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Hey everyone,
I just got a new PC and to save money, I figured I could keep on using my old HDD alongside the new SSD
What I didn't know, thanks Dell, is that the old HDD actually is two HDDs, exhibit a:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/WnnKz.jpg)
Now, the new Tower is a MicroATX tower, but I had the option to get a second HDD, so I figure at least one of the HDDs have to fit in there, right?
Here's how it looks on the inside:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/GbE72.jpg)
The HDDs in question always appeared as one HDD, even in the BIOS.
How do I get the HDDs in the new computer?
If I can only use one, I guess I'll have to format the one I'm using?
Can I somehow split the two and still have one of them working in the old machine that I'll give to my parents? Obviously I will want to format that one thoroughly...
Oh, the old HDDs are Seagate Barracuda 7200 250 gig.
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You will have to format both of them if you want to use them separately, yes.
In terms of fitting them into the tower they should just slot in right next to the new hard drive you have in there. You will need screws or other plastic things that come with the PC you just bought, I hope you have some provided with your new PC.
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The new Hard Drive is an SSD and it's significantly smaller than the ones I have. They are far too large to fit in the same metal "cage".
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On November 28 2012 22:11 kafkaesque wrote:
The new Hard Drive is an SSD and it's significantly smaller than the ones I have. They are far too large to fit in the same metal "cage".
There are typically 3 different sizes of computer-disks and drives with their associated slots. 5.25" is the largest, which fits CD/DVD players and writers. 3.5" is the standard desktop-harddisk size (as well as floppy disk drives) and 2.5" is the size for laptop disks and most SSDs. You can buy adapter-cases to fit a smaller class of drive in a larger slot. Your old harddisks should fit in a 3.5" slot without modifications and will fit in a 5.25" slot with an adapter. So just identify which type of slots you have available.
After installing the disk, you can boot Windows like you'd normally do. Then go to the control panel -> administrative tools -> computer management. In this screen open the item for disk management, identify your new disk, delete existing partitions (if any) and create a new partition (with NTFS as filesystem).
Since your old machine used the 2 disks as one entity, it most likely used some form of RAID to combine the 2 disks. This means that simply formatting the partition on the disk is probably not possible, so you'll have to create a new partition.
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So I could put it in the slot below the DVD drive if I get an adapter?
The HDD is exactly 10 cm wide, which would be about 3.5".
Also, thanks for the advice!
I can't for the life of me figure out how to remove the big block of metal (cooler?) that blocks the Slot...
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On November 28 2012 22:58 kafkaesque wrote:
So I could put it in the slot below the DVD drive if I get an adapter?
The HDD is exactly 10 cm wide, which would be about 3.5".
Also, thanks for the advice!
I can't for the life of me figure out how to remove the big block of metal (cooler?) that blocks the Slot...
they have 3.5" and 2.5" adapters for 5.25 bays.
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If your old 2x HDDs are bigger than the SSD (which is expected), they are 3.5"
It looks like your new computer has one more 3.5" slot.
You can get an adapter like this to use one of your 5.25" CD/DVD bays.
You can also just tape your SSD somewhere on your case if you need more room. I'm not sure what your situation requires but I've done this when I didn't have enough HDD bays.
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On November 28 2012 23:16 jacosajh wrote:If your old 2x HDDs are bigger than the SSD (which is expected), they are 3.5" It looks like your new computer has one more 3.5" slot. You can get an adapter like this to use one of your 5.25" CD/DVD bays. You can also just tape your SSD somewhere on your case if you need more room. I'm not sure what your situation requires but I've done this when I didn't have enough HDD bays.
I would do that, but I just realized that the power supply only has 2 of those Red / Orange / Yellow cables that connect to the HDD, which I assume are there for electricity.
So one of them is for the DVD drive and one of them for the SSD, which is a pitty.
I can't remember the last time I've used a CD and I think an external DVD drive is probably cheaper than another HDD, can I just use the electricity-cable from the DVD drive for the HDD?
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All drives use the same SATA connector so yes you can unplug your DVD for your HDD if the power supply doesn't have sufficient amount of connectors. You can also use a molex to SATA connector if you wish to keep the DVD drive.
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All hdds and optical drives use either:
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://www.elektroda.pl/rtvforum/files-rtvforum/molex_9192.jpg) MOLEX
OR
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://www.pimfg.com/ifaq/images/satapowerfaq.jpg) SATA
The latter is used more frequently. AFAIK every power supply comes with at least 2 of each.
If you don't have anymore of the SATA, you can get one these to transform one of your Molex to SATA.
TL:DR - what skyR said with pics and links
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A really good free partition manager is EaseUS Partition Manager.
Web site here.
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You guys are amazing.
Now that the hardware is sorted out, how do I procede after "splitting up" the HDD?
Can I then just plug one of them into the new PC, format it and put it back into the old one?
I can't seem to format them in the old PC, as I get a blue-screen using my XP CD or a blackscreen using my Win7 CD when trying to boot from CD.
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Yes, plug them in, go into disk management, format.
Though you won't be able to put them back into your old PC.. well you can.. but you won't have an operating system installed anymore.
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On November 30 2012 10:53 skyR wrote:
Yes, plug them in, go into disk management, format.
Though you won't be able to put them back into your old PC.. well you can.. but you won't have an operating system installed anymore.
That's no problem, but will I be able to use one in the old PC without further alterations?
Will my PC "figure out" that suddenly there is only one instead of two HDDs?
If I get this figured out you guys have saved me like 150 bucks for building the computer myself instead of buying it pre-built, I'm very grateful!
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Yes, you can use the HDD in whatever PC.
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I've hooked it up, and it shows up in Bios, but once in Windows it doesn't:
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/enFGj.png)
In EPM it shows up twice as large and read only (write protected):
![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/c0t9S.png)
I'm really out of my element here, I've googled a couple of solutions, but one doesn't work because the HDD doesn't show up in "My computer", the other because it doesn't show up in the cmd.
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I'm not sure exactly what you're doing, but it appears that what you want to do is separate the 2x HDDs (that appeared as one) in your old system... 1 for use in your new system and 1 for use in your old system.
What you want to do is:
-On the new system, install Windows on the SSD and once finished, format the HDD to be used in your new computer (using Disk Management in Control Panel). Alternatively, you can use the Windows installation screen to format the HDD (pic below).
-On the old system, reinstall Windows on the HDD. I'm not sure what the specifics are, but I have a feeling that the way your 2x HDDs were setup before would mean compromising the operating system once they are separated.
You can reformat SSDs/HDDs in the Windows Installation screen, like this:
+ Show Spoiler +
Alternatively, if you wanted to do it in Windows, once it's installed:
+ Show Spoiler +![[image loading]](http://www.techarp.com/article/Swapfile_Optimization_Guide/disk_manager_01.gif) Obviously, you can't do this to the 1 HDD going into the old system. This is for the new system once you have Windows installed on the SSD.
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EPT![[image loading]](http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MA_9PtAFKkc/T5qicUsx3UI/AAAAAAAABCc/T0_eoPT7XLI/s1600/Install-Windows-7.jpg)
