ee4itpro
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Additional HD to computer
I presently have a Dell Windows XP SP3 machine and I wanted to add an additional HD to this machine, but I don't know how? I'm considering purchasing 1Tb of storage for this HD. On the present HD I have the OS and everything else I'll need. On the second HD, I'd like to store a bunch of files and folders have create three other machines to be able to access them, with some permissions as well. Do I need to do anything to the second HD?
I'm assuming you are talking about a desktop, not a laptop, right?
Installing a second hard drive is easy. First off, open up the computer and make sure that
a) You know whether you need IDE or SATA hard drives (most likely SATA)
b) You know whether you need 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives (most likely 3.5")
c) You have space to mount the new hard drive, your power supply has an available power connector, and your motherboard has an available port to plug the hard drive into
Assuming all of the above is okay, it is just a matter of installing the hard drive, connecting it, booting the system and initializing / formatting the hard drive.
There's nothing special you need to do to the hard drive besides format and partition it, which can be done using Windows' disk management console (start->run.., and type "diskmgmt.msc").
Partition the hard drive and assign it a drive letter, and you can use it just like any other storage on your computer. Afterwards you can setup shared folders / permissions.
Installing a second hard drive is easy. First off, open up the computer and make sure that
a) You know whether you need IDE or SATA hard drives (most likely SATA)
b) You know whether you need 2.5" or 3.5" hard drives (most likely 3.5")
c) You have space to mount the new hard drive, your power supply has an available power connector, and your motherboard has an available port to plug the hard drive into
Assuming all of the above is okay, it is just a matter of installing the hard drive, connecting it, booting the system and initializing / formatting the hard drive.
There's nothing special you need to do to the hard drive besides format and partition it, which can be done using Windows' disk management console (start->run.., and type "diskmgmt.msc").
Partition the hard drive and assign it a drive letter, and you can use it just like any other storage on your computer. Afterwards you can setup shared folders / permissions.
Make sure to format the new drive partitions as NTFS, so that you are able to add specific permissions to files/folders.
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we need a bit more info : what model Dell is it?
if you have ide drives, you best buy an IDE as second; you may be limited in drive size by the BIOS
if you have Sata drives, you buy these and install as shown : http://computershopper.com/hard-drives-burners/howto/install-a-new-hard-drive-in-five-easy-steps
if you have ide drives, you best buy an IDE as second; you may be limited in drive size by the BIOS
if you have Sata drives, you buy these and install as shown : http://computershopper.com/hard-drives-burners/howto/install-a-new-hard-drive-in-five-easy-steps
Depending on how you connected the drive, you might have to set the BIOS to not boot to the 2nd drive, by default it would boot to your primary then your secondary.