TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Frequently Asked Questions / Tutorials / How do I?
-- how to add a 2nd HDD???? using XP.

how to add a 2nd HDD???? using XP.

**EDIT** Thanks to everybody that replied. I did end up going into windows as Nula said, and did it that way - Thanx man it worked!

Hi,

I really hope someonce can give me some input on the following:

I bought a 100 GB Western Digital HDD and want to add it as my SLAVE hard drive, which will accompany my MASTER Western Digital 40 GB HDD.

I'm running WIN XP PRO, and have hooked up the hard drives in the right compartments using right IDE cables. My BIOS recognizes BOTH of my HDD (lists them WD400 and WD1000). On boot up, I pause the screen and it recognizes BOTH hard drives. My DEVICE MANAGER recognizes both of the hard drives.

I want to partition my 2nd HDD (100 GB WD) and format it, but I dont know how. The 2nd HDD (100 GB WD) DOES NOT show up in "MY COMPUTER" yet it is recognized by BIOS, during BOOT up and by DEVICE MANAGER.

So can someone tell me what is it I need to do now to get this drive partitioned, or just even formatted, to be able to use it?!

Thanks a ton for reading and your input. I really appreciate any help I can get!



>JM<

the new hard drive needs to be ntfs and have the basic system files on it. u need to format it through DOS.

I just installed a new seagate 40gb hd 3 days ago.
I just went to their site and there was software for installing the hd. It was like installing a game or sumthin.
Maybe u could get something like this for yours from a western digital site?
Hope this helps

I recently performed an upgrade similar to yourself (I added a 120 gig hard disk to my win XP system).I also had the same problem as you until a friend pointed out the solution...

Basically, you need to go into start > all programs > administrative tools (or start > all progs > accessories > administrative tools, depending on your setup). Next choose 'computer management' and within this 'disk management'. Here you should see your existing hard disk, plus your new one represented as 'unformatted space' or something similar.

Right-clicking on the new disk will provide some options (i can't remember what exactly) that allow you to initialise, partition and eventually format the disk. Having done all this you should see your new disk in 'my computer'

Before you do all that though you might want to change the drive letter of your cd drive to push it further down the alphabet, so to speak. For example if your cd drive is D:\ you might want to make it E:\ so that your new hard disk can be D. You can do this from the disk management window too.

Hope this helps..

quote:

Originally posted by kirbtastic the new hard drive needs to be ntfs and have the basic system files on it. u need to format it through DOS.

It doesnt need to be ntfs, xp recognises fat32, but make sure the hard drive is formated, most come unformatted. U cna format through dos. and partition through dos as well. Although it is a little complicated for a beginner

i disagree...xp likes ntfs much better

quote:

Originally posted by flystyler U cna format through dos. and partition through dos as well. Although it is a little complicated for a beginner

So why bother? As the existing hard disk is already running Windows why not just format the new one through Windows? DOS is one of those things that should surley only be used when absolutely necessary!

Xp will recognise fat32 up to 32gb.. so you will need to use 3 partitions if u want fat32, or u can use ntfs and get up to 16 exabytes.

quote:

Originally posted by Harri Xp will recognise fat32 up to 32gb.. so you will need to use 3 partitions if u want fat32, or u can use ntfs and get up to 16 exabytes.

Up 2 32gig, i have my 60 gig as fat32, and it recognises it.

I suppose u can format in windows, but i tend to prefere to do it in dos

Boot disk, boot into dos using that

then type:

format c
format d
format e

whatever the name of the drive, and clikc yes, does it really quickly, depending on the size of the hard drive

You cna also partition through dos as well, fairly straight forward, but i would use windows software to partition hard drives, but its easier to do it through dos if u wanna format through dos

But i guess i have always used dos, so its easier for me

This is very useful, thank you. I'll get a new 40 GB HDD tomorrow or on Friday, and this surely will help.

Here's another question regarding the filesystems: My current HDD uses FAT32, but I would like to use NTFS on the new HDD, so that I can use it as one partition, instead of splitting it up in 2. Is it possible to have both FAT32 and NTFS? Or do they all have to be the same?

quote:

Originally posted by Nicke This is very useful, thank you. I'll get a new 40 GB HDD tomorrow or on Friday, and this surely will help. Here's another question regarding the filesystems: My current HDD uses FAT32, but I would like to use NTFS on the new HDD, so that I can use it as one partition, instead of splitting it up in 2. Is it possible to have both FAT32 and NTFS? Or do they all have to be the same?

Well it should be fine to have one hard drive as fat32, and the other as ntfs. But because it is a compression, i dont think u can partition it and have one partition fat 32, and the other ntfs.

quote:

Originally posted by flystyler Well it should be fine to have one hard drive as fat32, and the other as ntfs. But because it is a compression, i dont think u can partition it and have one partition fat 32, and the other ntfs.

Yep, thats what I thought. So the current remains as FAT32, partitioned in 2 partitions, and the new one will be one partition, NTFS

for a start, u cant format ntfs in fdisk, and fdisk only reads up to 32gb unless u get a modded version of it..

like some1 said, use seagate drive overlay software, or just fucking boot from the xp cd and partition it that way.

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.