Replacing OEM Hard Drive

Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger faster
one or is the speed dependent on the CPU? Mine is a Pentium 4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a slave?
And where would I find detailed instructions to do this.
Thanks anyone. Dingo

Greetings --

The answer to both of your questions is, "Yes, it's possible."
Hard drive size and speed is not dependent upon the CPU's
specifications.

However, the ease with which you can do so depends upon the
specific type of installation or Recovery CD that the computer's
manufacturer provided you. If you have a full OEM installation CD,
it'll be no problem. There may, however, be issues if all you were
given is a "Recovery" CD. Some of these are designed to work _only_
upon the original PC, as it was originally configured when it left the
factory; they won't "restore" the drive image to a different size hard
drive. I've even heard of some that won't work if the amount of RAM
has been changed. So, if you do have a Recovery CD, it might be a
good idea to ask the PC manufacturer's tech support if the disk will
work on a new, larger and faster hard drive.

If it seems that the Recovery CD will not work, all is not
necessarily lost. Many hard drive manufacturers provide utilities
that allow you to "clone" the contents of the original hard drive onto
the new drive. This has the added benefit of saving you a lot of time
and effort re-installing the OS and all of your applications.


Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH


"Dingo" wrote in message
...
Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger
faster
one or is the speed dependent on the CPU? Mine is a Pentium
4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a
slave?
And where would I find detailed instructions to do this.
Thanks anyone. Dingo

In ,
Dingo typed:

Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger
faster
one


Yes.


or is the speed dependent on the CPU?


No.


Mine is a Pentium 4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a
slave?


Yes, but no need to move it to another bay. Put the new hard
drive in the second bay and just cahnge the jumpers so the new
one is the master and the old one is the slave.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger faster
one or is the speed dependent on the CPU? Mine is a Pentium 4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a slave?
And where would I find detailed instructions to do this.
Thanks anyone. Dingo

Sure, that's the usual way of doing things. New hard drives are
almost always faster than drives that have been on the computer
for a couple of years or more. Drive speed is not dependent on CPU
speed.

Here's what you do. Buy your new, bigger, faster hard drive. Open
your box and take out the old drive. Put it in another drive bay.
Put the new drive where the old one was. Connect the new drive to
the old drive ribbon and power cables. Use the other connection on
the same ribbon cable to connect with the new drive, and plug in a
power cable to the new drive.

If the second connection on the ribbon cable happens to be used by
something else, you can connect the old drive to the other flat
ribbon cable, using the plug on the *end* of the cable if it is
empty, or the second plug if it already has something hooked to
its end.

Hard drives have something called jumper settings. These are
little plastic chicklets on the back end of the drive that can
change its status by moving them on their pins. You will see a
nice clear graphic chart on both drive showing you the different
positions and their meanings.

In your case, both drives should be set to "cable select." This
will (probably) simplify things for you.

Close your computer. Stick the floppy disk that came with your new
drive into the A drive slot, boot the computer, and follow the
instructions for preparing your new drive for use, and (if you
wish) for copying the data programs from the old drive to the new
drive. You will likely wish to copy over the data, since it makes
changing your drives absolutely painless. You don't need to
reinstall anything.

Don't worry, it doesn't actually move the files from your old
drive to your new drive. It just copies them. If something goes
wrong, the files are still on your old drive, unharmed.

Don't bother fiddling with the Windows "format" command. The
floppy that will come with your new drive (or that can be
downloaded from the drive maker's Web site) is much easier to use,
and has the drive copying software built into it, so you can use
it to prepare the new drive and copy over the OS and other files
from the old drive in one operation. Doesn't take long -- that
drive copying software is *fast*.

You *may* run into a little problem if you buy a really humongous
new drive. Older BIOSs can't handle really large new drives. If
you stick at or below 120 GIGS, you won't have a problem.
Probably, you won't have a problem in any case. There are various
solutions if your BIOS is too old to accommodate the size of the
drive you buy.

1) flash upgrade your BIOS
2) use the software fix included on the floppy that comes with
your new drive
3) get a Promise BIOS card to install, that will allow you to use
even the largest drives. This card takes over the control of the
hard drive from the computer BIOS.

Anyway, don't be afraid to upgrade your hard drive. It can be
intimidating to think about at first, but it isn't that hard, and
you will be glad you did it.

Thank you Bruce, Ken and Al. Good advise and just what I needed to
know. Regards, Dingo

Dingo wrote:
Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger faster

"Dingo" wrote in message
...
Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger faster
one or is the speed dependent on the CPU?

No dependency there and it is possible.

Mine is a Pentium 4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a slave?

Yes.

And where would I find detailed instructions to do this.

Find an expert.

"Bruce Chambers" wrote in message
...
Greetings --

The answer to both of your questions is, "Yes, it's possible."
Hard drive size and speed is not dependent upon the CPU's
specifications.

However, the ease with which you can do so depends upon the
specific type of installation or Recovery CD that the computer's
manufacturer provided you. If you have a full OEM installation CD,
it'll be no problem.

Generally an OS CD has little to do with this operation. A good HD image
program is what's needed and sometimes adequate ones come with new HDs.

There may, however, be issues if all you were
given is a "Recovery" CD. Some of these are designed to work _only_
upon the original PC, as it was originally configured when it left the
factory; they won't "restore" the drive image to a different size hard
drive. I've even heard of some that won't work if the amount of RAM
has been changed. So, if you do have a Recovery CD, it might be a
good idea to ask the PC manufacturer's tech support if the disk will
work on a new, larger and faster hard drive.

All that isn't relevant to the goal EXCEPT how it could affect the later
support of the new configuration.

If it seems that the Recovery CD will not work, all is not
necessarily lost. Many hard drive manufacturers provide utilities
that allow you to "clone" the contents of the original hard drive onto
the new drive. This has the added benefit of saving you a lot of time
and effort re-installing the OS and all of your applications.

Right or Symantec Ghost.

"Ken Blake" wrote in message
...
In ,
Dingo typed:

Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger
faster
one


Yes.


or is the speed dependent on the CPU?


No.


Mine is a Pentium 4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a
slave?


Yes, but no need to move it to another bay.

Heat wise putting it in another bay is IMPORTANT.

Put the new hard
drive in the second bay and just cahnge the jumpers so the new
one is the master and the old one is the slave.

Having HDs on separate cables is usually optimal and both attached as
master.

Greetings --

You're welcome.

Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH


"Dingo" wrote in message
...
Thank you Bruce, Ken and Al. Good advise and just what I needed to
know. Regards, Dingo

Greetings --

Utter nonsense on both counts.

Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH


"root" wrote in message
...


Heat wise putting it in another bay is IMPORTANT.


Having HDs on separate cables is usually optimal and both attached
as
master.

"Bruce Chambers" wrote in message
...
Greetings --

Utter nonsense on both counts.

The incompetent soon expose themselves.

Placing two HDs physically adjacent to one another has a high risk of the
drives overheating unless special cooling precautions are taken.

ATA does not yet offer disconnect-reconnect like SCSI. Two frequently used
HDs on the same ATA cable can diminish performance for both. Put the two
most frequently used ATA devices on separate ATA cables for optimal
performance.

Bruce Chambers

"root" wrote in message
...


Heat wise putting it in another bay is IMPORTANT.


Having HDs on separate cables is usually optimal and both attached
as
master.

"Bruce Chambers" wrote in message
...
Greetings --

Utter nonsense on both counts.

The incompetent soon expose themselves.

Placing two HDs physically adjacent to one another has a high risk of the
drives overheating unless special cooling precautions are taken.

ATA does not yet offer disconnect-reconnect like SCSI. Two frequently used
HDs on the same ATA cable can diminish performance for both. Put the two
most frequently used ATA devices on separate ATA cables for optimal
performance.

Bruce Chambers

"root" wrote in message
...


Heat wise putting it in another bay is IMPORTANT.


Having HDs on separate cables is usually optimal and both attached
as
master.

Greetings --

Yes, you did expose yourself. Why do you insist on digging the
hole deeper?

Bruce Chambers
--
Help us help you:
http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on
having both at once. - RAH


"root" wrote in message
...


The incompetent soon expose themselves.

Dingo wrote:

Hi. Is it possible to replace an OEM hard drive with a bigger faster
one or is the speed dependent on the CPU? Mine is a Pentium 4-1.6GHz.
If so, can I use the original hard drive in the second bay as a slave?

Yes to both; a new one might possibly be speed limited by the
controllers of the motherboard, but that is unlikely if the CPU is a P4.
What may be a restriction is the BIOS if the drive is over 137 GB in
nominal size. That also needs your to be running XP SP1 (or SP2) to
support the needed '48 bit LBA' so it can handle individual numbers for
every sector of the disk.

To transfer to the new drive, What I use is BootIT NG, from
http://www.BootitNG.com ($35 shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng to
make a boot floppy.

With the new drive plugged in as slave/secondary, boot the floppy,
Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on Partition work.
Highlight your C:,Copy, then on left select the new drive (HD1),
highlight the Free Space in it, and Paste.

You might then consider a resize up a bit. Or better leave free space
so as later to make a new separate partition in it

Now click on 'View MBR' and in it highlight the entry for this new C
partition and click the 'Set Active' Click 'Write Standard MBR' and
Apply.

Close out, swap the disks to make the new one the one that boots, and
reboot into XP.

That way you retain everything in use, but still have the old drive
workable so you *could* put it back. When all is well you can go to
Control Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management, select Disk
Management and look lower right for the graphic of the drives. On the
new one r-click the Unallocated space to make a new partition; on the
old, r-click and Format

--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

Thanks Alex. Concise and to the point as usual................:-)
Dingo

Alex Nichol wrote:

Yes to both; a new one might possibly be speed limited by the