How to connect a second hard drive to the computer: difficulties and recommendations

Often unstable operation of the computer associated with the lack of free space on the hard disk. To resolve this problem, delete unnecessary files, but if those are not available, you need to install on PC additional HDD. In this article the connection instruction of the second storage device and outlines some of the pitfalls that may wait for the user when executing this operation.

Motherboard Support

So, how to connect a second hard drive to the computer? "SATA or IDE ports soldered on the motherboard?" the first question that should be answered before installing the HDD. You need to find out what model of motherboard installed in the system unit. This can be done by installing a program on your computer AIDA64. This utility shows the full information about your computer. In the left part of the main application window just click on "motherboard" to learn the model. After that you need to find the documentation on the motherboard and find out what connection ports for the drives are installed, SATA or IDE.

If the documentation is to find, need to examine the internal computer of your own. To do this remove the left cover of the system unit by loosening the mounting bolts on the back side. Hard drives are located in front of the PC case in the special pockets. Note the ribbon cable that goes from motherboard to the HDD. When it is wide, then the connection interface of the drive is IDE, narrow - SATA.

After a visual inspection has left no doubt about which type of connection is used on the motherboard? In this case, disconnect the ribbon cable from the drive and pay attention to their cut. If the SATA cable is in the connector slot in the form of the letter "G". If the IDE connector will be a rectangle with two rows of holes.

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Pay attention to the area of the motherboard where the ribbon cable from the drive. If all ports are busy? If no free ports to plug the hard drive classic way will not work. Also take a look at the cable itself, if the interface connections of the HDD are IDE. Usually there are two connectors under drives, and one of them may be free.

Before you connect a second hard drive to the computer, see if in case of equipment pockets for the installation of drives. If not, the hard disk can be put on the bottom of the system unit, but it is unsafe for the equipment. When you move the computer's hard disk will hang, and there is a possibility that it will damage the elements of the PC or he will fail.

Hard drive Selection

Before you connect a second hard drive to the computer, it must be purchased. After defining the interfaces you can start a recruitment drive. Remember that for a computer best suited hard drives size 3.5 inches. Smaller samples are intended for installation in laptops. Although, if there are any settings for the HDD form factor 2.5 inch, you can install it in a special casing adapter and use a desktop PC.

You can Also determine what hard drive capacity you will need. If it is solely stored documents, enough to buy a HDD capacity of 320 GB. If it is assumed the storage of high-definition movies and computer games, it is better to choose hard disk of at least 1 TB.

It makes sense to pay attention to the characteristic speed of read and write data. The rule here is one: more is better. Although, if you use your computer only for office applications that do not make sense to pay more for this feature.

The Correct jumper settings

Users of this motherboard which has only IDE ports, you must configure jumpers. How to connect a second hard drive to the computer where to put the jumper? So, if the circuit is to be connected only one HDD, the jumper should be set to Master and the drive connected to the far connector of the cable. If one wire is attached to two drive, the additional hard drive jumper must be set to slave, and he must be connected to the connector, which is located at a distance from the edge of the plume. On a SATA disk set jumpers not required for each drive uses a separate cable.

How to connect second hard drive to the computer?

The Order of installation for HDD drives with any interface is the same. Regardless of the type of hard drive for its installation, perform the following steps:

1. Power off the system unit.
2. Remove the boltsholding the left cover, and remove it. Usually this should pull it back.
3. Install the drive in the pocket of the system unit. When properly installed the slots for the screws on the mounting location of the hard drive and the holes on the HDD match.
4. Tighten the securing screws.
5. Before you connect a second hard drive to the computer note to connect cables to the first. Connect to additional drive the wires in a similar fashion as to the main.
6. Install the housing cover and turn on the computer.

Configuring the BIOS

Once connected a second hard drive in BIOS you should make a few changes, as sometimes the first boot device is assigned to the newly installed HDD. It leads to impossibility of loading the OS. To configure the BIOS:

1. Turn on the computer by pressing the button power-on.
2. As soon As the screen lights up, immediately start pressing the DEL key or F8. Different motherboards use different buttons to enter BIOS configuration utility. To understand which key to press, watch the messages on the screen or read the instructions that came with the motherboard.
3. After entering the BIOS, navigate to Boot.
4. It arrows, select Hard Disk Drives and press "ENTER".
5. In the menu, move the cursor to the First Drive hit ENTER and select the hard disk on which the system is installed. If you are not sure which HDD to choose, select in a random position.
6. Return to the previous menu by pressing the ESC key.
7. Here you get to the line First Boot Device and press ENTER. Sometimes to see her, you should move the submenu Boot Devices Priority.
8. In the drop-down menu, select Hard Drive. Sometimes, instead of this label will display the full name of the hard disk.
9. Press F10 to save the changes, then ESC to exit the configuration utility and reboot the computer.

If after the steps above, your PC will not boot, go back to step 5 and select another drive.

External hard drive

How to connect second hard drive to the computer if the IDE and SATA ports on the motherboard are occupied? In this case, the best option would be to use an external drive. Typically, these devices connect to the USB port. Rarely to FireWire. In the first case, the drive can be installed on any PC in the second - only equipped with a special port. The main advantage of external HDD is portability. It can be easy to connect and disconnect without turning off and without disassembling the computer. However, such devices typically are slower than installed in the PC case.

Operating system Configuration

What the system configuration should be performed once connected a second hard drive to the computer on WIndows 7? SATA or IDE drives, which are often not detected by the system in the file Manager after installation.

To display the new HDD in Explorer, follow these steps:

1. In the search menu "start" enter the text "Control".
2. Click on the text "computer Management".
3. In the left part of the snap-in window select "disk Management".
4. Right-Click on the drive that is not displayed in Windows Explorer. Figure out what kind of HDD should work, compare the indicated volume with real and examining the labels of the partitions.
5. In the ongoing list of actions, click on "new simple volume", then specify file system and cluster size and then click "OK".
6. After the operation, again click the right button of the mouse on the HDD, and in the menu select "Change drive letter".
7. In opened window click the "Add" button and specify the desired letter.