also, how can i tell how big of a hard drive can be installed. my computer came with 512 mb memory and 80 gb hard drive and i want to double both. if i have a second hard drive bay, i only need to buy another 80 gb, right?
2006-09-30 03:37:37 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
right click "my computer" select "properties" then "device manager" go to "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
here if you see "Primary IDE Channel" and "Secondary IDE Channel" you can have definitely have two drives.
Usually you can connect two drives to each channel anyway if you have a regular PC.
on the internal memory most have at least 2 slots (usually 4) hence you can add extra but usually has to be done in pairs.
You have 512 which is likely physically on pair of 256s. so if you want to double need to buy another 2*256 or 2*512 or even 2* 1gb.
cheers
2006-09-30 03:49:48 · answer #1 · answered by khowlada 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your Operating System is Windows XP the file system used will be NTFS which allows the partitioning of any size hard drive on the market. You should have a secondary bay if you are using a tower model coimputer, whereas if you are using a "pizza box" you may not have that option. As far as the RAM goes, it depends on how many DIMM slots you have available, 2 is the norm today. Typically manufacturers will use both DIMM slots for factory memory, in which case you would need to buy 2x 512MB chips, or you could buy 1x 1GB chip and only pull one chip currently used.
2006-09-30 04:28:44 · answer #2 · answered by Compurednek 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well the only real way to be absolutely sure if you have an extra hard drive bay is to look inside, but if your case is fairly modern and is a tower, you should have a second bay. As for how big, well all hard drives for desktops are 3.5 inches in physical size, so you can get as big as you want, 500GB if you want. Just make sure you get one with the right connection, which I am guessing for you will be IDE.
2006-09-30 13:35:58 · answer #3 · answered by mysticman44 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most computers do, as long as they are less than, say, five years old. This is especially true with popular brands such as Dell or HP. These companies are really good about having extra space and motherboard ports for expansion.
I added a 160 gig hard drive to my wife's Dell. It was easy and I did it in less than ten minutes.
2006-09-30 03:41:49 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
most computers have a sec bay and yes u can double both if u like
2006-09-30 03:48:26 · answer #5 · answered by myke038 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋