Can some one help me with this question? Regarding hard disk?

Question

I have an existing 40GB hard disk which is not enough. I want another 40GB. So, can I add another 40GB to the pre-existing 40GB to make it 80GB without losing the data on the previoud hard disk? If yes, how??

Answer 1

Yes. Almost certainly. Sort of.

Before you start, here's when you can't. If you have a laptop, there is only room for one hard drive usually. If you have four drives including your hard drives and all your optical drives you will probably have to disconnect one of them to add a new drive.

The sort of refers to the fact that the hardware it would take to make the computer think it has an 80gb drive would cost you more time and money than you want to invest. You will end up with two 40gb drives. On the other hand, not having to worry about matching the drives means you aren't limited to 40gb. You can run with a 40gb and a 400gb drive (or any other combination).

Basically your motherboard connects to your hard drive through a broad ribbon cable (I'm assuming that based on your drive size) called an IDE (or PATA or EIDE or ATA) cable. You need to get a drive that is matches (probably labeled IDE or PATA). You do not want a SATA drive, they won't work.

Once you get a drive you will need to mount it in your case, connect a power cable to it and connect an IDE cable to it. There may be what is called a jumper setting that you need to do.

Make sure you have a spare power cable inside. There should be a mess of them coming out of the power supply (usually in the upper back corner of the case). You need one that isn't plugged in - it will have a plastic connector on the end with four wires going into it. If you don't have a spare, you will need to get a splitter (essentially a Y shaped cable). You also need a spare IDE connector. Each IDE ribbon cable will have three connectors on it. On one end the connector goes into the motherboard. The connectors on the other end and in the middle go to drives. You need one that isn't being used. If you only have a single cable and both drive connectors are in use, you should be able to buy a second cable which will plug into the motherboard close to where the first one does.

I would suggest going to the websites of the manufacturer who makes the drive you buy and of the manufacturer of your computer. Both should offer manuals showing the specifics of installing the drive in your computer and setting the jumpers if you need to.

Once you get your two drives, you probably want to move your Windows temporary directories and My Documents directory to the new drive. Check Windows help for directions.

BTW, the other option, if you have USB 2.0 or FireWire ports on your computer, would be to buy an external hard drive. It's a bit slower and more expensive but it doesn't require installation and it's portable.

Answer 2

The hard disk is a fixed size. Your 40GB will only be a 40GB. You can add a second hard drive that will not effect your first drive at all.

Buy a second hard drive and then put it in.

1. Turn off your computer and UNPLUG it from the wall.
2. Open up your computer case.
3. You can see where your hard drive. Put in the second hard drive (Usually below your original one, but sometimes beside it).
4. Plug the same cable that is in your original drive into the second one as well, so they both are connected to the same cable. (You might need to get a new cable that has 3 plugs. 1 all by itself and 2 together)
5. Don't forget to connect the power to your new drive (the power cable has 4 little plug ins)
6. After he new drive is pt in, put your computer back together and turn it on.

You should see the new drive (Usually labeled D: or E:) when you look at 'My Computer' on the Start Button Menu.

If you can't add a new hard drive in your computer (There is not a space for it), then you can get an external hard drive.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yes, it can be done. It requires a setup known as RAID (redundant array of independent disks.) Using RAID, you can make your computer think that 2 40gb drives are actually 1 80gb drive. THis is an advanced procedure, and I wouldn't recommend trying it unless you know exactly what you're doing.

Another possibility is to simply buy an 80gb drive and clone your current hard drive onto it. This will give you the space you need and preserve your data at the same time. There are several programs that will make the process easy, such as Norton Ghost, or Acronis TrueImage.

3rd, you can just add the second 40gb drive and start saving data / installing programs on it. This will again give you all the space you need and won't hurt your existing data. You will simply need to remember which drive you saved a particular file on.

Answer 4

You first have to make sure the hard disk is working. After you connect the drive switch on your computer go-to the bios menu. That’s the menu comes just after you start windows. The menu should display all your derive cd / dvd / hdd / floppy. If your hard is drive listed here means you are ok. This must be the case or you would not be able to restore it. If HDD is not shown here then switch off and press all the cables power and data for HDD and try again. If this still doesn’t work check your jumper settings. If this doesn’t work then you might have to get a new drive. Once you know the drive is showing there this means you need to restore boot sector. Set your computer to boot from cd and put your windows CD in. When asked select repair. This will restore only system and not all files so you will be on your way. If you get stuck any where drop me a line.

Answer 5

My suggestion is you purchase a RETAIL BOXED Maxtor or SEAGATE drive. You can fine a 300 GB for about $75 these days. Don't wast your time by adding just a 40GB.

In the BOX of each of these drives, comes a CDROM and STEP-BY-STEP instructions to swap your 40GB with the new hard drive. Nothing will need to be re-installed typically. But you must use the software that comes with the new drive and follow the instructions to the letter.

Answer 6

Just go purchase another 40gb HD and attach it as a slave. Your computer will still boot from you're original 40gb hd, and you can save things onto you're second 40gb hard drive. =)

Answer 7

You'd need a RAID array to do this which you don't have. You would basically install the additional hard disk as a Primary Slave, Seconday Master, or Secondary Slave. It would most likely show up in Windows as Drive E: depending on how you connected the drive.

Answer 8

Hi. Adding another hard drive will not harm your existing data. Personally I would go with a much larger drive since they cost very little more than the 40 GB.

Answer 9

yes u can upgrade it to 80 gb. this is very simple. buy another 40gb of same type and see that u have extra bus to connect it and install it defaultly another particion will occur in 'my computer' of around 39 gb. and u can further partion it. the data will not be lost.

Answer 10

You can purchase another hard drive and use it as external drive. I can give you a link that deals with hard drive problems. Some drive problems can be easily fixed by yourself using easily available tools. I found the info at http://fixit.in useful. Try this site, if you can get what is required