Adding a Second Hard Drive
Saturday, November 22, 2003 by bmetelsky | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
Nothing to do with skinning..............
Can I put a second hard drive in my PC despite the lack of bays? There is room inside but not an available bay. Also, does it have to be mounted a certain way - can I put it upside down or on it's side? Thanks for the help.
Can I put a second hard drive in my PC despite the lack of bays? There is room inside but not an available bay. Also, does it have to be mounted a certain way - can I put it upside down or on it's side? Thanks for the help.
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Apocalypse_67
Reply #4 Saturday, November 22, 2003 11:43 PM
Reply #4 Saturday, November 22, 2003 11:43 PM
Also, if the second drive is a 'slave' drive, make sure the jumper/s on the back are set correctly and after you install it, double check the BIOS to make sure the drive is detected.
MarkMcQ
Reply #5 Sunday, November 23, 2003 7:22 AM
Reply #5 Sunday, November 23, 2003 7:22 AM
If you don't have the space, you could invest in a drive caddie which sits in a spare CD Rom bay.
I have 2 fitted, and I only paid about £8 UK each for them brand new.
I have 2 fitted, and I only paid about £8 UK each for them brand new.
craeonics
Reply #6 Sunday, November 23, 2003 8:11 AM
Reply #6 Sunday, November 23, 2003 8:11 AM
Not too sure if it would be wise to put it on its side. It's still a mechanical devise, with spinning elements, which may not like being put on their side.
wombat_1
Reply #7 Sunday, November 23, 2003 2:25 PM
A conventional drive will not be happy at all .... you can find drives designed to run 'on their side' but they are not common.
Hippy has the most practical solution.
Reply #7 Sunday, November 23, 2003 2:25 PM
| Not too sure if it would be wise to put it on its side. It's still a mechanical devise, with spinning elements, which may not like being put on their side. |
A conventional drive will not be happy at all .... you can find drives designed to run 'on their side' but they are not common.
Hippy has the most practical solution.
Drop125
Reply #8 Sunday, November 23, 2003 2:52 PM
Reply #8 Sunday, November 23, 2003 2:52 PM
Just from personal expierience, I found a 4Gig IBM Travelstar laptop drive in a junk box..I have a special little adapter board I purchased for 6bucks at Frys Electronics used to allow a laptop drive to be installed as a slave...Ive been using it for storage now literaly hanging out off the IDE cable for a year now..It works awesome, But I dont recommend it..This is just to point out that drives will take abuse if you so desire to cut corners..NOT RECOMMENDED just pointing out how mean I am to the little drive.and it still works sweet... 
Jafo
Reply #9 Monday, November 24, 2003 7:14 AM
Reply #9 Monday, November 24, 2003 7:14 AM
Had no dramas what-so-ever in mounting a drive on its side, upside down, on end, any way you like...it will not affect them.....even rotating them while in operation...provided no impact acceleration beyond a [usually] stated limit....[possibility of head-crash].
The only drives that may spit dummies are CD-Rom varieties that may not securely 'hold' the disk while the drawer closes.....though deft fingers can overcome that, too...
Fuzzy Logic
Reply #10 Monday, November 24, 2003 7:40 AM
Reply #10 Monday, November 24, 2003 7:40 AM
Yeah, they don't work too well in a centrifuge, but apart from that...
The only other thing to watch is what maximum size your BIOS will accept. Even some newer ones only go up to 128Mb. Though you can fool XP into seeing it ok, programs which run in DOS on boot wont work ie Powerquest Drive Image, Norton Ghost etc.
The only other thing to watch is what maximum size your BIOS will accept. Even some newer ones only go up to 128Mb. Though you can fool XP into seeing it ok, programs which run in DOS on boot wont work ie Powerquest Drive Image, Norton Ghost etc.
Jafo
Reply #11 Monday, November 24, 2003 7:45 AM
Reply #11 Monday, November 24, 2003 7:45 AM
128gig is an ata limitation, not a bios issue as such....ata66 creates the limit and, as I recall, even Promise [for their ide expansion cards] doesn't have a bios fix for that but requires you to go to an ata100 instead...
IPlural
Reply #12 Monday, November 24, 2003 11:00 AM
Reply #12 Monday, November 24, 2003 11:00 AM
Drives can be mounted in just about any confiuration you like, though I would personally stay away from mounting them upside down. IBM, Compaq, Dell, HP, PackardBell(ewww) and all the other Corporation each have or had systems with a side mounted Hard Drive at one point or another.
I'd go with Hippys suggestion, you can get a rail kit which allows you to install a drive in the 5 1/4 floppy bay which is now used for CD installations amoung other things. Make sure that you have Both drives jumpers set correctly.
Drive 0: Master/with Slave
Drive 1: Slave
other than that, always remember heat is not your computer or any of the components friend
I'd go with Hippys suggestion, you can get a rail kit which allows you to install a drive in the 5 1/4 floppy bay which is now used for CD installations amoung other things. Make sure that you have Both drives jumpers set correctly.
Drive 0: Master/with Slave
Drive 1: Slave
other than that, always remember heat is not your computer or any of the components friend
IPlural
Reply #13 Monday, November 24, 2003 11:04 AM
Reply #13 Monday, November 24, 2003 11:04 AM
Anyone who is not on a laptop and stuck with ATA100, should move up to ATA133 when the times comes about for change. Having the newest is not always the best suggestion, but, when it comes to such a thing as IDE ports it is well worth the upgrade. You can get the Promise and other addon board/ports for less than $30.00 US which will add 4 IDE ports at the highest rated speed and Hard Drive size...
Egghead Online is always having a sale on such things to draw people to the site for other discounted hardware...
Egghead Online is always having a sale on such things to draw people to the site for other discounted hardware...
kona0197
Reply #14 Monday, November 24, 2003 12:34 PM
Reply #14 Monday, November 24, 2003 12:34 PM
The hell with IDE... Get a serial ATA drive. WAY FASTER.
IPlural
Reply #15 Monday, November 24, 2003 1:43 PM
Reply #15 Monday, November 24, 2003 1:43 PM
Big difference in price per GIG also..
Serial "IDE" is faster, but to HELL with Serial IDE, SCSI is much faster, but to HELL with SCSI because Memory Drive are even Faster yet again!
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
Serial "IDE" is faster, but to HELL with Serial IDE, SCSI is much faster, but to HELL with SCSI because Memory Drive are even Faster yet again!
[Message Edited]
[Message Edited]
kona0197
Reply #16 Monday, November 24, 2003 2:00 PM
Reply #16 Monday, November 24, 2003 2:00 PM
Well IP you crack me up. My new HD will be a serial ATA drive as my new mobo will have Serial ATA hookups.
Jafo
Reply #17 Monday, November 24, 2003 5:25 PM
Reply #17 Monday, November 24, 2003 5:25 PM
Kona....mine has two serial ata connectors....and it looks quite weird when the bios has addresses for six drives, rather than the usual 4....then I go and put on an expansion card so I have the capacity [when I get some sata drives] for 10.....[I actually do have 7]....
SelfExiled
Reply #19 Tuesday, November 25, 2003 4:10 AM
Reply #19 Tuesday, November 25, 2003 4:10 AM
A hard drive doesn't need a bay like CD Rom drives or floppy drives. This is because the drive doesn't need to be accessible from the outside of the case. Most cases have an extra slot below the primary hard drive. Most hard drives have jumper cables already built-in for a second hard drive. Just configure the second one to work as a slave, or you will have big problems. And before you place it sideways or upside down, make sure the drive documentation says that it can work properly that way.
Jafo
Reply #20 Tuesday, November 25, 2003 5:39 AM
Reply #20 Tuesday, November 25, 2003 5:39 AM
Again....I am yet to find one that won't work on its side or upside down.
The oldest was a 40 meg monster from an XT clone, complete with separate external driver card and two ribbon cables and the newest is a Maxtor 160 gig 7200....but as I said, no issues with orientation at all....
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Reply #1 Saturday, November 22, 2003 10:09 PM