6 steps for adding a hard drive
Adding a hard drive is not exactly the most challenging of the tasks existent, but there are a few things you should watch for when undergoing such a task. This guide will show you step by step how to accomplish this smooth and fast. 1)First you must remove the case of your PC. You must take great care not to disturb the cables inside too much. Also it is recommended to first put your hands on something metallic beforehand in order to get rid of the static electricity. I know that this might sound a little bit too much, but I assure you that it can prevent a lot of strange incidents. 2)Before actually adding the hard drive, take the unit itself and set the jumper to auto-select or cable position. This will enable the hard drive to be usable no matter if it will be a in a master or slave position on the IDE cable. 3)It is now time to check your IDE cables. Your computer should have two of them and each one of them can hold two devices such as hard drives and CD-ROMs. You should find an appropriate slot for your hard drive and insert it into your hard drive. 4)Now your hard drive needs some power, so find a free power connector inside your computer. They a have a socket with four holes ready for the hard drive pins and they come, quite logically, from your power source. 5)Screw the bolts to fix your hard drive safely. You should always try to leave some space beneath and above the drive itself to allow proper heat dissipation and to also avoid the vibrations that might come from other devices. Always use the special bolts designed for hard drives, never use those that are meant for the case. 6)The hardware part is all but over, but as you are most likely aware there is more to adding a hard drive than the physical process itself, so close the computer case carefully, push the power button and start the PC. From this point it is time to enter the BIOS setup. In order to do this you must press the DELETE button during the start. In the BIOS menu you should have a feature called something like "IDE auto detect" or "HDD auto detect" depending on the firm who programmed the BIOS itself. Simply run this feature and press "Y" anytime a new hard drive is detected, if you did everything right this will happen only once. Save the configuration and exit the BIOS software. This should just about cover at least the basics of adding a hard drive to your system. Further on depending on the operating system that you are using you must format and partition your brand new hard drive according to your needs.
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