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 How to
remove and upgrade a hard drive (hdd)
Free Computer Help By Mitz
When your computer hardware components,
such as your hard drive, dies or you just need to
upgrade, don't pay big dollars for a computer technician or IT guy.
Upgrade it yourself! Once
you have done this you will
realize how easy it is.
To upgrade your hard drive you will need:
- A replacement hard drive. If it is
second-hand you should test it and format in an external hard drive case.
- You should know
How To Open a
computer case safely.
- A Phillips head screw driver
- That's it, presuming you are just upgrading
and have an existing
computer with a motherboard with IDE cables still attached to it.
How to remove and upgrade your computer's hard drive
- Firstly you must make sure the power is off on your
computer, remove all plugs at the back. WARNING: You are dealing with an
electrical item, proceed at own risk. Don't forget to read
How To Open a
computer case safely.
- Open case, usually with a Phillips head screw driver.
- Take note of how your old hard drive is
plugged in and where. Then remove it.
When you do not know anything, the key is to copy exactly what you have seen.
(This is how I taught myself)
- There are three parts at the back of the hard
drive. 1=Where the IDE cable goes. 2=Jumper setting pins. 3=Where the
power
goes. How to set jumper
settings.
- On your replacement hard drive there will be a diagram of the
jumper setting. Set it to cable select or master if it is the only hard
drive in the computer. If set
wrong the system may not find or recognise the hard drive.
- Plug in the IDE. It will have a little
notch in the top to show which way the cable goes in.
- Connect the power that runs from the
computers power supply to the back of the hard drive.. See picture below. The
power supply will also have the motherboard and any cd drives connected to it.
- Close your computer case, plug all of
your cables, and turn the power on.
- The hard part comes now. You have to format
and install an operating system.
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Here's how to format using Windows XP or Vista
NOTES:
- A blue end on the IDE cable means it is a
cable select. A normal black one means you have to set the hard drive jumpers
to either master or slave.
- A master gets plugged into the end of
the IDE cable.
- If you want to upgrade your hard drive
yourself but are still not sure, try asking someone if you can watch them do
it first. If you do not know anyone to watch, try looking for a tutorial on
Youtube.com.
- If you wanted to add another hard drive
you should have a master and a slave, selected with the jumper pins at the
back of the harddrive. However the easiest way is to set them both to cable
select. Then connect them on the same IDE Cable( they usually have two
connections) but put the main hard drive on the last or end connection of the
IDE cable. This way the one connected on the lower is the slave.
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About the Author
Mitz Pantic wrote this article
and others for
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