Hi,
It's really not that difficult.
1) Check the system documentation for the right type. SATA or IDE drive. If
it's not listed, open the case on the tower (make sure power is off and
disconnected). Look at the cabling and motherboard. If it's IDE, you should
see two wide flat data cables with two connectors on each. As long as one of
these is available and there is space in the drive cage, you can easily add
a drive. If it's sata, then it will be a skinny (< 1/2") flat cable and you
will need to determine if there is an open connection on the motherboard, as
these are one device per cable. Most motherboards that use SATA will support
2 or more. Optical drives generally still use the IDE connections, so even
if your motherboard uses the faster SATA drives, you still may be able to
add an IDE drive to it.
2) For IDE, check the jumper on the back of the new drive. Your existing
ones are likely set to master or CS. Set yours to the slave position.
3) Grab a piece or the tower's metal frame to discharge any static
electricity before working inside the case. A wrist strap is a good, cheap
idea as well to prevent any electrostatic damage, but as long as you are
cautious to discharge yourself first you should be ok for this job.
4) Connect the data and power cables (it's pretty hard to get this wrong as
they only will go in one way).
5) Manuever the drive into the drive cage and use the supplied screws to set
it in place securely. You don't want it to vibrate or be sloppy, make sure
it's snug.
6) Close up everything and boot the system. You should see the drive listed
on the POST screen at startup. Once Windows loads, run diskmgmt.msc from the
start box. Right click the new drive and create at least one partition.
Format it and you are ready to use for data or anything else.
--
Best of Luck,
Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
Windows help -
www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts
http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com