How to connect a second hard drive

You can connect not only a new hard drive, butAlso hard from any other computer. The algorithm of work will be the same in both cases. But just not everyone knows how to properly connect the second hard drive so that the computer recognizes it right away. Many do not get it right away, so these people go to the store or service center, proving that the second hard does not work. But in fact, as it turns out, the computer just did not see the hard drive. And there are reasons for that.

Before you connect the hard drive, you mustto figure out how you want to do this. Some computers are equipped with a so-called "pocket" (it can be installed in the service center, after asking about it, or when manually assembling the computer). In order to connect the second hard drive to all other computers, it is necessary to already climb into the middle of the system unit. The essence of connecting though to the "pocket", though in the usual way - is the same. The second hard drive is connected to the loop, and the computer recognizes it as a built-in disk E or F.

So, now it is worth to tell that manyforget to do before you connect the hard, - rearrange the jumper. The jumper is a jumper that is on the contacts of the hard drive. What is a jumper for?

Jumpers are used to point tothe hard disks themselves, which one will work in the master mode, and which one will work as a slave. The operating system is always loaded into the leading hard. This means that when you connect a second hard drive in Slave mode, the OS will not boot from it. On all hard disks, which are equipped with computers, is the mode Master. Therefore, all additional hard drives must work in Slave mode. This is what many PC users do not take into account and connect the second hard drive, which also works in Master mode.

So, putting the jumper in Slave mode onconnect the hard drive, connect it to the loop inside the system unit. If you have a pocket, then the connection is made from the outside. Now you can just boot the computer. It should automatically detect the second hard drive. For reliability when booting the computer, go to the BIOS (on different OS these are F2 or Delete keys). In the "Boot" menu, select the correct settings for each of the hard drives. To do this, put the plug-in hard drive into the Second Boot Device mode.

In addition to Master and Slave modes, jumpers can beput in position Cable Select. To connect a hard disk in this mode, you will need a Y-shaped loop. The central connector of this loop is connected to the motherboard. The extreme connectors of the loop are connected to the disks. These connectors are unequal, that is, one disk automatically becomes the main one, the second - the slave. This information is indicated on the cable connectors. It should be warned that, using such a cable, both hard drives must be put into Cable Select mode.

Where to put jumper to install this oranother mode, is written in detail on the sticker on the hard drive itself. Also, this information is indicated on one side of the connector, which makes it easy to find the necessary contacts for which you need to put a jumper.

The above connection of additionalThe hard drive is used for IDE disks. Also there are SATA disks. In this case, you will need a special cable to connect the drive to the motherboard. Only one device can be connected to one connector. If you use both IDE and SATA drives on your computer, go to BIOS to assign the master disk from which the computer will boot.

Connecting an additional hard drive may seem complicated only in words. In practice, everything happens very quickly. We hope that now you know how to connect a hard drive to your computer.