Hard drive replacement question

This is related to my desktop, so I'm posting in this forum...

I just bought an internal 120 G hard drive to work alongside the 20 G in my dell. Does anyone happen to know if I can install programs on the new hard drive but leave the operating system on the 20 G? Will the programs work if they aren't on the same drive as the OS?

This is probably a terribly obvious question, but I've never added a HD to my computer before and I'd prefer to keep the 120 G unit free of my kids' Internet surfing/e-mail etc. so it doesn't get corrupted, but there are a couple of games I would like to put on the 120 G because it runs faster (7200 vs. 4800 rpm) and has a bigger cache.

Any advice would be appreciated!

Peter

 

Ok, so you need to open your box. Locate your hard drive in there and look at the cable coming out of it. It's a ribbon type cable (flat and wide) and should have at least three connection points - one end plugged into the hard drive, one end plugged into the motherboard or where ever it's plugged into, and one point in the middle of the ribbon. Mount the new hard drive adjacent to the old one (above or below, wherever you have a spot free) so that you can plug that middle point into the new drive. The master plug goes into the old hard drive and the slave plug goes into the new one. You'll need to check the manual for the new hard drive to check-see if you need to switch jumpers on the drive to set it up as a slave. The new hard drive will also need a power supply, and there should be a couple extra of these - they're free running sets of 6 or 8 colored wires that are bundled together by the couplings. Check the manual to make sure the general installation is done right for your specific model drive.
Now you need to check your bios - hit "del" right as the comp is booting up. This'll take you into bios setup. This 'program' is unique to your board/chipset/processor combination, so I can't really take you step by step through it, but for my install I had to find the drive setup tab and tell the bios which drive was the master and which would be the slave. What this means it bios only looks at my C drive for the OS, but I can store whatever I want and have complete access to the other drive, including running programs, but they had to have been installed under the current OS (I canibalized an old hard drive and none of the programs that were already there work because the Windows Registry of my current OS doesn't recognize them or have the proper DLLs installed.)
Now, it's not as complicated as it sounds, I have 2 hard drives in mine, and all I had to do was put the new drive in, make sure the master got the right plug and the slave got the right plug and I was off and running. I hope I haven't confused you too much, and if anyone has something further to add/correct, please do. But, with a little computer savvy (such as remembering to ground yourself by touching the power source and a part of the frame simutaneously before handling any computer components) these instructions should get you through the process.

 

What he said. [ ]

 

Thanks for the detailed instructions, Shaman!

If I'm reading you right, it sounds like I can simply set the 120 G up as the "slave," and install whatever programs (games, etc.) I want to on it, but leave the Internet and other already installed programs on the old 20 G HD.

If so...perfect!

 

also make sure both hard drives are formated the (ntfs,fat32)or you won't be able to access the new from the old one.