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Hard Drive Upgrade
Of all the upgrades you can make, upgrading your hard drive is the most prone with risk, especially if you'd like to transfer all your data over to your new drive. This is a step that shouldn't be undertaken every year or so, but only when you've really outgrown your hard drive or your drive is 4+ years old (which is ancient in the computer world).
The most important program you can have in this process is Norton Ghost. This program allows you to seemlessly clone your old hard drive onto your new one. If you simply try to copy and paste your files onto the new drive, registry information from Windows and the many hidden files your computer creates will not carry over, and your computer will not run as it did.
The cool thing about Norton Ghost is that, after upgrading your hard drive is said and done, you can use it to create a saved image of your hard drive that can be used to restore all of your information if anything messes up (so, you could use your old hard drive as a solid backup drive).
There's a great Norton Ghost walk-through by Radified that will help you with all aspects of using the program and cloning your hard drive. But first, before you clone your hard drive, you have to connect it to your PC!
1) Turn off your computer and unplug it from the wall (a key step!).
2) Open up your case.
Simply unscrew the screws that are circled so you can access your motherboard. You'll want to unscrew both side panels so you can access both sides of the motherboard cage later.
3) Locate the hard drive slots within your computer case.
The hard drive would be inserted in the lower 3.5" drive bay in your PC; you can easily see it in the picture to the right.
4) Look inside the case and locate the IDE ribbon cable (or, as it may be, the SATA cable). For an IDE cable, simply locate an area on the motherboard like the one on the right (first picture) and trace it back up to your hard drive.
For a SATA cable, simply notice the cable pictured in the second image.
5) Before inserting your new hard drive into the cage, look at the back of the hard drive. You should see something similar to the image on the right if you are using an ATA (IDE) hard drive.
Since IDE cables have 2 connectors on them, you can use the same cable to connect both hard drives to the computer (however, if you have an open IDE connector, I would hook the drive up separately). When connecting a hard drive as a slave drive, use the middle connector on the IDE cable.
For the time being, hook up the new drive as a slave drive by changing the pin setting on the back of the drive (example: for the picture on the right, you'd simply move the jumper pin to align with 'SL'. Your hard drive may use different terminology, so look in the manual first).
You then must insert the IDE cable into the appropriate connector on the hard drive. In the image on the lower right, it's circled in red.
Connect the power cord to the area circled in blue in the image; you can find the power cord by going to the top of the case and tracing the the cords down from the power supply.
6) Now, if you plan to use the new hard drive as extra storage space off of your old hard drive (or to back up your old hard drive using Norton Ghost, you're done (after closing the case and reconnecting the power).
However, I suggest that you clone your old hard drive first, using Norton Ghost and the walk-through guide. Then you'll have to go back inside the case, and switch the drives cable position and jumper pin settings on the back of the drives (or else you'd still be booting off your old hard drive). The reason I suggest this is so that a newer, more reliable drive will have all your main files, and you can use your old drive (after formating it once it's successfully cloned) for either extra storage space or as an area where you can backup your new, main hard drive, which I recommend.
To accomplish my suggestion, first use Norton and the guide. Then, do step #1 and #2 again, then disconnect and take out both hard drives from your PC, and then switch your hard drives into their new slots, making your new hard drive your master drive and your old hard drive your slave. Then simply close up the case and you're done!
Next: Video Card Upgrade (Coming Soon!)
© 2004-2007, Matt Totten. All Rights Reserved.
