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Installing a new hard drive
I’ve got a new 320Gb drive that I want to install on my PC to replace the tiny 50Gb drive.
If I put it in as the master and install XP from my original discs, XP partitions the drive because it doesn’t recognise anything larger than 137Gb. Is there a simple way round this?Steve
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12 Replies
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Over to Dave Rowland…………..
What happens if you install as a slave?? Leave the 50Gb for OS and Progs, keeping the big drive for files?
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update you bios to the latest one.
Ian
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have a look here
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Nick possibly got it covered… but these problems come about because of new drive in old computer scenario. Bios fix normally fixes it but becarefull.
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Thanks for the replies, I think I might go down the route of updating the bios first and see how that goes. I have 2 identical PCs so the home one gets the treatment first.
I think I must replace the existing drive because it’s been running for a few years and it’s not going to last forever, and I would prefer to have just one drive, although I’m warming to the idea of 2 because of the safety.Steve
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Steve, I wouldn’t change a drive just because it has been in there for a few years. New drives can go wrong as easily as drives that are years old. If the old drive is working OK then I would leave it and install the new drive as a slave just to save your files to.
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in that case i would attach it to another sata cable and straight in the board…
replacing the primary harddrive can open loads of problems and you end up re-installing it all. not worth it.do you turn the computer off at the end of the day? if so then thats 1 year usage, drives normally give up the ghost after 2-3 years being ‘on’.
backup is more important then renewing the main drive…
So stick it in as a 2nd harddrive, then run some backup software to copy what you have on the 50GB to the new one.
Oh bios flashing will help, but read the model numbers carefully on the update routine, take a lot of care with it.
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Yes Martin I realise that, that’s why the idea of 2 drives is beginning to sound more sensible. I will need to format the new drive , wherever it goes so presumably if I install it as a slave XP with SP3 will recognise the size.
A question: During the installation of most software a default location is set for saving files ie SignLab, Photoshop, how can I change the defaults to save on the slave drive?
Steve
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yes, you can install to the D:\ drive on the installer, again I wouldn’t lol
Data for the D:\ then back the entire D:\ up… easy -
Steve, not sure about signlab but in inspire one of the dropdown menus in the tools section allows you to change the autosave and save locations. Think photoshop is the same but a while since I used it. You would be best setting up a few folders on the new drive first.
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I thought I would just finish off this thread. Thanks for the suggestions, I thought I’d report on how I did the job.
First off, as suggested I updated the Bios, which was very easy because the motherboard has dual Bios and can be updated from the manufactures site online whilst running windows.
My original problem was that having installed a new larger drive and loaded XP from my original disc the OS partitioned the disc and gave it letters of I & J. A bit of research suggested that not until Service pack 2 did Windows recognise large drives, which was a problem because although I run SP3 I have to start the installation process with the original version. This was, for me, a major problem, however I resolved that at the weekend after finding out how to create a ‘slipstream’ disc which combines the original OS with SP2. A re-format and install with the old drive, USB and card reader ports disconnected produced the result I wanted.So in short I now have a 320Gb drive running as C and the various USB and card reader ports following on in alphabetical order.
For someone whose ‘inside the box’ computer skills can be compared to a cow using knitting needles I’m feeling quite chuffed.Steve
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Just dropped a new drive in here to a larger SATA drive used XXClone to copy everything to the new disc, set it as the new master in the bios and away she went. Had been having a problem with MUP.sys which would hang the system in Safe mode and cause reboots. All now sorted with the new drive. One thing I did find out is that some old Bios’s don’t see SATA drives if they have a bios limit of 150Mb a second transfer rate limit, Jumpers 5 & 6 have to be shorted on the drive for it to be recognized.
Tim.
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