How can I best make use of this used hard drive?

[Wasatch Rebel]

I got a used hard drive from a relative that he was getting rid of because he upgraded. It's a 120 gig ide drive, and right now in my pc I have an 80 gig ide drive. I guess what I want to do is clean the 120 gig drive, and install it, maybe use it for storage, or maybe use the 80 gig drive for storage--I'm not sure which would be best, nor how to go about doing these things. I know how to physically install the drive, but how do I set up the drive and wipe it clean and all those things? What's really the best thing for me to do considering that I'm running out of room on the 80 gig?

[DiscGo]

Make that drive the slave drive.

Once you have installed the drive, do the following:


Boot up windows and then right click on my computer

Select Manage

Go to Disk Management

Right click on that new drive and from there you can format it, change the drive letter, etc.

I would at at very least back up your pictures on that drive to make sure you have two copies of your pictures if ever anything should happen to the original copies (drive failure, accidental deletion, etc.)

[Sombeech]

Just be sure to format it first.

Then just set it up as a slave drive (if you have room in your PC for both)

You can just drag and drop items you'd like to backup onto it.

Or there's a bunch of purposes you can use it for, but the main thing is just set it up as a slave, and your 80GB as the master.

...if you're into that sort of thing.

[Wasatch Rebel]

Just be sure to format it first.

Then just set it up as a slave drive (if you have room in your PC for both)

You can just drag and drop items you'd like to backup onto it.

Or there's a bunch of purposes you can use it for, but the main thing is just set it up as a slave, and your 80GB as the master.

...if you're into that sort of thing.

Thanks. I should've mentioned, I'm running XP. Anything specific to that OS?

[KapitanSparrow]

The first thing you should do is get a one terrabyte HD :haha:


But seriously, doesn't set up of a slave drive require playing with jumper settings and bios before you even see it in your OS? I remember it as a pain playing with jumper settings.

[Deathcricket]

Just be sure to format it first.

Bsstt.. WRONG!! The first thing you do is scavenge all the porn off it.

Search *.*jpg, *.*avi, etc. Then format it. This will save you hours and hours of future downloading.

:lol8:

[BruteForce]

You can either install it as a secondary (slave) as mentioned, or buy an external USB enclosure (like the one I loaned you) and use it for backup.

In either case, open Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management and go to the Disk Management section to delete/create partitions and format.

[JP]

I'm surprised nobody told you to shoot it :haha:

[Alex]

Before you do any of the above make sure to set the jumpers. If you don't, the OS and BIOS won't see the drive.

Since it's 120 and 80 gig drives, I assume they are IDE (wide flat cable). What you need to do is put them both on the same cable, then look at the drive's label, there should be a diagram of the jumpers. It should say how to set the drive into MASTER (M), SLAVE (S) or CABLE SELECT (CS).

Most likely your main 80 GB drive is set to Master right now OR Cable Select. If it's set to CS, then set the 80GB drive to MASTER and then set the 120GB drive as SLAVE. CS mode is very nice since you don't have to worry about who is the master and who is the slave. But since you are installing a drive with an OS on it (most likely), the BIOS might boot from the 120GB drive. So setting your 80GB drive to Master will bypass that problem.

Once you set the jumpers correctly, the BIOS will see the drives and boot into windows. Once in WinXP, you really don't need to format it, unless you just want to delete all the data on it. To do that go to My Computer, then right click on the D: drive (most likely your 120GB) and click on Format, you can perform a QuickFormat, it's much faster than regular.

Hope this made sense and helps.

[Alex]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZUX9X8t23Y

[DiscGo]

Just remove the jumper on your slave drive and your computer should be able to interprete the drive as a slave.

[Scott Card]

Hmmm what to do with a used hard drive..... one word, "Pull"

[JP]

Hmmm what to do with a used hard drive..... one word, "Pull"
Knew it couldn't be too far away :haha:

[Ih8grvty]

Before you do any of the above make sure to set the jumpers. If you don't, the OS and BIOS won't see the drive.

Since it's 120 and 80 gig drives, I assume they are IDE (wide flat cable). What you need to do is put them both on the same cable, then look at the drive's label, there should be a diagram of the jumpers. It should say how to set the drive into MASTER (M), SLAVE (S) or CABLE SELECT (CS).

Most likely your main 80 GB drive is set to Master right now OR Cable Select. If it's set to CS, then set the 80GB drive to MASTER and then set the 120GB drive as SLAVE. CS mode is very nice since you don't have to worry about who is the master and who is the slave. But since you are installing a drive with an OS on it (most likely), the BIOS might boot from the 120GB drive. So setting your 80GB drive to Master will bypass that problem.

Once you set the jumpers correctly, the BIOS will see the drives and boot into windows. Once in WinXP, you really don't need to format it, unless you just want to delete all the data on it. To do that go to My Computer, then right click on the D: drive (most likely your 120GB) and click on Format, you can perform a QuickFormat, it's much faster than regular.

Hope this made sense and helps.

Soon as I saw everyone tell him to use it as a slave, that is exactly what I thought, set the damned jumpers!
You just beat me to posting it :D

[Wasatch Rebel]

Hey, thanks for all the great advice. I actually belong to a couple of computer tech forums, and I always get more detailed and better advice here than I do at the tech forums. Kudos!! Especially shooting it. Now if it would explode, like those propane tanks do--that would really be something! :lol8:

[Wasatch Rebel]

I'm not totally inept--I've built my last two computers, so I know about jumpers, but the other stuff you mentioned was stuff I didn't know and I'm still not sure if I should make the 120 gig the main drive, or how I would go about doing so. By that I mean, if I did want to copy the stuff on the 80 gig to the 120 gig, what would be the best way to do so? And would there be any advantage to doing so?

[stefan]

Hmmm what to do with a used hard drive..... one word, "Pull"


nah nah ... you gotta get your hands dirty ... and i'm not talking with gunpowder

a little tip from the masters ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0hpMHCrSPY

[stefan]

to support the economy, i just bought a drive that i've been waiting for for a little while ... WD 2TB Caviar Green.

it's the first 2TB drive.

although newegg has it for $299, BB has it on sale right now for $238.