Robert said:
Hi Anna,
Sorry if I haven't been all that clear. Yes, I've already ordered the
Seagate and LG DVD/RW drives and I'm waiting for them to arrive. The
LG shouldn't be any problem to install. So I'm not worried about
that.
I'm planning on using the Seagate as my primary hard drive and from
what I've read so far installation is very involved e.g. BIOS, Raid,
partitioning, etc. There's no reason to keep the old drive (master/
slave) other than transferring the files over then disconnect it or
delete the drive, or? I would appreciate any suggestions you may have
in this regard.
After I install the Seagate as my primary hard drive I was thinking of
buying an enclosure (any suggestions?) with perhaps another Seagate
for an external hard drive and buying a PCI card to upgrade my
computer from USB 1.0 to 2.0 so that the transfer is more acceptable.
Am I heading in the right direction with all of this?
I hope I made a little more sense this time but you have to understand
its allot to deal with, at least for me it is. I'll be allot happier
once I've installed my internal hard drive.
Robert
Robert:
1. Installing a new HDD to replace your present HDD isn't a particularly
involved operation. Assuming you've had no experience in these matters it's
always best if you had a knowledgeable friend at your side to guide you
through the operation. But there's no reason why you couldn't undertake the
process yourself. As I recall you have a Dell machine so it would be a good
idea to access Dell's site and locate their technical guide re your machine.
Generally speaking their diagrams & text are pretty good so it should help
you understand the process. You needn't be concerned with any RAID issues
nor is there likely to be any complicated BIOS-setting issues.
But there is something to consider before going ahead with this operation...
1. Are you planning to copy the *entire* contents of your present HDD onto
the new Seagate HDD, including the XP OS, all your programs & applications,
and your user-created data? In short, make a duplicate of your existing HDD?
This process is commonly known as a "disk-cloning" operation. Assuming the
Seagate you purchased is a retail, boxed version of the HDD it will include
a disk-to-disk cloning utility (Seagate has been using a version of the
Acronis True Image program and I believe it's still included with their
retail versions). But if not included because you purchased an OEM version
of the HDD you can still obtain the disk-cloning utility from Seagate's
site. (You also mentioned something about purchasing the ATI program in one
of your earlier posts as I recall. So that program would do the job as
well).
Anyway, if you go that route probably the most practical way in your
situation would be to first install the Seagate in a USB external enclosure
(I don't have any specific recommendation re that device - we've worked with
many different makes & models and they all seem to do the job, but again,
peruse newegg.com for their extensive offerings). Then you would use the
disk-cloning program to undertake that disk-to-disk cloning operation; after
which you would remove the Seagate from the enclosure and install it as your
Primary Master in your machine. You could then install your older HDD in the
USB enclosure and use that device as your routine backup device (using the
disk cloning program) assuming your old HDD remains functional.
2. On the other hand if you want to make a fresh install of the XP OS onto
the new Seagate HDD after it is installed as Primary Master, then you would
need the XP installation CD. (I don't know if you have this CD or merely
some "recovery" CD provided by Dell). But assuming you were able to install
a fresh copy of the XP OS onto your new HDD you would then need, of course,
to install whatever programs you desire on the new drive together with any
user-created data that you want from your old HDD. So you would probably
want to install the old HDD in the USB external enclosure after the new HDD
had been internally installed and at least have access to your user-created
data that way. But understand that you would need to have the installation
media for whatever programs you wanted to install on the new HDD. By & large
you could *not* "copy" them over from the old onto the new HDD.
It's possible in many cases to install both HDDs - the old & the new - as
internal HDDs in your desktop machine and carry out the disk-cloning (or
disk copying) operations that way - avoiding the need of a USB external
enclosure. I don't know if that's practical for you with your Dell machine.
But it's something to consider.
Anna
