Hello everybody,

I've install Hard Drive before(3 years ago). And now I decide to buy a new internal HD. But I forgot how to install hard drive :(

Okay, here is my computer specification:
AMD 1800+
768 MB ram
ECS K7S5A Motherboard.
Currently I've ONE internal Hard Drive with 2 partition(One for Win XP, and the other for Win 98 SE).
2 CD Drives

I used ONE IDE Cable(I don't know what's that call, but it's a cable with one connector one side, and 2 connector the other end.) Because, it has 2 connector in one end, so I connect to my current internal HD and one of my CD rom drive.

Also, I used another IDE cable(I found it in my old 486 computer), it's one connector only(strange, but it's only one)..so I connect to my 2nd CD-ROM drive.

Now, I decide to buy a Maxtor 200GB Internal Drive tomorrow. And I'm running out of IDE Cable(I need to buy one tomorrow too). I decide to buy one with 2 connector. That mean I'll remove my current OLD IDE connector(the one that connect to my 2nd CD-ROM drive)and replace it with my NEW IDE cable. With this new connector, I'll connect it to my 2nd CD-ROM drive AND my new 200GB internal HD.

Is that going to work?

Put the hard drives as master on both IDE cables and the optical drives as slaves on both IDE cables. Make sure you set the jumpers on the drives to the correct settings. As always do any installation of parts with the power off.

I may be crazy, but I'm not stupid...

I never quite followed the concept of putting both a hard drive and optical drive on the same IDE cable. As it is, most IDE cables with the master/slave plugs are too close to each other to do this anyway. SO.........I do this as I always have:
Put the two optical drives on one cable and (if you have two hard drives) place them on the second cable. Making sure the jumpers are set accordingly, place the master drive(boot drive) on the farthest end of the cable and the slave drive on the middle connector. Plug the hard drive(s) to the master IDE port on the mobo and the optical drives on the secondary. It works every time. And yes you will need a cable that has two connectors. That cable you got from the old 486 will not do for what you intend.
And Setti, I didn't mean to insult anybody, I was grumpy at the time.

ASUS P5GD1
P-4 3.4 SOCKET 775
1G Corsaire PC400
ABIT RX600SE 256MB PCI-E

oh wait a minute...

Put HD as master on both IDE cable?
But I plan to use my new HD as secondary HD.

I'm not going to put OS in my secondary HD. My windows will be stay on my current old HD. However, I'll install games in that new HD.

So, my new IDE cable will be connecting to my new HD AND CD drive.

By the way, since my current HD have 2 partitions with 2 OS (XP and 98 SE). So it displays 2 drives in "My computer" C:(Where it contains my windows 98 SE) and D:(My Windows XP). When I'll install my new HD tomorrow, what will be the letter? Is my old HD will STILL be C: and D:?

TO hapeekrapee:

Sound good, but the might be a problem with your solution..

My current HD has 2 partitions as mentioned above and I've install a lot of games in it already.

So if I changed to another IDE port...is my drive going to change? that mean it will screw up my registry...For example, some games/program may "remember" some files that are in "D:\Documentns andseting..etc" but now , if we change the IDE cable...will it changed the drives letters?

oh, how stupid am i...

I realized that I'm not using my old 486 computer anymore, so I decide to remove all stuff in it...and I FOUND A IDE CABLE.(with two connection(master, slave).

So, do you think the IDE cable that I just found can put it in my current computer? for my new HD that I'm going to buy tomorrow?

By the way, by adding a new HD, is my old drive's letters will changed?
As I mentioned before, my current HD is partioned into 2 partition. (Windows 98 and XP in C: and D:).. If I add a new HD tomorrow..will those letters changed? I hope not, because if it changed, my program/games MAY not work.

Using WinXP allows you to reassign all drive letters in the system except the boot partition so that wouldn't be a problem in WinXP, but in Win98 changing cables will cause problems. Do not use that cable from the 486. That cable will only allow 33MB/sec transfer speeds at most. You need an 80 wire/ 40 pin cable. These are colored on the ends. Blue to MB, grey and black to drives. If using CS setings then the grey will be the slave. I recommend using Master/Slave. Then you can place either the grey or black on the Master or slave.
hapee
The concept of making the optical drive comes from the days when you wouldn't get an optical drive to work as a master. This was common until recently. I still recommend separating them because the usual reason for having two optical drives in a system is to copy files from one optical to the other. For best transfer rates these should be on opposite channels.
Victor
I'm afraid you are going to have some problems installing a 200GB in that system. First of all I don't think the BIOS will recognise the 200GB as a 200. drives larger than 128/137GB require two things to work right. One, the BIOS must be 48 bit LBA compliant, which I don't think your board is. Second the Operating system must also be 48 bit compliant. Win98 isn't and WinXP requires at least SP1 to be compliant. If the drive were recognised by the BIOS you could partition the drive to less than 128GB to allow Win98 to use the partitions. You can try the drive if you already own it but as I said, I don't think the ECS board will handle it. You need to watch the screens at POST to determine if the drive is seen correctly. If it doesn't show in one of those screens, identified by dodel number then you have a problem. All is not lost if that is the case. If you have and open PCI slot you can get an add in controller card that will overcome the BIOS problem. The Win98 problem remains. You will need to partition.

If you want to keep your C: and D: adresses the same as they are you must partition the new drive as an extended partition and NOT Primary. The plugging of Master or Slave has no affect on the drive addresses. You can plug the drives as Setishock suggested. That's preferable for performance reasons. But you 'can' put the hard drives on one cable and the optical drives on the other. If you run into problems with your optical drives, then split them up.

hi ham30,

Ok, I think I don't really understand what you are saying(sorry, I'm not good in these computer stuff).

Ok, what I'm going to do is I'll buy a new HD tomorrow and install it as Seishock suggested.

so it will be:
Primary Master: Old HD
Primary Slave: CD drive
Secondary Master: NEW HD
Secondary Slave: 2n CD DRIVE

Am I correct?

I don't understand your part about "If you want to keep the old C: and D: drive" part.

My current HD is partitioned. Contains 2 OS(Windows 98 SE in C: and Windows XP in D:). But actually, it's only ONE single hard drive.

What I'm going to do is, I'm going to buy a NEW HD tomorrow. I WON'T put any OS in that drive and I'm going to put into my secondary MAster slot.

If I do that, will my OLD HD's C: and D: remain C: and D:? I think it will...hope I'm right. I hope I don't need to do what you mentioned above about "extended partition" stuff like that are very complicated to me :(

ham30

The two OSes are most likely on a primary and a logical drive in the extended partition. That is the most common. I don't think the poster wants to re-install two OSes. His big problem is that 200GB anyway.

Okay guys,

Some of my friend told me that as long as if I put my new HD into Secondary master, it won't changed the (C: or D:) of my old partitioned Hard Drive which located in Primary Master.

Hope he is right...what do you think?

Ok, to make things simple, I'm going to summarized here:

My current configuration:
Primary Master: My current partitioned Hard Drive. Which contains 2 OS. (C: Windows 98 SE, D: Windows XP).

Primary Slave: CD drive
Secondary Master: 2nd CD Drive.

I'll put my NEW 200GB Hard Drive tomorrow..so it will become:
Primary Master & Slave:(Same as before)
Secondary Master: NEW Hard Drive
Secondary Slave: 2nd CD Drive.

Yep, it "looks" fine to me. And I think after doing this, my old partitioned HD will be intact. :D Hope I'm correct.

Set it up like this Vic:
On the first IDE cable connect your Master and Slave HARD DISK DRIVES, both on the SAME cable. Connect this cable to the primary IDE port on the mobo.

On the second IDE cable connect your Master and slave OPTICAL DRIVES, both on the SAME cable. Connect this cable to the secondary IDE port on the mobo.

In each scenario you will set the jumpers as Master and Slave, making certain the one designated as master is on the farthest end of the cable and that the one designated as slave is on the middle connector.

This will result in your old hard drive (with the OS) as being the primary master and your new hard drive as primary slave. And your optical drives as secondary master/slave.
All the partitions on your old drive will stay intact. However, as Hill said, you will run into problems partitioning that 200GB drive. I suggest you put it in and use the CD/floppy provided with the drive to partition it, following the directions carefully. Your other choice is to partition it from within windows using the drive manager. If you have SP2 installed it should see the whole 200 gigs.

ASUS P5GD1
P-4 3.4 SOCKET 775
1G Corsaire PC400
ABIT RX600SE 256MB PCI-E

victorti83plus, please ignore my posts.

Othehill, yup I understood his problem. I was trying to explain that if the new drive is partitioned as a Primary partition it can change the drive assignments. It will be assigned D: and the second partition on the first drive will be probably be assigned E: If it's partitioned as an 'Extended' partition, it will not be assigned D:.

But actually XP does all kinds of weird things with drive letter assignments, so I think I should have kept quiet and not said anything.

wait a minute, wait a minute..

I've never think of partitioning my 200gig internal hard drive...do I HAVE TO partitioning it??...hope not. I'm using Windows XP SP1..and I'm NOT going to upgrade it to SP2, cuz it WILL make my games won't work. So what will happen if I don't partitioning my 200 gig hard drive?

By the way, my bro want me to buy a EXTERNAL hard drive probably instead...so in case of EXTERNAL hard drive..I think I don't need to worry about which IDE connect to where and I don't need to partitioning the EXTERNAL hard drive right? Because it's simply connecting to my USB port. Am I correct?

ok, ignore my "external hard drive part" in my last post.

By the way, what will happen to my Wins98 SE and WinXP(not sp2,it's "version 2002")? Can it detects the new 200GB hard drive?? or I have to partitioning the 200GB internal hard drive in order to let my win 98SE and win XP to detect it??

The external drive would be better. I have one of those boards and I don't think it can handle the 200GB. I would worry more about compatibility right now and not about drive letter assignments. I made a long post describing the issues you face. If the drive is going to be strickly for storage then External is fine. Do you have USB2 on that MBoard. Early versions were USB1. Run Everest Home Edition and post back the version of the board. With an External drive you won't have the 48 bit LBA issues. Look here for more information on 48 bit LBA. I recommend you buy the EXTERNAL drive. One more thing worth mentioning. If you do get an external drive there are still drive letter assignment issues. The easy way around that is this. After the drive has been installed you will get an icon in the tray that allows you to safely disconnect the drive. This is necessary to assure no data loss. Simply do that and shut the power switch off on the external enclosure. On bootup, leave the switch off until the computer has completely finished booting. Now turn the power switch on and the partition/s on the external will be recognised and will be assigned letters at the end of your drive order, so nothing internal is changed. Hope this helps.

oh, so you mean that External 200GB hard drive is like my little "mini Cruzer 250MB little USB drive"?
Sound very convenient.

But I'm planning to install GAMES. And I heard people saying that External drive ARE SLOEWR. And games need to be FAST. See the problem? And my computer only support USB 1...not 2.0 :(

But...is it only during the "loading" of the game which is slower? or it will affect the OVERALL gaming speed?

If it is only the "loading" at the beginning. Then I can go for external drive....please reply

Sorry, i forgot to ask that...

So you mean that no whether what OS i got...if I'm using EXTERNAL 200GB hard drive, my OS can detect the WHOLE 200GB?

That is correct. You will need to install drivers with the Win98. If only USB1 it will be slow. A controller card may be a better solution then. I beleive you will need to break the drive into two partitions in order to use it with Win98. This is an unusual configuration. One of your concerns was the drive letter assignments. You could install a HD and create 2 logical drives in it. This would mean the letter assignments would be at the end. To sum it up you either need a USB2 card or a IDE controller card. One other thing to mention. Do you have another drive bay and will your power supply handle another drive. Drives don't draw too much but it is something to think about.

I think this issue is going to be too confusing...

Well..3 of my friends told me that external HD would be too slow.

So I think I'm going to stick with internal HD then...

And install it in secondary master...
Cuz half of the people here told me to install it in secondary master.

Oky, I know that win98 can't handle that 200GB hard drive. And my Windows XP (Version 2002) may or may not work.

BUt when we are talking about that...is it it can't detect the drive at all? or you can still use the drive?..but not in full potential?

Please clarify me.
Thx.

If you don't want to belive me then look here: http://www.48bitlba.com/usbharddrives.htm

And here: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q305098#kb1

I don't know if I misunderstand you or what, but.

In my last post, I mentioned that internal hard drive is faster than external hard drive...So now i'm interest in internal hard drive.

the 48bitlba thingy talk about the "usb 1, and 2.0" stuff. If you are talking about USB, then I think you are trying to say that WIN XP can use the full capacity of that 200GB of the EXTERNAL hard drive..

BUt I'm interest in INTERNAL hard drive...

Well, I DO hope that WIN XP (without server pack) can use the full capacity of that INTERNAL 200GB hard drive.

WinXP with SP1 can use the whole 200GB. Your MBoard can't. Read the threads I just posted links to and you will understand better. If the MBoard doesn't support 48 bit LBA and you proceed anyway what will happen is that about 120GB of the HD will show. If you try using it, eventually your data will get lost or corrupted.

omg....

I still don't really understand what happen.

The microsoft link you gave me is only saying Windows 2000 may not work...and how come you say Win XP SP1 work? (mine is version 2002..which is older). But it's still Win XP.

The first link that you gave me keep mentioning about USB this, USB that...I'm talking about internal hard drive...:/

My motherboard can't? How did you know? I can't find it anywhere in the links that you mentioned saying that my motherboard(ECS k7S5A) won't work on 200GB hard drive. :/

Ok lets say it doesn't work for 200GB.. What is the maximum HD that I can read for my WinXP version 2002?

Ok, I found a website:

http://www.short-media.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-1072.html

This guy has the same motherboard as me.
At the beginning, he didn't get the full capacity of the hard drive. But after installing Windows XP SP1, he now can get the full 200GB hard drive capacity.

I still don't understand why you said ECS K7S5A motherboard won't support 200GB hard drive : /

This is copied from my response #6 "First of all I don't THINK the BIOS will recognise the 200GB as a 200". I didn't think that board would. I am still not sure. Assumein the thread you linked is accurate there were at least 4 versions of the K7S5A. Now that you found that I feel more confident that one of the issues hare may be resolved. Before going any further let me say this. There is still a chance the 200 won't work with that BIOS. I did see a BIOS file dated 2004 on the ECS site. I don't know the purpose of a BIOS update years after the board went out of production. I am guessing ECS may have come out with an updated BIOS to address the 48 bit LBA issue. So, you could buy the 200GB and hook it up. If the whole drive doesn't show, you can either flash the BIOS if that will help, or buy an IDE controller card. The controller card has some advantages. First you get 4 more drive connections. There are cards that support both SATA and ATA. Anyway, even if you get the 200GB to show you need to break the drive in two or not use it with Win98. On that site I linked to there is a link to a hack for Win98 to allow 48 bit LBA. The site hasn't tested it. Going back to knowing the MBoard. I stated I have one of those boards running and I know how old it is. I haven't tried to run a 48 bit LBA drive on it. Anyway, if you want to buy the 200GB the worst that could happen is that you may need to install a controller card. That takes a PCI slot and about $20 bucks. If you haven't settled on what drive to buy, you can get a controller card that will run ATA 133 or SATA 150. The link you said only talked about USB drives, look on the left side for a menu to the rest.

oh i see ;)

Well, it seem 200GB is a pain...

I think I decide to buy a lower capacity that work for my motherboard, and OS(especially win XP).

lets say i'm not going to upgrade my windows XP to sp1...that mean without any service pack upgrade. What is the maximum hard disk space it can accept? together with my k7S5A motherboard. (I buy this motherboard in 2002 I think. and I DIDn't upgrade the bios).
And I'm not going to upgrade the bios neither ...lol

OK, you don't have SP1? Then 120GB is the biggest. That will work with both Win98 and WinXP original. And the BIOS.

Thank you very much for your info. and your time :)

I'll try to find a cheap internal 120 hard drive...
But the problem is I always see 160GB and 200GB outside now T_T

I know, I spend alot of time here with folks just like you because of these large drives that don't work on the systems. Be thankful you didn't learn the hard way.

There are alot of listings for 120GB. Get a 7200RPM if the drive is for games. Look at Newegg.com (excellent site) or at Pricewatch.com. If you find something at pricwatch.com check out the reseller by going to Resellerratings.com and look at reviews and scores. If bad reviews adn scores or not listed at all don't buy from them. Newegg has drives for $78/79 in the 7200RPM.