How to properly connect a second hard drive to a computer. Additional hard drive how to install

Installing a second hard drive on your computer can improve system performance and generally increase the amount of storage space you need. Most commercial computers have built-in support for IDE (PATA) or SATA (Serial ATA) for connecting hard drives to the motherboard.

Modern operating systems support any type of hard drive, regardless of the type of hard drive already installed on the computer. Contrary to popular belief, installing a second hard drive does not require professional technical training, but does require minimal skills in disassembling a computer and replacing its components.

In fact, installing a second hard drive only requires an additional cable (if you don't have one) and a screwdriver. In the event of a malfunction, professional assistance may be required. Remember, there is always the option to refer to the reference manual.

To install a second hard drive on your computer, follow these steps:

1. First of all, create backup copies of the data stored on the primary device.

2. Turn off the computer and disconnect all power cords from the computer. Before opening the case, you must touch something metal to remove the static charge.

3. Before purchasing a second hard drive, find out what type of drive your computer supports. IDE drives use 2-inch flat cables with three or more connectors. SATA drives use thin and round cables.

4. Refer to the instructions printed on the hard drive label for instructions on how to properly set the jumpers. Jumpers are tiny connectors that can be found on IDE drives. They help identify the primary drive. Set the jumper to "Slave (ide2)" on the second drive. Also, be sure to set jumpers on the main hard drive to set it to "Master (IDE1)." If you purchased a SATA drive, proceed to step 5. SATA drives do not require a jumper to be installed.

5. Find an empty bay to accommodate the second hard drive. Carefully insert the new hard drive into the bay. Use two mounting screws on both sides to secure the new hard drive into the metal case. Connect the IDE drive to the second connector located on the main cable. For SATA, connect one connector to the main drive and the other end of the cable to the SATA connector on the motherboard.

6. Replace the computer cover. Connect the power cords to it. Turn on your computer. Press F1, F2, F10, or Delete button to enter the BIOS menu. Check if they are detected by the system. If not, then check again that all cables and cables are connected correctly.

After this, configure the hard drive to work with the operating system. If it is new, then first of all you need to assign a letter to it. You can also split it into sections. Using a second hard drive as your primary hard drive for installing applications and storing virtual memory is one way to improve system performance. This will also free up space for the operating system to run.

A typical laptop configuration involves installing two drives: one of which is a hard drive, the other is an optical drive. There is only one compartment for installing a hard drive.

Therefore, in order to install a second hard drive, you need to sacrifice a CD-ROM device (usually a DVD burner drive). For this, there are adapter devices that completely replicate the shape of the internal optical drive with a mount for a standard 2.5-inch HDD.

In this article I will tell you in detail how to replace the cd rom in a laptop with a hdd.

How to determine the thickness of the device

I know of two types of optical drives used on laptops, which differ in thickness. "Thick" has a height of 12.7 mm, and "thin" - 9.5 mm. You can determine the thickness of the device you have installed without disassembling the laptop. To do this, first look at the device manager and look at the product model.

I have this Optiarc AD-7580S. Now let’s visit any popular Internet resource that sells similar products or Yandex.market and look at the characteristics of the device.

As you can see, the thickness of the device, according to the description, is 13 mm (taking into account rounding, in reality 12.7 mm).

If in doubt, you can measure it yourself using an ordinary ruler. You can tell the difference between 12.7 and 9.5 drives with the naked eye.

Where to buy an adapter for HDD to ODD bay

It is a plastic box with a small board with connectors and a microcircuit, also included is a USB cord for connection and a decorative strip on the front side. For some reason, the package included a mini-CD with drivers, but Windows 7 saw the device without installing additional software. Moreover, the device is detected from the BIOS, so it can be used as a bootable CD-ROM.

Every year the amount of information stored on a computer increases. As a result, the computer takes a long time to boot and freezes periodically. And this is natural, because all data is stored on a hard drive, the memory of which is limited.

Users solve this problem in different ways. Someone transfers information to various media, someone turns to a specialist and asks to increase the computer’s memory, and someone decides to connect a second hard drive to the computer. Therefore, let’s figure out how to connect a second hard drive to a computer without the help of a specialist – on your own.

To begin with, you need to completely de-energize the system unit: Disconnect all cables and power cable. Now it is necessary unscrew the side covers system specialist We turn its back towards you and unscrew the four screws on the sides. Lightly pressing on the side parts, move them in the direction of the arrow and remove.

Hard drives in the system unit are installed in special compartments or cells. Such compartments may be located in the rear of the system unit, at the bottom or in the middle; some hard drives are installed turned on their side. If your system unit has several bays for hard drives, install the second one not adjacent to the first one - this will improve its cooling.

Depending on the method of connection to the motherboard, internal hard drives are divided into two types: with IDE and SATA interface. IDE is an older standard; now all system units are designed to connect hard drives with a SATA interface. It is not difficult to distinguish them: IDE has wide ports for connecting a hard drive and power supply and a wide cable, while SATA has both ports and cable much narrower.

Connecting a hard drive via SATA interface

If your system unit has a hard drive with a SATA interface, then connecting a second one will not be difficult.

Insert the second hard drive into a free slot and attach it to the body with screws.

Now we take a SATA cable through which data will be transferred, and connect it to the hard drive on either side. We connect the second plug of the cable to the SATA connector on the motherboard.

All system units have at least two SATA connectors; they look as shown in the picture below.

To connect to the power supply, a cable is used, the plug of which is slightly wider than that of a SATA cable. If there is only one plug coming from the power supply, you need to buy a splitter. If the power supply does not have a narrow plug, you will need to buy an adapter.

Connect the power cable to the hard drive.

A second hard drive is installed on the computer. Place the side covers of the system unit in place and secure them with screws.

Connecting a hard drive via the IDE interface

Although the IDE standard is outdated, hard drives with an IDE interface are still available. Therefore, next we will look at how to connect a second hard drive via the IDE interface.

First you need install jumper on the hard drive contacts to the desired position. This will allow you to determine in which mode the hard drive will operate: Master or Slave. Typically, a hard drive that is already installed on the computer operates in Master mode. It is the main one and the operating system is loaded from it. For the second hard drive that we are going to install, we need to select Slave mode. The contacts on the hard drive case are usually labeled, so just place the jumper in the desired position.

The IDE cable through which data is transmitted has three plugs. One is located at the end of a long piece, blue, connected to the motherboard. Another one is in the middle, white, connected to the driven disk (Slave). The third, at the end of a short segment, black, is connected to the master disk.

Insert the hard drive into a free cell. Then secure it with screws.

Choose free plug from the power supply and insert it into the appropriate port on the hard drive.

Now insert the plug that is located in the middle of the train, to the hard drive port for data transfer. In this case, one end of the cable is already connected to the motherboard, the other to the previously installed hard drive.

Connecting the second hard drive via the IDE interface is now complete.

As you can see, we didn’t do anything complicated. Just be careful, and then you will definitely be able to connect a second hard drive to your computer.

We also watch the video

How to install a hard drive?

The hard drive or hard drive is the computer part that most often requires replacement. This does not happen because it fails, it’s just that the space on the hard drive runs out faster than the rest of the parts become obsolete. In this article we will look at how to replace a hard drive, install a new or second hard drive, without resorting to the expensive services of paid specialists. Moreover, this procedure is absolutely not complicated.

Hard drive formats

Hard drives come in different standards, but we are only interested in the two most common ones:

• "IDE";
• "SATA".

IDE is considered an obsolete standard today, but IDE drives are still very common.

These two hard drive standards differ from each other primarily in their connectors. Both IDE and SATA drives have two of them: a power connector and a data cable connector. A SATA drive has a larger power connector and a smaller connector for connecting a data cable. For IDE drives it's the opposite.

For an IDE format drive, the data cable looks like a cable. In order to connect it correctly, there are special “keys” and protrusions on the cable connectors. There are similar protrusions on the corresponding connectors on the motherboard. When connecting, make sure that they match.

Any operations with your computer's hard drive should only be done when the computer is turned off. Otherwise, this is, firstly, a violation of safety regulations (you can get an electric shock), and secondly, most likely you will completely and irrevocably damage the hard drive.

So, the algorithm for connecting a hard drive, regardless of the format, looks like this:

Installing a second hard drive

It is not always possible to replace one hard drive with another, larger one. Yes, and this is not always necessary. Since it is quite possible to install two hard drives in one system unit. Let's look at how to install a second hard drive on our computer.

In order to install a second hard drive, it is not necessary to go inside the case. There are external hard drives that are connected to the computer using a USB cable. Therefore, let's look at how to install a second hard drive:

If you need to replace the hard drive on your laptop, information can be found in the article.

Many PC users are acutely aware of the lack of memory on their computer. Some people transfer information to various drives, while others decide to connect an additional hard drive. In order to avoid calling a technician or going to a service center with the system unit, many people decide to connect a second hard drive themselves. And this is where the problems begin. The Land of Soviets will tell you how to connect a second hard drive to your computer.

You can connect not only a new hard drive, but also a hard drive from any other computer. The operating algorithm will be the same in both cases. But not everyone simply knows how to properly connect a second hard drive so that the computer recognizes it immediately. Many people do not succeed right away, so these people go to a store or service center, proving that the second hard drive does not work. But in fact, as it turns out, the computer simply did not see the hard drive. And there are reasons for this.

Before you connect the hard drive, you need to figure out how you want to do it. Some computers are equipped with a so-called “pocket” (it can be installed at a service center, after asking for it, or when manually assembling the computer). In order to connect a second hard drive to all other computers, you will have to climb into the middle of the system unit. The essence of connecting either to a “pocket” or in the usual way is the same. The second hard drive is connected to the cable, and the computer recognizes it as a built-in drive E or F.

So, now it’s worth talking about what many people forget to do before connecting the hard drive - rearranging the jumper. A jumper is a jumper that is located on the contacts of the hard drive. What is a jumper for?

Jumpers are used to indicate on the hard drives themselves which of them will operate in Master mode and which as Slave. The operating system is always loaded into the leading hard drive. This means that when you connect a second hard drive in Slave mode, the OS will not boot from it. All hard drives that computers are equipped with are in Master mode. Therefore, all additionally connected hard drives must operate in Slave mode. This is precisely what many PC users do not take into account and connect a second hard drive, which also operates in Master mode.

So, having set the jumper to Slave mode on the hard drive being connected, connect it to the cable inside the system unit. If you have a pocket, then the connection occurs from the outside. Now you can simply boot your computer. It should automatically detect the second hard drive. To be safe, when booting your computer, go to the BIOS (on different OSes this is the F2 or Delete key). From the Boot menu, select the correct options for each hard drive. To do this, set the connected hard drive to Second Boot Device mode.

In addition to the Master and Slave modes, the jumpers can be set to the Cable Select position. To connect a hard drive in this mode, you will need a Y-shaped cable. The central connector of this cable is connected to the motherboard. The extreme connectors of the cable are connected to the drives. These connectors are unequal, i.e. one disk automatically becomes the master, the second - the slave. This information is indicated on the cable connectors. Please be warned that when using such a cable, both hard drives must be set to Cable Select mode.

Where jumpers should be placed to set this or that mode is written in detail on the sticker on the hard drive itself. Also, the same information is indicated on one side of the connector, which simplifies the search for the necessary contacts to which the jumper must be placed.

The above-described connection of an additional hard drive is used for IDE disks. There are also SATA drives. In this case, you will need a special cable to connect the drive to the motherboard. Only one device can be connected to one socket. If you use both IDE and SATA drives on your computer, go to the BIOS to designate the main drive from which the computer will boot.

Connecting an additional hard drive may seem difficult only in words. In practice, everything happens very quickly. We hope that now you know how to connect a hard drive to your computer.