Adding a Hard Drive

I would like to add a second hard drive onto my system. I have an older Gateway system from 1999 with a PIII 450 MHz processor. The hard drive I have now is a Quantum Fireball CX13.6A which spins at 5400 RPMs and has an Ultra ATA/66 Interface. I was wanted to know a couple of things:

1) What would be my upgrade uptions as far as hard drives go?

2) Is there any way to set up the hard drives so that at system start up I have an option of choosing which drive I
would like to boot from?

3) What is the best way to cool the hard drives if mounting a fan in drive bays of the Gateway case is not an option?

4) Are any particular hard drive brands that you reccomend?

Thanks in advance,

Eric

see below
"Eric Scofield" wrote in message news:fVEpb.1422$In3.242@lakeread01...
I would like to add a second hard drive onto my system. I have an older Gateway system from 1999 with a PIII 450 MHz processor. The hard drive I have now is a Quantum Fireball CX13.6A which spins at 5400 RPMs and has an Ultra ATA/66 Interface. I was wanted to know a couple of things:

1) What would be my upgrade uptions as far as hard drives go?

anything with the P-ATA style connector (IDE badged HDD)
also, the quantum could very well be the restricting factor if you add another drive. i had 2 HDD's and 2x CD drives, and had 1hdd and 1 cd on each IDE channel - i was restricted to the slowest drive (cd drive - ata33). once i had the hdd's and cd's on the same channel, hdd to hdd copy was increase ten fold.

2) Is there any way to set up the hard drives so that at system start up I have an option of choosing which drive I
would like to boot from?

3 ways. enter bios everytime you wish to boot from the 2nd drive (eg, set boot device between the 1st and 2nd HDD). 2) someone sells a cd bay mounted switch, to switch between HDD's for boot reasons - a simple switch. unsure on price, where to buy, or anything else - i just know it exsists. 3) make a dual boot menu. again, i`m unsure how todo this, maybe google will come up trumps. dad uses it for winXP & linux installed on different drives sucessfully.


3) What is the best way to cool the hard drives if mounting a fan in drive bays of the Gateway case is not an option?

cable tie the fan into position? maybe through the HDD caddy holes. however, anything like this will be a bodge. you can get HDD coolers that are rather cheap, that come with 40mm fan(s). fits 3.5" drives in a 5.25" bay.

4) Are any particular hard drive brands that you reccomend?

i`ve owned all 3 major manufactures of HDD's - IDE seagate, IDE maxtor and SATA western digital (but only for 1month to date). i`ve had NO problems with them at all. and all drives have been perfect. i think my dad is running IDE IBM drives, and has been running faultlessly for 2years, without a single reinstall/recovery of winXP

tim draper

1) What would be my upgrade uptions as far as hard drives go?
anything with the P-ATA style connector (IDE badged HDD)
also, the quantum could very well be the restricting factor if you add another drive. i had 2 HDD's and 2x CD drives, and had 1hdd and 1 cd on each IDE channel - i was restricted to the slowest drive (cd drive - ata33). once i had the hdd's and cd's on the same channel, hdd to hdd copy was increase ten fold.

So your final advice would be to keep both hard drives on the same IDE controller? If booting from the newer, faster drive, will the presence of the older drive slow the newer one's performance?

2) Is there any way to set up the hard drives so that at system start up I have an option of choosing which drive I would like to boot from?

3 ways. enter bios everytime you wish to boot from the 2nd drive (eg, set boot device between the 1st and 2nd HDD). 2) someone sells a cd bay mounted switch, to switch between HDD's for boot reasons - a simple switch. unsure on price, where to buy, or anything else - i just know it exsists. 3) make a dual boot menu. again, i`m unsure how todo this, maybe google will come up trumps. dad uses it for winXP & linux installed on different drives sucessfully.

I think I will create a dual boot menu. I want the rest of my family to use the Windows XP Pro and program files on the old drive, and use the Windows XP Pro and the rest of the newer drive for myself.


3) What is the best way to cool the hard drives if mounting a fan in drive bays of the Gateway case is not an option?

cable tie the fan into position? maybe through the HDD caddy holes. however, anything like this will be a bodge. you can get HDD coolers that are rather cheap, that come with 40mm fan(s). fits 3.5" drives in a 5.25" bay.

If I purchase a hard drive cooler, will it be able to fit into a typical 3.5" drive cage with two hard drives?

Hi Eric,
My two penn'th:
1) I doubt the current HDD is holding you back, I believe the CX series is already ATA/66 compliant - check the specs, and also check if it has the necessary 80-strand cable IDE cable (which would have come with the HDD) or ATA/33 compliant 40-strand. Also do you have any other devices on the primary IDE channel (CD-drive?), which uses a slower transfer rate, therefore
these should be transferred to the secondary IDE channel to let your current HDD run at its full transfer speed. BTW, that assumes the mobo has IDE channels that support ATA/66, as the mobo will limit any new HDD as well.

BTW, it is said transfer rates are higher *between* IDE channels than between devices on the same cable, something to do with not needing to use the processor power.

2) Why do you believe this is dual-booting? Windows will recognise two(or more) HDDs and assign them different drive letters, only one installation of the OS is needed for this. You can then use the security options to limit access to the new HDD partitions/folders as you wish. What advantages do you see in loading the same OS to the same PC? (usually people are interested to load two different OSs from the same HDD even, for various reasons) In any case would XP allow two installations on the same PC
Remember the OS should be on the first partion of the master device on the primary IDE channel, in most cases anyway.

Keith

"Eric Scofield" wrote in message newsFXpb.3408$In3.911@lakeread01...
1) What would be my upgrade uptions as far as hard drives go?
anything with the P-ATA style connector (IDE badged HDD)
also, the quantum could very well be the restricting factor if you add another drive. i had 2 HDD's and 2x CD drives, and had 1hdd and 1 cd on each IDE channel - i was restricted to the slowest drive (cd drive - ata33). once i had the hdd's and cd's on the same channel, hdd to hdd copy was increase ten fold.

So your final advice would be to keep both hard drives on the same IDE controller? If booting from the newer, faster drive, will the presence of the older drive slow the newer one's performance?

2) Is there any way to set up the hard drives so that at system start up I have an option of choosing which drive I would like to boot from?

3 ways. enter bios everytime you wish to boot from the 2nd drive (eg, set boot device between the 1st and 2nd HDD). 2) someone sells a cd bay mounted switch, to switch between HDD's for boot reasons - a simple switch. unsure on price, where to buy, or anything else - i just know it exsists. 3) make a dual boot menu. again, i`m unsure how todo this, maybe google will come up trumps. dad uses it for winXP & linux installed on different drives sucessfully.

I think I will create a dual boot menu. I want the rest of my family to use the Windows XP Pro and program files on the old drive, and use the Windows XP Pro and the rest of the newer drive for myself.


3) What is the best way to cool the hard drives if mounting a fan in drive bays of the Gateway case is not an option?

cable tie the fan into position? maybe through the HDD caddy holes. however, anything like this will be a bodge. you can get HDD coolers that are rather cheap, that come with 40mm fan(s). fits 3.5" drives in a 5.25" bay.

If I purchase a hard drive cooler, will it be able to fit into a typical 3.5" drive cage with two hard drives?

So your final advice would be to keep both hard drives on the same IDE controller? If booting from the newer, faster drive, will the presence of the older drive slow the newer one's performance?

yes. atleast it's the safest bet. the speed (weather you have the newer, most probably faster ATA100/133, or the older ATA66) will be restricted to the slowest drive. so the newer ata100/133 will perform like the ata66 drive.

I think I will create a dual boot menu. I want the rest of my family to use the Windows XP Pro and program files on the old drive, and use the Windows XP Pro and the rest of the newer drive for myself.

sounds good.

If I purchase a hard drive cooler, will it be able to fit into a typical 3.5" drive cage with two hard drives?

unfortunatly, i aint seen a 3.5" cage, as they tend to surround the entire drive, and the HDD sits inside the cage. every case i`ve seen has atleast 4 cd drive bays, and presuming you only have 2 CD drives, then you`ll be fine. you can pickup *CHEAP* new cases with PSU's (although i`d use your exsisting psu if its good quality) for less than the cost of a tank of fuel for your car.

tim

Thanks John for responding. I wish to install Windows XP on a new hard drive because I wish to primarily use the newer drive. I still have many files on the old hard drive that I wish to continue to use, but I would want to use the newer drive from which to boot. I want a faster drive, but I also would want the rest of my family to use the older drive. That way I could put all my files and programs on my own drive without worrying about my family screwing something up which they would no doubt do. My current hard drive is ATA/66, and I was thinking of getting maybe an ATA/100 or 133 drive. Besides there is nothing wrong with going with something faster since they are all backward compatible right? There is nothing on my primary IDE channel besides my current hard drive. I'm guessing I should put both the hard drives on the same channel, but would they still run at the rate of the old one even if I put my newer one as master?

Another option would be to put both drives as master and then create a dual boot menu where my family could choose the old drive with windows on it.

Let me know what you think/reccomend.

Thanks again.

- Eric Scofield
"John Smith" wrote in message ...
Hi Eric,
My two penn'th:
1) I doubt the current HDD is holding you back, I believe the CX series is already ATA/66 compliant - check the specs, and also check if it has the necessary 80-strand cable IDE cable (which would have come with the HDD) or ATA/33 compliant 40-strand. Also do you have any other devices on the primary IDE channel (CD-drive?), which uses a slower transfer rate, therefore
these should be transferred to the secondary IDE channel to let your current HDD run at its full transfer speed. BTW, that assumes the mobo has IDE channels that support ATA/66, as the mobo will limit any new HDD as well.

BTW, it is said transfer rates are higher *between* IDE channels than between devices on the same cable, something to do with not needing to use the processor power.

2) Why do you believe this is dual-booting? Windows will recognise two(or more) HDDs and assign them different drive letters, only one installation of the OS is needed for this. You can then use the security options to limit access to the new HDD partitions/folders as you wish. What advantages do you see in loading the same OS to the same PC? (usually people are interested to load two different OSs from the same HDD even, for various reasons) In any case would XP allow two installations on the same PC
Remember the OS should be on the first partion of the master device on the primary IDE channel, in most cases anyway.

Keith

"Eric Scofield" wrote in message newsFXpb.3408$In3.911@lakeread01...
1) What would be my upgrade uptions as far as hard drives go?
anything with the P-ATA style connector (IDE badged HDD)
also, the quantum could very well be the restricting factor if you add another drive. i had 2 HDD's and 2x CD drives, and had 1hdd and 1 cd on each IDE channel - i was restricted to the slowest drive (cd drive - ata33). once i had the hdd's and cd's on the same channel, hdd to hdd copy was increase ten fold.

So your final advice would be to keep both hard drives on the same IDE controller? If booting from the newer, faster drive, will the presence of the older drive slow the newer one's performance?

2) Is there any way to set up the hard drives so that at system start up I have an option of choosing which drive I would like to boot from?

3 ways. enter bios everytime you wish to boot from the 2nd drive (eg, set boot device between the 1st and 2nd HDD). 2) someone sells a cd bay mounted switch, to switch between HDD's for boot reasons - a simple switch. unsure on price, where to buy, or anything else - i just know it exsists. 3) make a dual boot menu. again, i`m unsure how todo this, maybe google will come up trumps. dad uses it for winXP & linux installed on different drives sucessfully.

I think I will create a dual boot menu. I want the rest of my family to use the Windows XP Pro and program files on the old drive, and use the Windows XP Pro and the rest of the newer drive for myself.


3) What is the best way to cool the hard drives if mounting a fan in drive bays of the Gateway case is not an option?

cable tie the fan into position? maybe through the HDD caddy holes. however, anything like this will be a bodge. you can get HDD coolers that are rather cheap, that come with 40mm fan(s). fits 3.5" drives in a 5.25" bay.

If I purchase a hard drive cooler, will it be able to fit into a typical 3.5" drive cage with two hard drives?