I'm planing on getting a new hard drive for my computer because the old only has 28 Gigabytes. is it possible to take out the floppy drive (which I never use) and have 2 hard drives in the computer while logged onto the same person? Also, can anyone can tell me if most hard drives are compatible with a windows computer.
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Yep what you want will work. Open the box and see if the existing drive has a flat ribbon cable connect that is about 2 inches wide. If so this is an IDE connection. Check for a second open socket for the second ribbon. Look for an available 4 pin power connector. Then follow the instructions to set the second drive to slave. Plug it all up and format the second drive. Or forget the whole matter and get a USB external
inclusive_disjunction
Yes, it is quite possible to have two hard drives in the same computer. Just make sure that you:
1. Have a cable that can reach the hard drive and connect it to the motherboard.
2. Set the jumpers correctly if you use an IDE drive.
3. Have a cover to fill the area where the floppy drive was (otherwise it will look ugly).
All hard drives are compatible with Windows. The only issues you need to know about are:
1. To use a hard drive larger than 137 GB, you must have XP with SP2, or partition the drive into smaller sizes.
2. If using a SATA drive, set it to IDE or Legacy mode to use it with 98 if you have it. You may also need to set it to this before you install the chipset drivers in XP.
3. Old computers (before 2002) cannot use a drive larger than 127 GB.
takabanana
28GB is a lot! Anyway, yes you can have 2, 3, 4, or even more (depending on your motherboard) in the same computer. If you open up your computer (assuming it's a desktop), it will have many "drive cages" - spaces for drives, including DVD and CD burners (those are 5 1/4" wide), and floppy and hard drives (those are 3.5" wide). You can actually use a 5.25"-to-3.5" drive cage adapter (about $5-10) and put a 3.5" drive (floppy or hard drive) into one of the bigger drive cages too.
If you are adding more hard drives to the system, yes you can access them from any user (unless you don't want it to be that way, specifically).
For Windows PCs, the bare minimum you typically need is an IDE (or PATA or Parallel ATA) hard drive. Most newer computers will *also* support SATA (Serial ATA) hard drives. SATA is better, and uses smaller cables (less mess in the computer case). Check your motherboard and its manual to see if it accepts SATA hard drives and/or IDE hard drives - but make sure that you have enough "free" SATA ports, or a free IDE connector. IDE allows 2 drives per cable, while SATA only allows 1 drive per cable.
maniacmartinuk
Any IDE hard disk will work. You should have space inside to install a 2nd drive and still keep the floppy disk drive installed
Anonymous
yes, and yes.