Internal vs. External hard drives question...

[vi5]

Right now I have a relatively new Dell computer. 40 Gig hard drive.

However, I also have an external USB connected 80GB hard drive to store all my music. However, at this point that is almost full and I want to upgrade to a bigger hard drive.

If I get an internal one (mostly because they are less expensive than the external ones), can I have it exist independently of my C: drive which has all my permanent programs, etc. on it?

What I'm getting at is right now my external drive is my G: and exists entirely apart from my C: drive. Would an additional internal drive work the same way?

[BigMcLargehuge]

1. yes, you just have to set the HD jumpers to "slave"

and assign it a number when you go through the install process

[LibLabUK]

2. EH?

"and assign it a number when you go through the install process"

What's this step?

I've built countless computers and never had to assign any numbers after installing a hard drive.

[KurtNYC]

3. An IRQ number different from all other hardware

Thats my guess

[BigMcLargehuge]

4. I meant drive letter... LOL

sorry writing about MPLS and all the labels are numbers...

[LibLabUK]

6. Ahhh..

I was wracking my brain trying to work through the steps for installing a new HDD in a windows box and couldn't think of anything except altering the boot-order or maybe volume name... but I didn't think those were what you were talking about.

[slackmaster]

5. An IDE drive can use either Master/Slave or Cable Select

a.k.a. "CS". With two drives either you have one set to Master and the other set to Slave, or both set to CS.

On CS the drive at the far end of a three-connector ribbon cable is (usually) drive 0, the one on the middle connector is drive 1.

[LibLabUK]

7. But..

Isn't that automatically assigned?

[slackmaster]

9. Yes, drive NUMBER is automatically assigned

With any version of windows higher than 95 (I believe) you can assign any LETTER you want to any drive.

Here's a semi-off-the-wall suggestion for anyone who wants to stay with an internal drive but wants a larger one (and not have to reinstall the whole OS and all applications):

Norton Ghost is very good at copying entire drive contents to another device. You can use it to back up the contents of your present C: drive to another device, even a USB drive, then down-Ghost back to a replacement IDE drive. You just need to be able to get Ghost going from a boot floppy, which is pretty easy.

[LibLabUK]

13. Ghosting a drive..

That's a great suggestion.

And thanks for the "Cable select" explanation...

[catmandu57]

8. So how do I make a separate hd the slave?

I'm either going to replace this system, or install another hd sometime soon. Is ut a matter of the cable position or is there a switch?
vi5 the riaa is going to come after you.

[vi5]

10. Hahaha...The RIAA got nothing on me...

Actually it's all my cds and vinyl which I've converted. It took me about a month but I now have aver 1,500 albums in digital format on my computer.

[BigMcLargehuge]

11. there is a little jumper panel on the front of the drive.

with an illustration that tells you how to set it for Slaving

[LibLabUK]

12. This may help

Those white "pegs" on the back of that hard drive are how you set it to slave.

There will be a little diagram on the drive showing which pins you have to cover with the pegs.