- Installing A Bigger Hard Drive

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Installing A Bigger Hard Drive

12/16/99 -- Want More Memory? It's Not That Hard To Do It Yourself

Steve Morman answers your tech questions
December 17, 1999, 4:17 p.m. EST

"Dear Mr. Morman,

"I have a Pentium 133 (desktop) -- admittedly, not the fastest, but with 64 megabytes of RAM (memory). But my hard drive failed. This hard drive only had 1.6 gigabytes (of data storage capacity).

"I expect to purchase a new one, and I saw at the November Compushow some hard drives as large as 13 gigabytes for less than $ 200 -- which sounded very attractive to me. One was a Maxtor and the other a Fujitsu. Anyway, I plan to go in February to the next show and hope to purchase one then.

"The question then arises, 'How do I install and partition this drive?' Oh, yes -- I am running Windows 98. Any good suggestions?"

Yours truly,

Adrian H. Vander Woerd, Hamilton, Ontario

P.S. -- I am a senior citizen so money is not too available.

Adrian,

While installing a new hard drive should be relatively easy, there are a few variables that can cause complications. I will try to address some of the potential problems that have happened to me in the past.

I will refrain from recounting the complete horror stories of melted plastic and electrical shock.

I hope this column prepares you and that you won't encounter any unpleasant surprises when February arrives and it's time to install that new multi-gigabyte hard drive.

First: Are You Scuzzy?

While the majority of hard drives in home and small-business computers are connected to the computer with the same type of hardware interface, some drives are attached differently.

Because your machine has a Pentium 133 chip, I strongly suspect that your old hard drive was attached using Integrated Drive Electronics, or "IDE" technology (pronounced "eye-dee-ee"). The majority of the drives available at a computer show or store would also be IDE drives.

However, be on the lookout for drives that use Small Computer System Interface or "SCSI" technology (pronounced "scuzzy" -- really!). These drives are capable of faster data transmission, but they require special hardware to function.

The rule of thumb used to be this: if it's a PC, it uses IDE; If it's a Mac or a UNIX box, it uses SCSI. This rule has become much less certain in recent years, but in your case I'm 99 percent sure you're in the market for IDE drives. When in doubt, bring your old drive and salespeople will be able to determine if it's SCSI or IDE.

Open Up The Hood

Installing the drive should be relatively straightforward. If you still have directions that came with the machine, follow them carefully.

Make certain the machine is not powered.
Open the case and locate the hard drive.
Remove the fasteners that hold the hard drive to the chassis.
Remove the smaller power cable and larger data cable. These connectors can be a bit brittle, so I recommend you apply a gentle, side-to-side rocking motion to the plugs as you pull them out of the sockets.
Firmly reattach these connectors to the new drive, fasten it to the chassis, and power the machine. If all is well, you should hear the high-pitched humming sound of the drive spinning up to speed.

Assuming there wasn't any smoke or horrible grinding sound, you should be ready to format the hard drive and install the operating system.

Que Habla?

Before we get there, though, the next source of concern is your computer's BIOS, or "Basic Input/Output System." The BIOS controls how your computer talks to other components, such as CD-ROMs and hard drives.

Some early Pentium PCs could not comprehend hard drives larger than 4 gigabytes (abbreviated "GB"). That 13-GB hard drive caught your eye at the computer show, but if your computer has older BIOS, Windows 98 may not be able to format a drive that large in a single volume. If that is the case, you will need to segment the drive into several partitions of four gigabytes each.

In some cases, it is possible to upgrade your computer's BIOS. Depending on the manufacturer, you may be able to download a program that "flashes" your BIOS. With flashing, the old limitations are wiped away, and new hardware rules are loaded onto your machine. If your computer does have this option, be advised that this process can be hazardous to your machine's health: If the flash instructions are incorrect, your computer may not recognize its hardware at all. Follow the manufacturer's instructions closely if you proceed in this direction.

Where's That Install Disk?

If things have gone well, you will be looking for an installation disk and your Windows 98 CD-ROM. Unfortunately, your computer has no way to read the CD-ROM drive without software instructions.

This is where the "install diskette" is crucial. The install disk has enough software on it to get the CD-ROM drive started so Windows 98 can format your hard drive and install itself.

CD-ROM drives require software components called "drivers" to be loaded before they can read CDs. More than once I have found myself with a new hard drive and no way to install the operating system from the CD-ROM. I eventually had to use a different machine to build a boot disk that had the proper drivers for my computer's CD-ROM.

Don't let that happen to you: Locate the install disk before you begin, and you'll be glad you had more foresight than I usually do!

Enter Bill Gates

If you've negotiated these steps without any major snags, then formatting the drive and reinstalling the operating system should be relatively easy.

If you have an "upgrade version" of Windows 98 instead of a version for a new PC, you will need to first install Windows 95 and then immediately upgrade to 98. If someone knows a way to get around this redundant installation for people who have purchased the upgrade version, please let us know.

Related column: Thanks For The Memory (Upgrade).

Steve Morman takes your tech questions at helpmenu@ibsys.com. But we want your comments, too -- on today's topic or past subjects such as e-mail MIME attachments and Internet clip art. Send your tech tips to helpmenu@ibsys.comand we may publish 'em in the Friday reader feedback column.

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