Jon Hildrum's Add A New Hard Drive

More Space to clutter up with "stuff"

NOTE: If you have a program like the one which comes with Seagate Drives - Use it!! It makes it easier to install and also transfer existing data.

There are software package available to simply setting up and preparing new drives as well as moving data. A couple of notable ones are Partion-it from Quarterdeck, and PartionMagic and  Drive Image from Powerquest.

1. Make sure you have made a boot disk first
2. Gather up the information you need.

You need to know how to access BIOS setup.

You need to have the drive information from the drive manufacturer and information on your motherboard.

You need to know whether your Motherboard supports LBA and larger drives. There are two potential problems here. Older Motherboards do not support drives over 528M. In this case you need to use software which normally comes with the large drives in order to use them. Please read the instructions. Some Motherboards will not support drives in excess of 2.1G. Some of these can also be handled by software which comes with the large drives. Most motherboards manufactured in the last few years have support for large drives. DO NOT USE THE SOFTWARE IF YOUR MOTHERBOARD HAS SUPPORT FOR LARGE DRIVES (LBA). If your motherboard does not and has a flashable BIOS visit the home page of the Manufacturer and see if a BIOS update is available for your motherboard which will provide this support. I have included some URL for places to find motherboard manufacture's as well as some urls for Hard Drive manufacturers. You should do a reboot then enter BIOS setup and write down the Hard Drive parameters for your existing drive.

Note: You cannot mix the various software and methods  for handling large drives. That means you cannot use Motherboard BIOS - Ontrack - EZ drive or any of them in any combination. Thus, if you have a drive using ontrack and you get a new which comes with EZ drive you cannot use both. The preference is always to use the Motherboard BIOS.

3. PLEASE READ THE INSTRUCTIONS - IF there is any disagreement with what I say and the instructions; then the instructions are to be followed.
4. The process for installing a new Hard Drive whether you want to transfer WIN95 to the new one or not is the same to start.
5. Shut down the system. Remove the power cord and then remove the case. Follow the instructions for being careful with static electricity. It has the potential for damaging computer parts. Never touch the circuits pins or traces. Hold items by the edges.
6. Check the existing drive for jumper setting. There are jumpers installed which tells the system whether this is a single drive, a master drive with a slaved installed or a slave drive. There are differences between the manufacturer's here.
7. Make the existing drive the primary with a slaved installed. Then set the jumpers for the new drive to slaved.

   NOTE: It is my recommendation that the 2nd drive be installed on IDE 1 as a slave and that other devices which may use IDE like zip drives, tape drives or CD-ROM be installed on IDE 2.

8. The ribbon cable connect to your existing Hard Drive will normally have a spare Hard Drive connector. Use this to connect to the second Hard Drive. Make sure PIN 1 on the Hard Drive matches with PIN 1 on the cable. The ribbon cable has a red stripe on on side which signifies PIN 1. The Hard Drive should be marked and the instructions will show were PIN 1 is. (Normally the pin closest to the power connector)
9. Connect the power to the Hard Drive. Normally there will be a spare power connector if not go to your computer store and get a Y connector.
10. Connect the power cord and turn on the computer. During the initial boot phase hit the DELETE KEY to get to BIOS setup. (this is the most common way to access BIOS setup but there are several variations from different OEMs- use whatever is required to get to BIOS setup).
11. Use the Hard Drive autodetect function to detect your Hard Drive if your BIOS has this function. It will first detect your existing drive and then your new drive. Accept the parameters.
12. Then go to "standard setup" and check that the size of the drives listed reflects your drive. If your BIOS did not have autodetect then insert the drive parameters manually from the information which came with the drive. Write down the information and save it in a safe place.
13. Use Exit and save from BIOS. The computer will reboot. Boot to DOS. You can either use the boot disk or just hit F8 just as it says win95 starting then select "command prompt" only from menu. If your not quick enough shut down to DOS after win95 has loaded.
14. Now type in at the command prompt FDISK. Select 5 from menu "Change current fixed disk"
15. Select 2 for the new drive (THIS IS IMPORTANT )
16. Select 1 from menu " Create DOS partition or logical drive"  MAKE SURE IT SAYS DRIVE 2 ON TOP. YOU DO NOT WANT TO PARTITION YOUR EXISTING Hard Drive.
17. Select 1 from menu "create Primary DOS partition"
18. AT this time you need to have decided how many partition you want to create and how large you want to make each one. IF you are using WIN95 and/or 16 bit FAT then the maximum size is about 2.1G. This is an important consideration since a large partition uses cluster size of 32K while it is reduced to 16K when the size is less than about 1G.
19. My Recommendation: Make the partition you want to install WIN95 on (if you intend to transfer) large. The reason is that most programs install on this drive by default. Furthermore, even if you install them on other drives they place files in the \windows directory. This is the better approach for most people who is not familiar with managing and organizing programs and disk space.
20. After making the first partition if there is more room on the disk continue to create additional logic drives until all of the disk has been partitioned.
21. When done use Esc to exit all the way out and it will cause a reboot.
22. Let win95 boot and after it is complete the new drive will now be recognized but not accessible since it is not formatted.
23. You can format from a DOS prompt or from win95. I prefer to let WIN95 boot and then format the new drive(s).
24. IF all you were doing was adding an additional drive your done. Close the case. If you want to try to transfer WIN95 and make the new drive the primary drive you should have formatted the primary partition (normally D:) on the new drive and copied the system files.
25. Transferring WIN95\98 to the new Drive.

Note on Drive Assignments.

Hard Drive letters are always assigned as follows: First the primary partions on each drive starting with the first hardrive. Then the logic drives on Hard Drive 1 then ogic drives on Hard Drive 2 and so on. Plan what you are going to do first and the impacts. Here is a simple example and note what will happen if you have programs installed on the logic drives.

Yes, you can partion a drive without a primary partion and make it all an extended partion with only logic drives. It solves a drive letter problem but may cause later problems if you ever decide to remove the C drive. You cannot make an extended partion bootable.

Note: CD-ROM and ZIP drives gets moved after the Hard Drives

This situation becomes quite interesting when using multiple operating systems with different file systems. Plan what you are doing  when laying out your drives to start and any future addition might become a breeze without there may be a need to reinstall.

Here is an example using three different file systems and three different opertaing system just for illustration:

Drives are changing all over the place. You might end up with boot problems for those other operating systems which would need correcting.

Now if you want to transfer WIN95\98

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Last revised: October 10, 1999.