How to Add an Extra Hard Drive

Does your desktop have enough space to store all the films, games and other important data? Well, if you have so many things, you may be running out of disk space. Imagine your computer memory disk to be just like a wardrobe. If you keep on putting clothes, it is going to get overfilled and finally there would be no more space to fill it. It will all be clustered and flooded. Same goes with the computer memory disk, you can only fill data till the time there is space. Once the space gets filled up, you cannot store more data. Regular attempts can cause technical malfunctioning. The world of games and entertainment is pretty vast and people have start playing and watching games and movies on a large-scale. You might also use software programs which you require on a daily basis and cannot store it in your PC due to the large space required by them. Videos, pictures taken by digital cameras take a lot of space and purchasing a good hard drive is certainly not a bad option. So let's learn how to add an extra hard drive to your machine.

How to Add an Extra Hard Drive to Your System

Adding a second hard drive to the computer is an ideal option to get away with storage problems. It is also an important device which protects valuable and sensitive data. With prices of hard drives dropping fast, owning a hard drive is a good financial investment. However, it is also essential to know how to add one in your system.

• Check the computer manual and see what is the space of the existing hard drive and if there is space to fit a new one. The hard disk will be at least 6 inches long with two connections plugged. If there's some space above or below the hard disk, then a separate hard disk can be inserted.
• The next step is to have a good look at the wires which have been connected to the installed hard drive. One would be a power connector and other is called a data connector. The power connector is connected with the main power supply and the data connector is connected to the mother board. If the data connector is a little wide, it is an IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drive. Now, to insert an external hard disk you need a second IDE drive. There should be space to plug in a second drive on the same ribbon cable. If there is no space, you need a second ribbon cable.
• If you have a small size data connector then you have the modern SATA (Serial Attachment) drive and for that you need to have another SATA drive.
• Now, for buying a new hard drive you can go to a retail store or even check out some reviews so that a better option can be chosen. Just buy a normal 3.5 inch hard drive and don't go for the small ones as they are only meant for laptops. Make sure it has the correct cable system, (SATA or IDE) whichever fits perfectly.
• If you are installing an IDE drive on the same cable as the existing drive, make sure you set the new drive jumper to the 'Slave' setting. If you plan to install the IDE drive on the separate ribbon cable and the drive is the only device on that cable, apply the 'Master' setting.
• Installing the SATA drive is much simpler than installing the IDE. Simply plug in the power connector into the drive and connect the drive to the computer motherboard. No need to work on the Jumper settings at all. Just attach your hard drive and start using it.

This is how a separate hard disk can be added to a desktop. As mentioned before, a new hard drive is a great buy and its usefulness prevails long.