how complicated is it to install a new hard drive?

Question

I want to upgrade to a bigger hard drive, from a 40g to a 120g .
Is it an easy process? I have a Dell Demension 8200, 512 ram,
it has a 40g hard drive ( western digital wd400 caviar enhanced IDE hard drive) .

Answer 1

it should have nortons ghost on a the original hard drive, you'll lose that with the new one. if you have any problems after you install, good luck getting any help from dell!. any problems bring it to somebody who has knowledge of dell comps or a computer shop to help you.

Answer 2

Basically it's not hard at all.



The question is: Is it your intent to have two hard drives? Are you keeping the 40G installed or are you removing it and only using the 120G?



If you intend to install the 120G as a 2nd drive, it is really simple.



First of all, you need to open that Dell up and see it there is currently a physical place for the 2nd hard drive. The Dell I just bought my wife requires that you purchase an additional mounting bracket from Dell before you can install the second drive. This is typical of Dell, HP, Compac, etc., etc. They simply design their cases so you have to buy parts from them.



Assuming your going to have 2 hard drives and there is a place for it do the following.



CRIITICAL: Look at the back of the new hard drive and you will see a small jumper. Look at the jumper configuration figure on the label of the HD and pull the jumper off and reinstall it to set the new HD to "slave".



Open the PC up and install the new hard drive next to the current one. You should receive mounting screws with your new HD.



Find the flat grey IDE cable that currently goes to your current hard drive. There are two black connectors on the gray IDE cable that are close to one end and they are about 6 inches apart. The black connector closest to the end of the IDE cable must go to the master HD which is the one that is currently installed. The black connector that is about 6 inches back along the cable will go to the new HD.



Find a spare power cable leg and plug in the power cable onto the new HD.



Boot the PC up. Windows should recognize the new hardware and will effect the Windows install of it.



You may want to go to the Western Digital web site (www.westerndigital.com) and download their software for easy formatting of the new HD. Yes - it must be formatted. If you are using XP make sure you choose NTFS file format.



Once that is done you should be all set to use the new drive. It will be Drive D and your CD/DVD drives will be E, F, etc.



Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yes, it's very easy. Just take out the old one and install the new one the same way the old one was. That's the technical part.



Then you have to load your OS and format the new drive while following the instructions of the OS as you go. I've seen posts in TechRepublic.com that state that for a large drive it's best to put the OS in it's own partition and use another partition for the rest of your stuff. You will also need to load all the drivers for your hardware. If you don't have the CDs that go to your hardware, before you remove the old HD you'll have to go to each and every site of ALL your hardware and burn the drivers to a CD so you can load them on the new HD.



The only thing is that bigger isn't always better. Before you go buy that new hard drive make sure with the manufacturer of the system that it can handle the larger load the bigger HD is going to cause.

Answer 4

The heck with reading 19 answers. I use IDE hard drives. There is a ribbon that runs between the motherboard and the drive. This ribbon is wider than the floppy drive ribbon. It has a red stripe. Line up the stripe with pin 0. If you look at the pins on the back end, and under the drive, there are numbers. 0 and 40 should be near each other. Also there may be a small notch in the pin section edge. Line that up with the slight raised portion on the ribbon. If it has one. The power connector only goes in one way. If this is a second drive, make sure the jumpers are set to slave. If it is a new main drive set to master, or master multi to have a second drive. Now you should boot up to the drive's cd to format it if it is the main drive. If the second drive, you can boot to that or in windows and continue from there.

Answer 5

No, it's not complicated. The new hard disk will come with instructions, as long as you buy a retail package and not an "OEM" package.



Contrary to what some people are saying, you don't necessarily have to reinstall Windows. Some (all?) HD manufacturers include utilities to transfer all data including OS to the new disk. I know Western Digital does this, don't know about other brands.



Here's the gist of it:



Turn off the computer and open the case

Screw the new drive into an available slot with the included screws

Plug in the power and data cables (they only go in the right way)

Boot up the computer

Run the new disk's utilities to configure the disk and transfer your data

Optional: Turn off computer, open case, unplug and remove old drive.

Answer 6

Just add ANOTHER hard drive, don't replace the one you have, otherwise, you will have to reload all OS and programs. Store data on new drive, keep programs on existing drive. You need more memory! Up to 1 gig. And, if you are adding a HD, why not just go to a 250 gig drive and be done with it? about 150.00 on today's market...They are plug and play..the existing Mother board will most probably be able to handle 2 drives, and the exiting cable may already have the 2nd drive IDE plug on it. Good luck

Answer 7

I have done this. It is fiddly and takes a long time if you replace the drive as it is loading all the programs again. My inclination is to retain your old drive as C: and instal the new hard drive as a back-up drive. Then it will work without reloading everything.



Another alternative is to use an external hard drive. I have a caddy that holds a hard drive. This gets too hot and the USB transfer method is not totally reliable.

Answer 8

it is pretty simple. you have to remove the cover on your computer. there should be two cables coming from the back of your old hard drive, a gray one (IDE) and another(power). They usually also have other plugs on the same cable so that you can use it. either way you need to plug both of those cables into your new hard drive. then slide the hard drive into a slot and screw it in. when you turn your computer on, it will automatically recognize it. oh, and i assume your old hard drive has the operating system on it so you might want to keep that in unless you plan on installing windows on the new hard drive. if you take the old hard drive out, you wont be able to get onto your computer until windows is installed.

Answer 9

its not very hard at all, open the computer, find the (usually grey cable) and see if it has an open plug. set your new hd to cable select.

All this should be in the installation instructions that are with the drive or on the manufactures website.

Answer 10

Usually it's a very simple process. Check with your manufacturor to make sure that the new drive is compatible, back up all of your info, unplug the old one, and pop in the new one.

Answer 11

it's really easy

u just plug in the IDE cable (the wide flat one) and then the power cable (with 6-8 separated wires and a common plug)

do it after shutting down your computer and removing all the jumpers of your new hard drive.

Answer 12

It could be a very simple task. Just follow the instructions that came with the drive.

Answer 13

Go here for info from Dell! Manual with pictures and instructions.



http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/product_support/en/dimension?c=us&l=en&s=gen



Lots of good answers to your question.

Answer 14

Read the directions. If I can do it then so can you. You might have to read them more than once to understand them but I'm pretty sure that you will figure it out.

Answer 15

if as a slave it only goes in one way, your bios is prob set up for auto detect by default so u don't have to worry about that, have fun

Answer 16

It is very complicated. You need to be a rocket scientist to perform this task.

Answer 17

not a big problem... the PC recognizes immediately the HDD... mainly if it's single

Answer 18

if you do that you might have to install windows but its not hard to do if you have never did it before than you mihgt not want to do it

Answer 19

not hard at all

Answer 20

not at all.