Multiple Hard Drives

[scottypup]

I would like to add a second hard drive to my system. It will be used mainly for data files and things like MP3's and such. I would store all of my photos and that sort of stuff also on this drive.

My question is this: Do I need to set this up in a RAID or can it be hooked in as simply another IDE device. I currently have 4 IDE devices (Hard Drive and Zip on secondary and CD Burner and DVD on primary) so I understand that I will need to buy a controller to add a tertiary controller.

The system is a Pentium II 333 MHz.

Another question. Can this sytem be upgraded to a faster processor? And if so how much trouble is it.

Any help on this would be very welcome.

Scott

[mjc]

First part, no it doesn't have to be a RAID setup...with the addin card you can have upto 8 IDE devices.

Part, the second, what motherboard do you have? That will determine what your upgrade options are.

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mjc
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[scottypup]

What details about the Mobo do I need to know?

The system is a Gateway Pentium II 333Mhz. 64 Mb Ram.

What other info do I need and where do I find that?

On the HD do I hook the two drives up on the same circuit or seperate them? Am I correct in assuming then that if only one has the OS on it then the other one is accesible much the same as a disk in the floppy or zip is? Simple another storage option?

I knwo these probably seem like basic questions but I've not been inside my computer much.

All of your help is appreciated.

Scott

[iisbob]

I currently have 4 IDE devices (Hard Drive and Zip on secondary and CD Burner and DVD on primary) so I understand that I will need to buy a controller to add a tertiary controller.

Why would you have your Harddrive on the secondary and cdplayer on the primary??! You sure it isn't the other way around?! :O

Your best bet, unless you want to buy another motherboard, would be to have both harddrives on your primary IDE ( one as master/other as slave ) then put your DVD and cdburner on the secondary( DVD as master/cdburner as slave )-don't really need the ZIP if you have a cdburner.

The second Harddrive will just act like your original ; yes you can copy files/folders to it just as you do on your current drive. This is quite a common practice.

Just hook it into the secondary connector on your primary IDE cable ( the one in the middle ) boot with your startup floppy, select no cdrom support ( you don't need it ) when you get to the A:/> then type FDISK, choose the option for your extra drive ( #5 i believe ) then set up a primary partition on it. Go here ( FDISK.com (http://www.fdisk.com) ) for an explanantion of how to use this command, or post back here and someone will be glad to guide you through it, then simply boot into windows as normal, it will recognize your new drive ( should be D: now ) right click on it and select Format, this will set the file allocation tables on it so you can use the drive.

If you feel a little overwhelmed by any of this, just post back and someone here will be glad to walk you through it.
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iisbob
"Soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run."

"Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world." --Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

[scottypup]

Yes I am positive that that is the config. I was having problems with the system not regongnizing my hard drive on start up. I switched it to secondary to see if that fixed it. It did but I found out later that the IDE cable was the problem. When I changed the cable I never changed it back to the primary circiut.

Getting rid of the zip is not an option. I transfer files to another computer at work that has no cd rom drive. It does however have an external zip drive. There fore I have no choice but to leave it and get another channel.

thanks for the help.