Installing the Second Drive
- Getting Started
You have your new drive in hand and you're ready to
install it in the case. We're are going to walk you through the installation
of the Maxtor 13.6 GB DiamondMax Plus 6800 - Retail Kit (installation
is very similar for other brands of hard drives).
What to do First. Before
you make any move to disconnect your old drive and to attach your
new one, there are several things you need to do before you start.
1. Backup any critical data
on your old hard drive in case you are hit by Murphy's Law. The
chance you will destroy data on the original drive is extremely low,
however it never hurts to be safe.
Write down or copy to backup media all modem settings, ISP phone numbers,
passwords, shortcuts, BIOS settings, and any other critical information
(this is especially important for those that choose to make the new
drive the C: drive).
2. Create a Windows 95/98/Me/XP
Startup Disk. This is necessary as the drive installation software
needs this disk to format and partition your drive (besides, it never
hurts to have a new Startup disk ready to go in case you can't boot
Windows). You will also need this disk if you buy an OEM drive and
you want to use the new drive as the boot C: drive.
To make a Startup disk in Windows 95/98/Me, format a floppy
disk and then click on Start/ Settings/Control Panel/ Add Remove Programs/
Startup Disk.
Note: You can also boot from your Windows
98, Me, and XP CD if your BIOS allows booting from the CD-ROM drive.
To boot from your Windows CD, you will need
to go into your BIOS and change the device boot order to CD-ROM, C:\.
To make a DOS Startup Disk in Windows XP, format a floppy
disk, double-click My Computer, right-click your floppy disk drive,
click Format, click Create a MS-DOS startup disk, and then click Start.
Note that to make this disk useful you probably want to copy the DOS
"format", "diskpart", "defrag", and
"chkdsk" commands from your Windows/System32 directory.
The main purpose of this disk is to allow you to boot into DOS (providing
you set your BIOS to boot from floppy) and manipulate your hard drive.
To make a Windows Boot Disk in Windows XP, from the root
folder of your hard disk drive (for example, C:\), copy the following
files to a formatted floppy disk:
Boot.ini
NTLDR
Ntdetect.com
If you have Bootsect.dos or Ntbootdd.sys in your root directory copy
them to the disk also. Note that you may have to remove the hidden,
system, and read-only attributes from the files so that you can copy
them. The main purpose of this disk is to allow you to recover your
Windows XP installation if your hard drive's boot block becomes corrupted.
You might want to add these files to your DOS Startup Disk and keep
it in a safe place.
Downloading Windows XP Bootable Disks from Microsoft. Microsoft
has also made bootable Windows XP Home and Professional disks available
for download. Per Microsoft, "There are six Windows XP Setup
boot floppy disks. These disks contain the files and drivers that
are required to access the CD-ROM drive and begin the Setup process."
The download links are Windows
XP Home and Windows
XP Professional. More information on Windows XP download disks
can be found at Microsoft's
web site.
Note that in Windows XP it is also possible
to format, partition, and unpartition a hard drive using the Disk
Management tool. To start Disk Management log on as administrator
or as a member of the Administrators group. Click Start , and then
click Control Panel . Click Performance and Maintenance, click Administrative
Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. In the console tree,
click Disk Management.
3. Write down product information
from the top of the new drive and put it in a safe place. The
only place this information existed on our Maxtor drive was on the
drive's product label, which was unreadable once we placed the drive
in the drive bay.
4. Know the jumper pin settings
for both the new drive and the old drive. Make sure you know the
correct jumper pin settings for your old drive. If you do not have
this information, visit your hard drive manufacturer's web site.
Instructions for setting the jumpers on the new drive come in the
box (see our picture of
jumper pin settings for more information).
5. Turn your system off but
leave it plugged into the wall/surge protector. You will short
your system or damage your hard drives if there is power entering
the computer. The system needs to remain plugged into the wall because
it needs to remain grounded. You should periodically touch the metal
chassis, before and during handling of the drives, to disperse any
static electricity from your body.
<If you need to unplug your system to be absolutely sure the power
is off, you can ground yourself with a grounding wrist strap available
at most computer stores.>
6. Decide which hard drive
will be the C: boot drive. Read through this entire article and
especially see Formatting
and Partitioning the New Drive, before you decide which drive,
the new or the old drive, will be your boot drive.
Once you have completed the above steps, you are ready to begin installing
the second hard drive.
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