Add a Second Hard Drive

Step 1: Keep Your Existing Drive

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In most cases, when you put a new hard drive in your PC, you're going to keep your existing hard drive. That way, you have extra storage space - and it's easier to add a second hard drive than it is to take out your old hard drive and replace it with a new one. Note: if the second hard drive is considerably larger than the original hard drive, reloading the operating system and drivers is recommended. For more information, see the "When to Upgrade Your Hard Drive" tutorial.
Step 2: Open the Case

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Before you install the drive, turn off your PC, unplug peripherals, ground yourself, and open the case. It is important to ground yourself because static electricity can damage or even destroy your computer's components.
Step 3: Match the Drive and Bay

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It's best to match the size of your hard drive to the size of your drive bay. So, for example, a 3 1/2-inch disk should go into a 3 1/2-inch disk bay. However, you can install a 3 1/2-inch drive into a 5 1/4-inch bay if you first install mounting brackets. Follow the directions for screwing them in. After they're installed, you can install your hard drive onto the brackets.
Step 4: Install Hard Drive into Bay

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First, carefully slide the new drive into the bay or onto the mounting brackets. Make sure that its back end, with the various ports and connections, is facing inside the computer.
Step 5: Tighten Screws

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Next, screw the drive into the bay. Connect all the screws so that the hard drive is held firmly in place. Be careful not to overtighten or strip the screws, though.
Step 6: Connect the Data Cable

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The data cable, a wide ribbon cable, runs from your controller to your hard drive. If there is no free connector on the cable, you have to buy a new one. (If you have more than four devices connected to the controller, you might need a new controller.) In either event, connect the ribbon cable connector to the 40-pin slot on the hard drive. The ribbon cable has a stripe on one side of it, indicating that that side of the cable plugs into pin 1 on the hard drive connector-the pin closest to the power supply connector.
Step 7: Connect the Power Supply Cable

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Your hard drive needs power in order to work, so you're going to have to connect it to your power supply. The power supply cable has a connector on the end of it, which is usually four sockets encased in a small sheath of white plastic. Plug that into the connector on your hard drive.
Step 8: Set the Jumpers

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You can make your new hard drive either a master or a slave. Because you have an existing hard drive, set it to be a slave by setting the jumpers on the back of the hard drive. Check the hard drive documentation for how to set the jumpers properly. You might also want to check your first hard drive to make sure that it's set as a master. Because your new hard drive is faster and bigger than your old hard drive, you instead might want to make it a master. You can always switch between the two by setting jumpers.

Note: The existing hard drive may be set for Cable Select. Please refer to the hard drive documentation on how to set this jumper type. Cable Select (CS) is part of the Advanced Technology Attachment (ATA) Interface Plug and Play standard and the Microsoft® PC 97 standard. CS is used on Ultra ATA/66 and higher hard drives. In order to use CS, several conditions must be met.

  • Both hard drives on a controller must support CS and have the jumper set to CS.
  • A special cable must be used where the drive setting, master or slave, is determined by its position on the 40-pin ATA cable. The hard drive on the end connector of the cable is master device 0, while the hard drive on the middle connector is slave device 1. Ultra66 and Ultra100 cables are already CS ready and ship with computers even if they do not support Ultra ATA/66, or higher, or have a controller card.
  • The host interface connector must support CS. For the host interface to support CS, pin 28 must be grounded. Hard drives can be further configured through the BIOS Setup Utility.

Since October 16, 2000, all IDE or ATAPI devices, including but not limited to hard drives, CD/DVD drives, CD-RW drives, and so forth, are shipped from Gateway with Cable Select (CS or CSEL) as the default jumper setting.

Step 9: Set CMOS


Before you can use your hard drive, you have to tell your computer about it by changing the CMOS settings. However, newer hard drives use the cable select setting, which should automatically configure the drive. See the "Set CMOS for a New Hard Drive" tutorial for more information.
Step 10: Format the New Drive

Please refer to the help file in your operating system on how to format your hard drive. In Microsoft® Windows® XP, from the Start menu, click Help and Support.