most people will probly know this answer...

[mrgeorgedude]

so i was just wondering how it works when u use more than 1 hard drive...i have one (an 80 gig) and its almost out of space...im gonna get a new one soon and was hoping someone could tell me what happens...

like do both HDD's run at the same time?... or do u have to boot them up at separate times...?...does both hdd's have to be formated and have windows installed?...just typical questions about what goes on...

 

[Geoff]

If you get a SATA drive, all you do is plug it in and it will work, if its IDE you need to set the jumper to slave.

You dont need to tell it which one to boot from since only one drive has an OS on it.

 

[magicman]

like do both HDD's run at the same time?...

So long as both drives are receiving power, and have a data cable (either SATA or IDE) running to the motherboard, then they will both run at the same time.

or do u have to boot them up at separate times...

As soon as you press the power button, they will both run.

does both hdd's have to be formated and have windows installed?...

You will need to format the new drive, and initialize it in Computer Management (Control Panel/Administrative Tools), but don't touch the existing drive. It will be happy just as it is. Only one drive should have Windows on it at any one time (unless you want it to get complicated), so long as you just want it for storage, don't worry about Windows. It's fine just on the existing drive.

Edit: This is quite a tidy little guide for what to do to initialize the second disk.

 

[IS_Contractor]

I have a tower with three hard drives with multiple partitions and two usb hard drives attached to it. They're all recognized. Only one has an OS on it. The rest needed to be formatted and partitioned initially. No need for an OS if you're just storing files on it, just make sure if it's on the old system not to format it for NT.