Upgrading my Hard Disk

[steve2001]

Does anybody out there know how i go about upgrading my hard disk from the 8GB it is at the moment to 20GB that i want it to be.
I need to upgrade it to add more applications.

All help is appreciated
Stephen
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[BigBlue66]

Hi Steve,

Hmmm, well, you're not going to get more than 8gb out of the current drive, unless you use disk compression, which is NOT a good idea. I would highly caution you against using any kind of compression on the current drive.

You will have to purchase a new 20gb harddrive. Fear not though, even if your current BIOS will not support harddrives over 8gb, the new harddrive will come with configuration software that will help to overcome any BIOS limitations that may be present.

Here are the steps I would take:

1) Purchase a new 20gb harddrive. Seagate, Western Digital, Maxtor are all good names. Make sure you get one that is rated at 7200 rpm's or more.
2) Install the new harddrive as slave on the primary IDE channel. Use the configuration manager software that comes with the new drive to partition and format the new drive. Make sure that when doing this, that you have the correct drive number chosen!
3) Then, use the option within the configuration manager software to copy all contents of the old 8gb drive to the new 20gb drive.
4) Remove the old drive and install the new drive as master.
5) Boot.

Simple as that. If you want to retain the old 8gb drive to use as storage or whatever, re-install it as slave on the primary IDE channel, or better yet, as master on the secondary IDE channel.

The above advice is given with the assumption that you understand how to install harddrives, how to configure them using the jumpers on the drive, and how to hook them up to the ribbon cable. If still confused, post back. But, first thing to do is buy the new 20gb harddrive. Read the directions. They are self-explanatory.

Cheers,

Big Blue 66


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He who laughs last, thinks slowest. hehehehe, Huh?!

[This message has been edited by BigBlue66 (edited 04-08-2001).]