding a new IDE HDD of your chosen capacity (not too big - I'm also guessing your Windows and motherboard wont recognise it, if it's too big). Say, 160 GB? You can search for instructions with pictures, but in short, you will open up the case, place the HDD in a vacant space in the HDD cage, connect a free IDE connector and power molex. Then boot up the PC and the HDD will probably be automatically recognised by the motherboard. Go into Windows Disk Management (Control Panel > Administrative Tools) and right click on the new drive and select 'Format' or 'New Partition' (can't remember) and follow on-screen prompts.

To answer your question explicitly: yes, you can install a second HDD and keep the old one in place. You should set the "jumper" on the new HDD to "cable select" before putting it into your computer case. Use Google to find out what that means.

 

[seanspotatobiz]

Are you simply asking how to increase the size of your primary drive? Is this a desktop? If so, simply purchase the larger drive and find some kind of cloning software. Most drive manufactures offer some kind of cloning software. Once the drive is cloned over, you should have an exact duplicate of your drive, but with more space.

I'm not sure you can just copy a Windows installation to a different brand/model of drive? Doesn't it cause driver issues, at least?

 

[PohTayToez]

I'm not sure you can just copy a Windows installation to a different brand/model of drive? Doesn't it cause driver issues, at least?

Not in the slightest. Driver issues happen when you take a Windows installation and try running it in a different computer, but if you're just taking a Windows installation and moving it into a different hard drive there is no problem.

 

[seanspotatobiz]

Not in the slightest. Driver issues happen when you take a Windows installation and try running it in a different computer, but if you're just taking a Windows installation and moving it into a different hard drive there is no problem.

Oh right, I didn't know that. Does it work for all Windows versions? Later Windows versions such as Vista and 7 are ever vigilant against what might be a sign of piracy.

 

[johnb35]

Yes it works for all windows versions as all you are doing is transferring the OS to a bigger drive. You just can't transfer OS's between computers without certain issues

 

[seanspotatobiz]

Okay, thanks. I still recon the OP's easiest option is to just install the second drive and leave Windows where it is, though.

 

[darrenvox]

thanks guys, im just looking at taking 60GB and increasing it to like 100+ GB and not doing anything illegal. I can definetly buy a new HD im just lookig at how much work will go into transferring all the files over...

that at least gives me a guidleine

thanks