If you are replacing your primary hard drive you will need to reinstall Windows. If you don’t want to reinstall Windows you have to clone the contents of your current hard drive to your new one using some specific programs like EASEUS Disk Copy , HDclone , PC Inspector , Acronis True Image , Norton ghost. If you are installing a new hard drive just for storage, you don’t have to change anything to the configuration of your current hard drive.
What hard drive do you need ?
When choosing your new hard drive you have to know what interface uses your motherboard to connects to hard drives. The most commonly used interfaces for connection between the hard drive and the motherboard are two:
1. IDE. (integrated drive electronics , ATA or PATA, used for older hard drives and optical drives). This interface is still used quite often, but it has recently been replaced by his successor SATA. Its main advantage is the lower price.
2. SATA. ( Serial Advanced Technology Attachment or Serial ATA . SATA is a ‘wire replacement’ of the older ATA standard. It’s mechanism for optimizing the controller commands in order to accelerate the operations of data processing makes it faster than ATA. This standard is using a new type of cables for connecting hard drives. Disks with Serial ATA interface are clearly preferable because of the thin wires, and the better performance. It is important to note that each disk can be connected to its own port, which eliminates the nightmare of “master-slave” configuration with jumpers, typical of ATA drives. In other words, SATA drives are easier to install.
Here you can see the differences between them.
Most new motherboards support both IDE and SATA interface but before buying a new hard drive I suggest you to read your motherboard manual in order to find out what interfaces are supported.
How to install the hard drive.
1.There are several rules you must follow when working with computer hardware:
- Turn off the power supply of your computer (there is a little switch on the back side of the power supply unit ). You can also unplug the power cable.
- Note that most of the computer components are very sensitive to static electricity.An electric discharge may cause malfunctioning of some electronic parts.
- Make sure to ground yourself before touching any component by using grounding strap or touch a metal faucet pipe from time to time, or even your computer’s case.
3.Locate the drive bay where the new hard drive will be installed. In most cases the drive bay is located at the front of the PC.
4. Jumper settings (only for IDE drives). It is easier to do these settings before mounting the hard drive in the bay.
What are jumpers and what are they used for?
Most motherboards have 1 or 2 build-in IDE channels. Each channel supports up to 2 drives. The primary drive on a channel is called Master, and the secondary is called Slave. The IDE channels are also called Primary and Secondary.Usually the Primary Master is the hard drive that the system boots from. Most of the motherboards have 2 IDE connectors (one for each IDE channel). As you can see the IDE cable has two connectors which means that two devices can share a single cable.
For proper functioning of each of the two devices connected to one channel, they must be configured as Master and Slave. This can be done by changnig the position of the jumpers.
If your hard drive will be the only device on the IDE channel or if it will share that channel with a CD or DVD drive then set the jumper to master.
If the new hard drive will be added to a channel with another hard drive already installed, then maybe the other drive is the boot drive and is set to master. The boot drive may also be set to Cable select which is option for automatic configuration. In this case it’s better to set your boot drive as Master and the new drive as Slave.
Most manufacturers print the jumper settings on the chassis of the drive which makes their setting simple. Different hard drives have different jumper settings, so make sure to read your hard drive manual for more information.
Note: You can not have two Master or two Slave drives on the same IDE channel. It means that if you connect two hard drives to one IDE channel one of them must be Master and the other one must be Slave. Otherwise your system won’t boot.
SATA hard drives also have jumpers, but their purpose is not the same as their IDE analogs and should be left with the default settings.
5. Find an empty slot and mount the hard drive. If you have another drive mounted in the bay it’s a good idea to leave an empty space between the drives in order to provide better cooling.
6. Fix the drive to the chasis with screws (they are four, two on each side).
7. Connect the power supply and the data cables.
If your power supply unit does not have a SATA power connector you may need power adapter like this on the picture below.
8. Check all connections and make sure all devices are set correctly.
9. Replace the computer cover and plug in your power cable.
10. Turn the computer on.
article source:http://pc-level.com/2009/05/ho-to-install-a-hard-drive/
6. Fix the drive to the chasis with screws (they are four, two on each side).
7. Connect the power supply and the data cables.
If your power supply unit does not have a SATA power connector you may need power adapter like this on the picture below.
8. Check all connections and make sure all devices are set correctly.
9. Replace the computer cover and plug in your power cable.
10. Turn the computer on.
If the installation is successful, when you start the computer your new hard drive will be detected by the BIOS and the next step, that you should take before you start using the disk is to enter the Windows Disk Manager, create one or more partitions and format them.