Adding another harddrive

[frazser]

Have a Dell computer running Windows XP. Would like to add another Hard drive whose operating system is ME and has information on it that I would like to keep and possible copy later on. Can some one give me directions on how to do this.
Just a novice at a computer.

 

[xphantg0d]

Just attach the Harddrive and you can get the files but to boot off of it you probably need to play with msconfig to add it to the boot list i dont know how to do that but you can probably figure it out. (does it already have the files and os on it?)

 

[Ice Czar]

Identify which IDE connector on the mobo is the primary and which the secondary
youd probably be able to do that via device manager
Start > Run > (type) compmgmt.msc > Device Manager > Disk Drives and or DVD/CD-ROM Drives > DClick and a window will popup, and there will be a Location : 0 means Primary and 1 means Secondary
it would also be labled on the mobo itself as IDE0 and IDE1

since you know which channel has a HDD on it currently and Which a CDR youll kinow which channel is which

then put your Old HDD (XP) on your Primary Channel as a Master, that way it will be the first HDD seen by the BIOS in the boot order, and be bootable as HDD 0

and add your new HDD (ME) on the secondary channel, it can be either a master or slave, make sure that if there is another drive on that chain (CDR?) that one is master andd the other slave or both are set to cable select (CS) and that if the HDD is set to master that if there is a jumper setting that is Master with Slave Present you use that (as opposed to Master with no slave or Single) also a Master Device needs to be at the end of the cable (BLK) and any Slave on the middle connector (BLU) and that each cable with a HDD attached is an 80 wire cable

alternately you can place the new HDD as a slave on the Primary channel after the old HDD as a Master

you will not be able to boot to the new HDD, it will lack the proper drivers, but by booting into the old HDD with XP you should be able to see it and access it, since its FAT32 there would be no permission issues like youd have if it was NTFS

if for some reason it goes wrong and wont boot, its likely you got it backwards in the boot order somehow, then access the BIOS and under (typically) the Advanced BIOS Features submenu, change the first boot device to HDD1 instead of HDD0 (or at least set it higher than HDD0, you can make your order 1st FDD floppy disk drive 2nd CDROM & 3rd HDD1)

 

[frazser]

Thanks for the information. Will give it a try.