Random Access Memory (RAM) in our computers only holds information while the computer is turned on. Your word processor sits in RAM - as does that five page document you spent two hours typing in.
Turn your computer off, or (heaven forbid) you have a power cut, the contents of RAM is emptied and the word processor along with all that work simply disappears in a flash. You obviously need a way to save your work and that's where the hard disk drive (hdd) comes in.
Essentially magnetic media, the disc (or platter) inside the hdd works in a similar way to a cassette tape in as much as the information on it doesn't disappear when the power is turned off.
But, after we have had our computers for a while, the hdd can either fill up or even start to fail, causing slow loading times and error messages. In this article, we'll look at the former - adding another hdd when your current hdd is full.
How long your hard disk takes to fill up depends on how big it is and what you use your computer for.
For a normal computer user, this can take a very long time. In fact, some users will never fill the hdd in their computer.
But, if you've taken up amateur photography for example, and take hundreds of photos a week, you can fill up the hdd in a few months. If you've bought a new video camera and want to create, edit and store movies, filling a hdd can happen much quicker.
So if you get a message on your screen telling you that you are getting low on disk space, it's time to start deleting stuff... or sort out a new hdd.
Yes, you can always plug in an external USB hard disk, but if you are on a budget, you can fit an internal hdd for a lot less - or spend the same and get a much bigger hdd!
The actual process is fairly straight forward and if you know how to use a screwdriver you should find it quite easy.
Preparation:
The first thing I do is check the computer's BIOS to see the current hdd configuration. The chances are that the BIOS screen is something you've never seen before and I strongly suggest that after doing what I'm going to talk you through now, you don't go into it again.
We are only going to look at existing settings now, but there are things in the BIOS that you can change to the wrong values and although your computer won't blow up or anything drastic like that, you could stop Windows loading or even stop your computer from switching on.
To get to the BIOS, turn on (or restart) your computer and watch the bottom of the screen for a message which tells you what to press to go into the Setup screen.
On most computers it's the Del key (the Supr key on Spanish keyboards where I live), but on some computers it's the F2 or F10 key. I've even seen the Ctrl+S combination used.
Once you've seen what key(s) you have to press on the screen, hit the Reset button on the front of your computer and start tapping the required key(s) when you hear your computer 'beep'.
If all goes well, you should see a plain text screen (either blue or black) and the words BIOS or Setup at the top of the screen along with the name of the company who made the BIOS. Depending on the motherboard in your computer this could be Award (Phoenix), AMI (American Megatrends Inc) or some other company.
Award's Phoenix bios is probably the most common and consists of a number of 'pages' - displayed in two columns. Using the up, down, left and right cursor keys, you highlight the page you want and press the enter key to enter the page. Pressing the Esc key backs out and returns to the previous screen.
Each page contains a number of options which you can change. Right now, we only want to look at the hdd configuration and NOT change anything, so that's all I'm going to say about the BIOS for now.
Other manufacturers BIOS screens work in exactly the same way, but instead of two columns there may be a single column or even a menu running horizontally across the top of the screen.
To see the hdd configuration in a Phoenix Award BIOS, you need to highlight the Standard CMOS Features page and press Enter.
My own computer has the AMI BIOS with the menu running across the top and the equivalent of Award's Standard CMOS Features page is the first page you see and is entitled 'Main' - you don't need to select anything else.
On this page, it shows all the available hdd ports (IDE and SATA) and the model name of the hdd which is attached to it. Models starting with ST are Seagate drives and those starting with WDC are Western Digital drives. Samsung and Toshiba actually say Samsung and Toshiba in the model name.
If no hdd is connected to a port it may display 'Not Detected'. My Asus motherboard only has a single IDE port (supporting two IDE drives, master and slave), along with four SATA ports. Your BIOS will probably be different. It may only display ports that drives are actually connected to.
If your BIOS isn't like those mentioned, you'll simply have to open each page in turn, looking for mention of Primary IDE Master, Slave, or SATA 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. Remember, highlight a page, press Enter to go in and press the Esc key to back out if it doesn't contain the info you are looking for.
When you get to the screen which shows the drives in your computer, note down what they are connected to. This includes any CD/DVD-ROM drives.
This info tells you what ports are free to connect the new drive to, but it's also a quick indication of how successful the job was when you've finished. If you got everything right, the new drive will appear on the list. If not, it won't appear and if you got the settings wrong on an IDE drive, the drive that was there before you started could also disappear off the list!
Having got the info we need, as we have not made any changes in the BIOS, we can hold down the on/off button for 5 seconds to turn off the computer.
Before we actually start, you need to work out what you are going to need for the job - apart from a Phillips cross-head screwdriver. For example, as a computer engineer, I have a large stock of cables I can select from, but the chances are that you do not. The cable you buy (if you actually need one) depends on the hdd you buy.
As there are different types of hdd, when you pop down to the local computer store, your shopping list needs to have the correct items on it. In a nutshell, you need to take a look inside your computer to see what's in there already and what you can add.
So, turn off the power switch at the back of the computer (if there is one) and unplug all the cables.
If you aren't sure where all the cables go, spend a few minutes drawing a picture for later on when everything is plugged back in. To be honest, apart from USB devices, most of the cables will only plug into one hole.
All USB devices should work regardless of which USB socket they are plugged into, but you can save yourself possible future hassles by plugging them all back in exactly the same place you unplugged them from. So if nothing else, note where each USB plug goes.
If you have a standard case desktop PC, you just need to remove the panel on the left hand side (while looking at it from the front).
The side panel will have a 90º lip at the back edge and there will be two Phillips screws securing it in place. Remove these two screws and slide the side panel towards the back of the computer and lift it away.
Note: If you have a branded computer like a Dell, HP etc. opening it up may be different so you will need to refer to the documentation which came with it.
Also, if it is still in warranty, (hopefully by now it won't be), then opening the case may void the warranty, so be aware of this. It has to be noted however that if you took it to your local computer shop, they too would have to open it up, so the result would be the same...
In a standard computer case, the CD-ROM/DVD drive(s) and hard disks will be mounted in bays at the front of the case. Optical drives like CD and DVD's go in the larger bays at the top and the hdd's in the smaller, 3.5" bays below.
Locate your hdd and look at the back end which protrudes out of the rear of the bay. There are essentially three main types of hdd - IDE/ATA, SATA and SCSI.
IDE is still the most commonly found type of hdd out in the wild, but is slowly being replaced by the faster SATA standard. All new computers bought today have SATA drives. SCSI is rarely used in relation to IDE and SATA, but is still available and tends to be found only in more specialist computers.
What Drive Do I Have Already?
All three types of drives are pretty much identical in physical size, but differ in the cables used to attach them to the system. As we need to look inside your computer to find out what free connectors are available, while we do that we can also easily check what type of drive(s) you have already.
How To Detect If You Have An IDE/ATA Drive:
IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) is the original Western Digital name for the interface standard which eventually evolved into the ATA (AT Attachment) interface standard currently in use today.
Older motherboards had 2 IDE connectors (primary and secondary) and with each one being able to support a master and slave device, up to four drives (any combination hard disks or CD-ROMs) could be connected.
ATA drive data cables are flat ribbon cables, usually grey, approximately 5cm wide and having 3 x 40 pin connectors attached - one at each end and another part of the way along it.
If you currently have a single IDE/ATA drive, the ribbon cable will be connected to the motherboard at one end, to the drive probably using the 'master' connector at the opposite end and have a spare unused 'slave' connector around 15-20cm from the end.
Note: If you also have an IDE CD-ROM or DVD drive, it could be attached to the slave connector on the same primary IDE cable as the hdd, or attached on it's own using the secondary IDE cable.
Looking at the back of an IDE hdd, the 4 pin Molex 8981 power connector is located on the far right and the connector plug is female with 1 red, 1 yellow and 2 black wires.
How To Detect If You Have A SATA Drive:
Serial ATA (SATA) drives first appeared in 2003 and were faster versions of the previous ATA (IDE) drives. ATA was subsequently renamed to Parallel ATA (PATA).
Today, almost all new computers, laptops and netbooks are supplied with SATA drives as standard. Although most new motherboards still have a single old IDE connector on them for backwards compatibility, they usually have four or more of the newer SATA connectors.
SATA data cables are also flattened, but not as flat as IDE ribbon cables and nowhere near as wide. At around 1cm wide and slightly thicker, they come in various colours. I have red, blue, yellow and black SATA data cables.
Unlike IDE cables though, they only have one drive connector. As such, each SATA drive needs it's own data cable.
If you have a SATA drive, follow the flat data cable back to the motherboard and you should see that it plugs into a SATA socket. There should be four, but it doesn't matter as long as there is one free.
Looking at the back of the hdd, the SATA power connector is located on the far left and the power cable has 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 black and 1 orange wire. The data cable plugs in just to the right of the power cable with little or no gap between.
Most modern power supplies have both IDE and SATA power connectors.
How To Detect If You Have A SCSI Drive:
The third and last hdd type uses a standard called Small Computer System Interface (SCSI - pronounced 'scuzzy') and although they are nice and fast, they are also very expensive, so it's highly unlikely you will already have one of these in your computer without knowing about it already.
Most motherboards do not have a SCSI interface built in, so you can usually spot these drives as the data cable from the back of them normally connects to a SCSI interface card instead of directly onto the motherboard.
The data cable on a SCSI drive is just like an IDE ribbon cable, but much wider, so if the data cable on your hdd is wider than the one on the CD-ROM drive then you've got a SCSI drive. The power connector is also exactly the same as on an IDE drive.
If you need another one of these drives, your local computer shop may have to order it for you as they aren't always stock items - or you could probably order one online a lot cheaper.
Decision Time
Your computer right now probably has a single hard disk and a single CD/DVDROM drive, but to be honest, it doesn't really matter if the current hdd is the older IDE/ATA interface.
If your motherboard supports SATA drives, I suggest you go for one as they are faster and generally easier to get hold of - unless cost is an issue and you can get your hands on a decent sized second hand IDE drive for next to nothing.
Either way, all you need is a free power connector and a data cable for the drive you end up getting.
Note: You do not have to stick to the type of drive you currently have. If you have an IDE drive you can still add a new SATA drive and vice-versa.
To Sum Up:
* If your computer has an IDE ribbon cable with a free connector, as well as a free IDE power connector you can safely purchase an IDE disk drive.
* If your computer only has a single IDE ribbon cable and both master and slave connectors are in use, as long as your motherboard has an unused secondary IDE port you can safely purchase an IDE disk drive, but you will also need to buy another IDE cable for it.
* If your computer has a free SATA port on the motherboard and your power supply has a free SATA power connector you can safely purchase a SATA disk drive. If you don't have one, you will also need to buy a SATA data cable.
* If you have no free IDE or SATA connections and no free IDE or SATA power connectors, you will probably find it cheaper and easier to get an external USB drive.
Tip! If you buy your new drive from your local computer shop, ask them if they sell 6-32 UNC drive mounting screws. Most of us who work with computers for a living have thousands of them lying around so the chances are they'll give you a handful for free!
Installing The Drive:
Having got your new drive and if necessary, the correct data cable for it, all we need to do now is install it.
SATA Drives
If your drive is a SATA drive, there's no configuration involved you can just pop it into an empty bay and screw it in.
There are four screws - two each side, but if I'm honest, I only ever use two screws because you have to take the other case side panel off to put them in. If I go back to a machine at a later date and have to take the drive out, it's a time saver only having to remove one side panel to do it.
The drive bays have support rails either side which keep the drive horizontal and the two screws you do put in prevent it from moving, so the other two screws really aren't necessary.
Next, you connect the SATA power cable to the drive. The power connector plug has an 'L' shaped ridge in it which only matches up with the groove on the drive connector when it's the correct way round, so don't force it.
Finally, you connect one end of the SATA data cable to the motherboard and the other end to the drive. Like the power cable plug, the data cable has the 'L' shaped ridge so match them up before trying to force them in.
Note: The plugs on the end of a SATA cable are identical, so it doesn't matter which end plugs into the drive and which plugs into the motherboard.
And that's all there is to installing a new SATA drive.
IDE/ATA Drives
As an IDE cable can have two devices attached - like a hdd attached as a master and a CD_ROM attached as a slave, all IDE devices have to be set as either master or slave and have the correct connector attached.
Setting the device is done with a tiny jumper which shorts out two pins on the back of the device.
Each hdd manufacturer can have different jumper settings, so on the top of the drive you will find a sticker showing the various jumper configurations.
For example, on Seagate drives, shorting out the two pins furthest away from the power socket by placing a jumper on them makes the drive the master device. Leaving the jumper off the same two pins sets the drive as a slave device.
On an IDE ribbon cable, there are three connectors. Two are closer together at one end and it is these that plug into the two IDE devices. The one on it's own at the other end plugs into the port on the motherboard.
Of the two connectors close together, the one on the very end of the cable is plugged into the master device and the other one into the slave device.
So, once you have decided which connector is going to be plugged into your new drive, you can set the jumper accordingly.
A second hdd will work fine set as a slave as long as the slave cable connector is plugged in, but if given the choice I would always add a new hdd as a master on the secondary IDE channel with a new IDE cable - even if the slave connector on the primary IDE channel was free.
In theory though it shouldn't make any difference and in any case, the chances are your master and slave on the primary IDE channel are already taken with your hdd and CD/DVD-ROM drive. If so, set the new drive to master and when you connect the new IDE cable, plug the master connector (the one on the very end) into the drive.
You can now put the drive into a free bay and screw in the two screws.
Attach either the free connector on the existing IDE ribbon cable to the drive, or connect one end of your new IDE ribbon cable to the motherboard and the other end to your new hdd.
Note: One edge wire of the IDE ribbon cable will be marked in a different colour to make it stand out. This is to help when plugging it in as the connector will only fit one way round. When the marked wire is closest to the power connector, the cable will be correctly oriented, to plug in.
Finally, plug the new drive's power connector in. This has chamfered edges at the bottom so it too can only be plugged in one way round. When the power plug is the correct way round, the yellow wire is nearest to you when looking into the case from the left side.
At this point, you should be done and in a perfect world you would put the side panel back on, connect all the cables and power on your machine. But it might be wise to leave the side panel off a while longer while you connect the cables and power up - just in case there's a problem and you need to go back in and change anything.
As described right at the beginning of this article, power up, go back into the BIOS and go to the page which lists your drives. If a new hdd model number has appeared next to a port which wasn't there before and those that were there before are all still there, then congratulations - you've successfully installed your new hard disk!
If the new drive doesn't appear (or one disappears), you now have to start the trouble-shooting phase.
At this point, we have no changes to save in the BIOS so we can hold down the on/off button to turn off the computer.
Trouble-Shooting:
First check that all cables are present and firmly pushed in.
With the computer turned off, place the metal end of your Phillips screwdriver in one of the screw holes of the new hdd's case and push the screwdriver handle to your ear. Turn on the PC and if the drive powers up, you'll hear the hdd drive motor whine and clicking noises through the screwdriver. If there's no sound or vibration, swap the power connector with a working drive and check again.
If there's still nothing, you have a dead drive and should return it. If it starts working, try the first power connector in the other drive. If that's now dead, use another power connector (there's usually a couple unused).
If the drive you installed is an IDE drive and is powering up OK and/or a previously working IDE drive has disappeared of the list in the BIOS then you have set the master/slave configuration jumper incorrectly. On an IDE ribbon cable, only one device can be master - the other must be set to slave. Set them both to the same and neither will be detected by the BIOS.
Also with IDE drives, make sure that the drive set as master is attached to the connector on the END of the IDE cable and the drive set as slave is attached to the other connector.
With new SATA drives, you can do the screwdriver test for power, but there are no jumpers to get wrong, so make sure the power is off and try connecting the data cable to another SATA port on the motherboard.
Assuming all has gone to plan so far, you should be able to turn on your computer and it will boot into Windows as normal. If you have Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 then your new drive should be detected automatically as new hardware. Just wait for the 'your new hardware is ready to use' message.
New drives will have to have one (or more) partitions created on them and then formatted before you can use them.
In some versions of Windows some or all of the process may be automatic and you may just see a pop-up box asking if you want to format the new drive. You can just say yes.
I use Windows XP and this process has to be done manually, but it's quite easy to do and covered in my article 'Preparing A Hard Disk For Use In Windows XP'.
