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Thread ID: 55862	2005-03-21 09:12:00	What to do with spare Hard Drive	sam m (517)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
336479	2005-03-21 09:12:00	Hi, Due to incorrect diagonises of computer fault I now have a spare 40GB hard drive. I figure I may as well increase my learning and instal it as a back up drive. Question is how? I can physically instal it but I read that I need to change some settings (master/slave) but not sure how, why or whether I need to if it is a back up drive. I envision this drive to be like a 'massive" folder where I can copy important documents, pics, ,music etc which saves me burning to dvd's whenever I reinstal XP. Once I physically instal the drive and turn on the computer - what would I need to do? My current system dual boots Suse/ XP (default). I have another idea and that would be to use it as an external hard drive (just need to buy case) and back up that way. Cheers	sam m (517)
336480	2005-03-21 09:18:00	It depends if theres a spare ide connection somewhere. If u only have one hdd on the primary ide, you can put this 40GB in as a slave (jumper it to slave) on the back of that 40GB hdd. Then go into the BIOS and set the primary slave to AUTO then save the BIOS settings, thats it. You have a 40GB as a backup hdd. If it is formatted already or has something on it now. You'll be able to use it after u do the above (in Windows). BUT then if u want it for Suse, you'll have to reformat it once you do the above. After Suse boots.	Speedy Gonzales (78)
336481	2005-03-21 09:24:00	You can use it as a removable backup drive. Just need to get a removable hard drive caddy that fits in a spare 5.25" bay (the ones the CD/DVD drives use). DSE sells these caddy's for about $27? [edit:] Here is the device I was meaning - 3.5" Removable Rack & Tray (www.dse.co.nz) You just need to make sure the jumper on the hard drive is set to slave, and you plug in your hard drive to the spare connector on your IDE cable which also has the other hard drive attached (Primary IDE). Once it is installed you need to format it. This is really easy to do and you can use XP's disk management. Format it as FAT32 so that SuSE can also use the drive. Then consider the drive as one large file system where you can just save your files. You might even want to make two partitions on the drive for ease of use. By having it as a removable drive, this ensures that your backup data (or valuable files) can be kept safe if you go on holiday etc as the drive can be left with a friend to look after.	Jen (38)
336482	2005-03-21 09:26:00	I read that I need to change some settings (master/slave) but not sure how, why or whether I need to if it is a back up drive. I envision this drive to be like a 'massive" folder where I can copy important documents, pics, ,music etc which saves me burning to dvd's whenever I reinstal XP. On the drive are a number of pins, 2 of which are usually connected by a little connector (jumper). Your drive manufacturer's website should have a document that will show you how to correctly set the jumper to Slave. Some drives default to Slave if the jumper is removed all togther. So do that, install the drive either on the same ribbon cable as your main drive (Primary Master) in which case your old drive will be Primary Slave. Or connect it to the other ribbon cable, which would possibly have your CD drive on it, and depending whether your CD is master or slave, you would have set the old drive to the opposite. Connect a power lead from the power supply, close everything up and reboot. The BIOS should auto detect it, so no need to configure BIOS. If it's not recognised by Windows, then post back and we'll advise on BIOS settings. Go into Computer Management, and format the drive, and Bob's yer uncle, all done.	Greg (193)
336483	2005-03-21 09:28:00	If however you don't have an IDE cable with master slave connections, PM me as I'm looking for a cheap second hand HD :p:p Joke :)	Myth (110)
336484	2005-03-21 09:30:00	You might be confused about the slave/master talk. Go to the manufacturers website and you will find information about setting the drive to Slave/master and instructions on installing the drive. Good luck, Rob	theother1 (3573)
336485	2005-03-21 09:33:00	Format it as FAT32 so that SuSE can also use the drive. Then consider the drive as one large file system where you can just save your files. You might even want to make two partitions on the drive for ease of use. That's a good idea. But keep in mind that if your XP drive is NTFS then certain files (a rare few) won't copy properly to FAT32 drives. As above, if you divide it into two partitions I believe you could format one as NTFS and one FAT32	Greg (193)
336486	2005-03-21 11:18:00	Thanks guys, I have found info on changing drive to slave so will do that now and plug it in. Nice advice about partitioning FAT32 and NTFS so will do that and also will investigate the removeable caddy thing tomorrow. cheers	sam m (517)
336487	2005-03-21 12:30:00	Better still, partition it into NTFS and FAT32 partitions no greater and not equal to 7Gig for maximum utilization of the hard drive space. Name each one with a name ie Dr1, Dr2, Dr3, that you can recognise, as Windows can arbitrarily assign drive designations, ie C, D, E, because you may want to move this drive to other computers and if you do not do this you will have difficulty identifying the drive that your data is on, and start the first one at say, 6.75Gig and progressively reduce back down in .25Gig steps. Also make them Logical Partitions as I remember from when I did it. This technique is as a result of the 32 bit storage system as far as I remember when I researched this before I set up my 40Gig hard drive for just such a purpose as you have described.	zqwerty (97)
336488	2005-03-24 10:17:00	Another suggestion is to install an OS on your 40gig drive so that it is bootable if your master drive falls over or if you transfer it into another computer. Make your current master drive the Primary Drive (using Fdisk) to ensure that it remains the boot drive in normal use.	Robin S_ (86)
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