New Disk Drive

The process of adding a new disk drive, especially an IDE type drive is ..usually.. straightforward. The disks, once installed, ....normally.... need to be "partitioned" and then formatted. Traditional DOS tools are used to do this - notably "fdisk", and "format," or special software that comes with the disk drive can do this as well. Whatever OS you intend on installing on that new disk drive, you need a utility to partition it and then install the MBR (Master boot record). What you do is use one of your Win98 startup disks which has all the necessary tools, including "fdisk." "Fdisk" has historically been used by DOS/Windows systems to partition the disk and then create the MBR , and is pretty straightforward. There are many other fancy tools, such as "Partition magic," and especially the Linux utilities, including the Knoppix utilities, but fdisk is sorta like the universal tool. Partitions can either be primary or extended. Fdisk will only create a single primary partition - all other partitions must be extended. This is a particular failing of fdisk, probably intended as such by Microsoft. A partition must be a primary partition if you want to boot an OS from it. Using fdisk to create a primary partition means that you will only be able to boot Windows from this PC [assuming that is what you were going to install]. While you are at the DOS prompt, you can also format the partition if you want, but only with FAT32 file system -no NTFS. If you want to format as NTFS, you will have to do it from within that OS. But there are ways around this. Once you create a single partition, you can install XP/NT4/Win2K and then from within the OS, you can create a second partition, and make it primary! OR.... just install Linux instead, which has a marvelous capability to manage the MBR. Creating multi-boot systems, which will boot multiple OS's is a little involved, but can be done once you understand a few basics like the above. You should always start with the more complete OS's, such as NT4/XP/Win2K/Linux, and afterward install Win98. You will always have to use fdisk, or a similar utility to create the MBR and the first partition however.

The Knoppix boot disk partitions utilities, such as "fdisk [much like DOS fdisk]", "cfdisk" and "qtparted" will allow you to create partitions, and make all 4 primary, and create all different types of partitions, from DOS FAT32 and NTFS tp Linux swap and ext2 partitions. The "cfdisk" utility is especially useful.

When you install a second hard disk, you should just assign it as an "extended" partition, so that Windows doesn't attempt to re-letter your old drives. Windows assigns primary partitions letters before logical partitions.

Beware that "IDE" is sort of a generic term these days. At one time it was "ATA," and later became "EIDE." Everything is pretty much EIDE these days, but it is still referred to as "IDE." Of course we will start seeing "serial ATA" disk drives in the next few years. These run a little faster, and are much narrower, being serial, but they have no real advantage over the older IDE drives yet, other than the fact that they block cooling flows in the PC less.

Older ATA33 or ATA66 drives [ultra DMA mode2,3 and most likely 5400 rpm] install very cleanly. Notice however, that most new drives these days are ATA100 or ATA133, and if you install them on an ATA33 or ATA66 IDE chain, the ATA100 or ATA133 drive will slow down to the speed of the slower disk drive. This is OK, unless you are a speed freak. See if you can put the new drive on a new IDE controller. If your original disk drive is on one IDE controller (one IDE cable) and your CDROM drive is on the other IDE drive, you have a quandry. You can actually buy PCI cards that add new ATA100 or ATA133 controllers. This might be the best way to get the best performance out of your new drive. OTOH it may not make much difference where you put the new drive, because you are putting it into an older PC which might not even be able to take advantage of an ATA100 or ATA133 7200 rpm drive. If you really want to optimize your system, why don't you just buy a new PC - from a name brand manufacturer - they usually come built correctly, i.e. ATA100 or ATA133 capable BIOS and IDE controllers to go with the new disk drive.

Disk drives must have "partitions," which are much like "drawers" in your disk drive. Partitions must be created by special utilities, which often come with the new disk drive you buy, or more generally, on a DOS boot disk, via the "fdisk" command. A much better way is to use Linux/boot Knoppix utility.

The general procedure is as follows:

1. Identify a spare IDE connector - this is the wide 40 wire cable, two 40 pin connectors on it, usually two of these in a PC. A PC can handle two of these cables, and two devices on each IDE cable, for a total of 4 IDE drives. Don't put the new disk drive on the same one as the CDROM if you can avoid it. And if you have one of the newer PCs, with ATA 100 or ATA 133 drives, which may be identified by a color coded connector on the motherboard, don't add an ATA33 or ATA 66 drive to that cable - you will slow it down to the slowest one. OTOH, maybe you just better call me, or your local techie. On an older PC tho, they are most likely all ATA 33.

In the newer PCs which have ATA66 and higher drives, the IDE cables are actually 80 conductor cables, 40 ground wires to go with the 40 signal wires. The cables are identifiable by being much smoother - much finer wires inside the IDC (insulation displacement cable) as opposed to the old cables where you can readily identify the individual wires in the cable. The IDE sockets on the motherboard are usually colored as well. You can always use a newer cable with an older drive, but an older cable on a newer drive may not function too well.

2. Mount the disk drive, connect the data cable and the power cable. pin 1 on the cable is the black stripe. You ....may.... have to figure out which way to plug the cable into the connector. Hopefully it is keyed.

3. Configure the disk drive as master or slave - this is set by one of those itty bitty jumpers. There is usually a label on the disk drive describing how to set it for master or slave. It should not make any difference which connector is master and which is slave on the IDE cable [altho I just took a practice test the other day where they claimed it made a difference - I don't think so!] If it is the second drive [that you have added] on an existing chain, it should be a slave unless you change the master to a slave. If it is the first one, it will be a master. CDROMs should not in general go on the same IDE chain as a hard drive. In some cases, and in most all of the newer PCs, the IDE chain or drive may use the "CS" or cable select options, where the position on the cable determines master or slave. [See 6 below for a discussion of how to tell CS vs normal IDE cables apart..] You need to see how the original drive on the IDE controller is configured - if it is configured as Master, configure the new one as slave - unless you want to boot from the drive at some point in the future. If it is configured as "CS," configure the new one the same, or try slave. You will find some newer PCs with only a single connector on the IDE cable. I am not sure why they do this, but I notice that these are normally ATA100 or ATA133 controllers. You should be able to find and use an ATA100 or ATA133 IDE cable and use both master and slave positions. Be aware that ATA100 or ATA133 cables are 80 pin cables [ground wires added] compared to the 40 pin ATA33 or ATA66 cables.

Be forewarned that you should make a disk drive "master" if you intend on booting from at some point, even if it is one the secondary IDE [you can swap primary and secondary cables later]. So you may have to change a CDROM drive to "slave" and make the new Disk drive "master." After you do this, you will have to go into the BIOS and make sure it recognizes the new arrangement [it may be automatic on the newer BIOSes - just check]. It doesn't make any difference to change CDROM drives around. Just make sure you don't move your existing boot drive to slave, or move it to the secondary IDE controller. PC BIOS's look for the MBR on the first sector of the master drive on the primary IDE controller. It is your job to make sure it winds up there!

Now that I have told you all this, it is possible to install the more advanced OS's such as WinXP/Win2K/Linux and construct the MBR to allow booting from slave drives. The MBR still goes on the first sector of the master drive on the primary IDE, but it can jump to any disk partition to boot. But for disk image copying/backup discussed later you probably want to try to maintain the disk drives as master, and keep the CDROMs as slaves.

4. Boot your Win98 startup disk, run FDISK to partition the drive. Use the Win98 startup disk - it has fdisk on it. Reply "yes" to the initial question in order to get bigger than 512 MB disks! Use FAT32. This is a whole education in itself. Fdisk is very difficult to use unless you know what you are doing. There are some Internet sites which take you thru the entire fdisk experience. Believe it or not, there is a web site which discusses fdisk and how to use it www.fdisk.com - isn't the Internet a wonderful place! The new disk drives usually come with their own software which will do this.

Alternatively, if you know what you are doing, you can use Knoppix and the "cfdisk" tool, but you must be careful if you intend on installing Windows on these partitions! Do a "man" on cfdisk or fdisk! When you are all done, if WinXP won't boot, you may need to boot your XP CD, select the "repair" option, and select the OS, most likely "1" and enter the administrator passwd (blank if you never entered one). You ae now staring a a DOS-like prompt. There are some neat goodies here, like "CHKDSK," "FIXMBR," "FIXBOOT." One of these is likely to fix your problem, especially "FIXMBR."

5. Format the drive via the "format" command. Do this in DOS after running fdisk. Actually you can start Windows after this, it will recognize the disk drive, and you can format it in Windows [at least NT4/Win2K/XP] in FAT32 or NTFS. Again, the software supplied with the disk may be able to do this.

NT4 or Win2k or XP let you perform the [additional] partition and format operations from the OS. So, after you do the initial partition, you can install the drive, boot to the OS, and find the disk management tools to perform the second partition and format all your partitions. Go to Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Disk management.

Are you sufficiently confused by all this disk drive mumbo jumbo!!?? What you really need is a PC with a few disk drives which you can practice on!

6. You need to be careful if you are pulling an IDE cable out of your box of used parts. "CS" cables must have the drives set for "CS." You cannot in general set "master" or "slave" on an IDE drive and have it work with CS cable. The position of the connector on the IDE cable determines if the drive connected is a master or slave - for a 40 wire cable, closest to the Motherboard is master, furthest away is slave. For an 80 wire cable, it is the opposite!! - nearest is slave, furthest is master. Did you catch that? So position a single drive as master accordingly. You should always use 80-wire cables these days anyway! Pin 28 on the Motherboard ATA is grounded if CS is used.

To tell if an IDE cable is a CS: check continuity between the two ends on pin 28. It is a CS if there is no continuity! Remember that pin 1 is the pin connected to the black marked edge.

You may need to be aware that an IDE (ATA) controller can tell if a cable is a 40 wire or an 80 wire cable, which is necessary to run the UDMA drives, i.e. higher speed drives. Pin 34 is grounded at the ATA side by the 80 wire cables.

These pages contain some additional info on partitions, reinstalling windows, and saving image files.

This site contains step by step instructions on installing a new hard drive.

This is a microsoft page on installing a new hard drive in XP.

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