Newly acquired Hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rainy
  • Start date Start date
R

Rainy

I just recently purchased a new larger hard drive as I was running out of
space...it is a

Maxtor Hard Drive and the
requirements are 3.5 inch drive bay
windows98SE thru xp
CD rom
Drives larger than 137 GB and here lies my problem.. the drive itself is 80
GB so what are they talking about? are they talkling about the slot?

I asked a while back what type of hard drive I needed.. and the answer came
back, that I should look for an IDE hard drive, which this is... Will
someone please enlighten me.. thanks.. Rainy
 
Hi Rainy,

The 80GB is referring to the capacity of the drive. You should merely need
to install it in the system, then partition it with disk manager and then
format it for use. A drive larger than 137GB (physical capacity, or roughly
127GB in computer-speak) requires SP1 or SP2 to be already installed.

The drive may have come with setup software, but it is unnecessary. Set the
jumper correctly, then physically install it into the drive cage. Connect
the IDE (flat ribbon) and power (4 wire) connectors, then boot the system.
Once in Windows, start/run diskmgmt.msc and you should see the new drive as
unpartitioned free space. Right click the space and create a partition (how
you want to do this is up to you, one partition or several). Then open
Windows Explorer and right click the new partition, choose format. When
complete, it is ready to go.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Your 80GB drive is fine. I use two 80GB drives on my own pc. The 137GB bit
refers to XP. At one time you could only have a maximum drive size of 137GB,
over that you had to partition the drive otherwise Windows wouldn't
recognise the full capacity. I believe they have solved that problem now.

Just get that cover off the pc and get that new hard drive installed. you
might like to set the old drive up as slave too, to give you a backup drive.

--
John Barnett MVP
Associate Expert
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org

The information in this mail is supplied "as is". No warranty of any kind,
either expressed or implied, is made in relation to the accuracy,
reliability or content of this mail. The Author shall not be liable for any
direct, indirect, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use
of, or inability to use, information or opinions expressed in this mail..
 
Hi Rick.. thanks for the response..

At the same time I will be adding another drive a 60gig, which I will use
for my C or windows drive... and the 80gig will be used for my storage
drive.. so I will basically be replacing both drives.. I'm really excited
since I had so little space left.. :) Both drives are brand new, so do they
have to be formatted, or is that something that windows xp will do when it
installs on the 60gig? I had thought about partitioning the 60gig drive,
so I now have a question about the partitions.. seems to me I remember that
the OS asks during installation if you want more than one partition, is that
correct?.. and would that mean that windows would be on both partitions, or
could I partition a small part of that drive for just the OS? and what would
be the advantage please..

Also what is disk manager? Can you be real specific? I know I can
download Partition magic, but I think I am getting ahead of myself.. thanks
so much for any input.. Rainy
 
\Thanks John, I appreciate the feedback.. I answered Ricks response first,
so my questions are mostly on that one.. :) thanks Rainy
 
Hi Rainy,

You do not need to partition or format ahead of the installation. You can
partition the 60GB drive and format it as part of setup (right after the
license screen when it gets to the part about choosing the installation
location). You do not have to do anything with the 80GB drive at this point
(though you can should you choose to).

The Disk Manager snapin (diskmgmt.msc) is the default Windows tool for
working with hard drives.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
I can answer some of your question. I also have a Maxtor drive; mine comes
with (and yours probably does, also) MaxBlast software, which can be run
either by booting from the CD, or else in Windows. Are you starting from
scratch, or are you going to copy over your pre-existing Windows
installation? MaxBlast can help you in both situations, but you need to
follow the instructions carefully, particularly if you are copying an old
installation to a new drive. If you want a completely new installation, on
the other hand, just set install both of your hard drives physically, with
the 60 GB drive as the master and the 80 GB drive as the slave. The drives
should show you how to set the jumpers to do that. Then, when you start up
the computer, first press Delete (or whatever key it is for you) to make
sure that your BIOS is seeing both drives properly. After that, exit,
making sure you first have the Windows cd in the drive. When your computer
reboots, it will guide you through choosing which drive to use and how to
partition it. Personally, I prefer to have most of my stuff on one
partition, but you may wish to have one partition for music, one for
movies/photos, one for games... it's really up to the individual.

Hope this helps,
Eric
 
The maxblast software has its uses, but I do not recommend it for setting up
a drive in most instances. The overlay software it installs is non-standard
and has been known to cause issues.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
To each their own... it's perfectly fine for me, but I understand that not
everyone likes it, and you are right, it is nonstandard. However you go,
best of luck!

-- Eric
 
Hi just letting you and John and Eric know how much I appreciate your
information.. I have printed the instructions and I'm sure with the help of
my friend we can get this accomplished.. I'm very nervous when it comes to
anything inside the tower, but do pretty well with the help of the net, and
this group in sorting out problems inside windows. A Big Thankyou to
everyone who helped.. :) Rainy
 
Hi Rainy,

Just make sure to discharge any static electricity on yourself before
touching anything inside the machine. You'll be fine, and probably find that
it is remarkably easy to install an additional hard drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
how doI do this? thanks..Rainy
Rick "Nutcase" Rogers said:
Hi Rainy,

Just make sure to discharge any static electricity on yourself before
touching anything inside the machine. You'll be fine, and probably find
that it is remarkably easy to install an additional hard drive.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
Click to expand...
 
Hi Rick, I just noticed that this part of my question was never answered...
can you look at it now please.. it's the second part of the question.. the
first part was answered. thanks! Rainy

so I now have a question about the
partitions.. seems to me I remember that the OS asks during
installation if you want more than one partition, is that correct?..
and would that mean that windows would be on both partitions, or could I
partition a small part of that drive for just the OS? and what would be the
advantage please..
 
Discharge it the same way you would if you had scuffed your feet on the
carpet, touch something metal. They do sell wrist straps specifically for
this purpose. While they are a good idea, they are not essential as long as
you use common sense.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Hi Rainy,

If you choose to create more than a single partition, then Windows will just
install to the target (known as the boot partition). If it is the active
partition, then it will also be the system partition. For most users who
install to C:\ this is the norm.

An advantage to installing to a smaller (15-20GB) boot partition is that you
can put your data on the other partition. Should a format and reinstall ever
become necessary, your data will be on a different volume and generally not
be affected (though this doesn't excuse you from making good backups). Yes,
you will be prompted to determine how big you want the initial installation
partition to be. If you want one giant C:\, then make it so. If you want to
try multiple volumes, just make the installation target partition a smaller
percentage of the drive. The balance of the partitioning can be done with
disk manager after setup completes.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
The maxblast software has its uses, but I do not recommend it for
setting up a drive in most instances. The overlay software it installs
is non-standard and has been known to cause issues.
Click to expand...

Is the overlay s/w necessary ?

I'm thinking it's not, since way back when (1993/4?), I purchase a 700 mb
HD and needed to have the overlay only loaded if the bios of the PC did
support the HD size (w/o pre-SP1 limit of 137G taken into account).


DanS
 
Hi,
Is the overlay s/w necessary ?
Click to expand...

In most cases no, in fact rarely is it needed now, but that doesn't stop
drive manufacturers from including it in their "E-Z setup" disks.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
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