Getting new HDD, but need some help :)

Dazzeerr

Dazzeerr

New Member
When i was first choosing the hardware for my PC, i thought a 160GB Harddrive would be plenty for me, seeing as i survived on a 40gb one before.

But, after 30 big game installs and a lot of music and videos, its getting pretty crammed. I'm now down to 26gb, which is a fair bit but I want a new, faster one to work alongside.

Now here's where the questions come, i've never had two harddrives working together so i know bugger all about how to do it. But here's what I want to do ;

I'm going to buy a 250GB Western Digital 16mb Cache HDD - and because the cache and size of this drive is larger than my Maxtor 8mb 160gb, i want the Western D to be the primary harddrive.

So i'd like to know what the easiest way of doing this is and steps on how to do it.

Basically what i'm looking to do is :

1. Transfer all my files from my 160gb harddrive to the new 250gb harddrive.

2. Uninstall all XP files etc. from the 160gb harddrive.

3. Install a fresh XP on the 250gb harddrive.

4. Have both harddrives working in harmony together, 250gb containing XP, games and programs and the 160gb harddrive pictures, music, videos etc.


If someone could let me know how to go about doing this, it would be a great help
:D

Oh and also another question to fly at you, what difference does the cache make? What will i notice in the change from 8mb to 16mb?


Thanks guys,

Daz ;)
 
well back everything up on a cd first install windows on the 250 then when your in there reformat your 160 by going to start my computer manage storage disk managment then reformat the 160 from there
 
That didn't really make much sense to me...

I'm not sure on how to do any of that stuff, and can't i connect the 250gb harddrive and transfer the files onto it before reformatting the 160gb and installing XP on the 250gb?

Need it broken down to fine details if possible please ^^ I have no idea when it comes to harddrives.
 
u wouldnt need a new serial because ur just upgrading your hdd, ur not installing it on another computer, like egg said un hook ur 160 for now, set the 250 as master and leave the 160 unhooked for now so u dont get confused or do ne accidental formats while installing xp, install xp on the 250 once that is done get all ur drivers and stuff installed on that 250, then u want to set the jumpers on the 160 to slave, hook it in assuming this is ide the slave connector on the ribbon, turn on windows it should boot normally into windows off the 250, then u can go to my computer double click the 160 and copy and paste or cut and paste or drag and drop ne files from the 160 to ur 250, then u can go into computer management, disk management and format the 160 and ur good to put whatever back on the 160 u want
 
If you purchase a retail 250gig hard drive, it will come with instructions and a boot CD that will allow you to copy the contents of the 160gig to the 250gig.
Basically, you will add the 250gig as the master drive and slave the 160gig on the same cable, and then you will boot the PC to the supplied CD.
Choose the disk copy option and follow the prompts.
It will probably take 1 to 1 1/2 hours to copy the contents of the 160gig to the 250gig.
Once it's done, remove the CD, and reboot the PC.
The PC should boot to the 250gig, but if it boots to the 160gig, reboot into the motherboards BIOS.
There may be an option in the BIOS to select which hard drive to boot too. Select the 250gig, save the settings, and reboot.
The PC should boot to the 250gig.
At this point, check that your files are intact (250gig), format the 160gig, and move any files you wish from the 250gig to the 160gig.

Good luck!
 
well hell. why would you even want to change your boot drive? its useless and you wont notice the difference, unless your old drive is only 5400RPM. i suggest you just pop the new one in and that'll be that. switching everything over will just make the possibility for problems to arise, and you will never notice a difference in performance.
 
it works past then too ive reformated with the same code tons of times of course this is sp1 home so mabye what you have is differnet
 
lovely? said:
well hell. why would you even want to change your boot drive? its useless and you wont notice the difference, unless your old drive is only 5400RPM. i suggest you just pop the new one in and that'll be that. switching everything over will just make the possibility for problems to arise, and you will never notice a difference in performance.
Click to expand...

well maybe your right but there are still drives with better read/write times that can increase performance-

might not be substancial but at the end of the day he will have a brandnew bigger drive with more cache fresh install of windows on...

i say go for it-its a hassle to transfer everything over but atleast you can have most of your files on your main drive with another 100gig to fill before you need to use your secondary
 
If i were to keep the 160GB as the primary, could i still play games and everything on the 250gb and it be no different?
 
If i have the 250GB as the secondary drive and have games or programs on it, does the drive need to be opened before I can access the things on it.

For example, say I had Adobe Photoshop on my Desktop, could I open it from the shortcut there and it work fine or would I have to go into the 250gb to get it because all the files are in that drive?
 
If its installed on either hard drive and you have a shortcut on your desktop it will work no matter what. As long as the drive is plugged in you will be fine.
 
Thanks :) Harddrive should be here tomorrow or wednesday.

Went for the 8mb cache version in the end seeing as I am using it as a secondary drive now, should be plenty. Was also only £30, luckily I put off buying it for a day because it went from £38-30 on saturday. :)

I'll let you know how the install goes and if it all went to plan.
 
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