External Hard Drive

robbie c


Joined: 07/07/2008
Posts: 176

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 08:38

Just bought an external hard drive. When I connect it to my computer I expected it to come up with something like "F" drive but it doesnt. I've looked at the "C" drive and it is shown as an add on to that rather than its own separate drive. My "D" drive, although shown seperately, is also shown under the "C" drive. Hope I'm making sense here. How do I get this external hard drive to show as a separate drive?

tugishlove


Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 135

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 09:34

right-click my computer, go to "Manage" you will get a window. on the left side choose "disk management" under "storage". you're new drive should appear there as a new "raw" drive. you need to initiate it. double click it and it will walk you through simple steps so it becomes usable with a letter path



in these steps make note of the following:



choose the "NTFS" filing system instead of FAT32

click "perform a quick" format



The reason C and D drive don't show as separate drives is because they're two logical drives on one physical drive. this shouldn't affect your new external in any way.

susief


Joined: 06/11/2008
Posts: 529

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 10:05

Hope this isn't hijacking but I've also got a problem with an external hard-drive. I got given a new one which says it's vista compatible but just wont install on my laptop - it appears in Device Manager under other devices and has an exclamation mark next to it. The drivers are built in but wont install and the company don't have any driver to download on their site and are very slow in getting back to me. Also it doesn't appear in Manage Disks so cant reassign it another letter as others have suggested - any ideas computer whizzes out there? Thank you!

susief


Joined: 06/11/2008
Posts: 529

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 10:06

Forgot to say - RobbieC, did you get the drive here? If so where and how much please? as I may have to go get another one. Thanks

tugishlove


Joined: 02/12/2008
Posts: 135

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 10:33

susief

if the harddisk is new most probably it's the same case as robbie c. you will need to initiate it. the steps should be the same for vista. the exclamation mark indicates a new drive , just double click it, or right click it from the management and you should get a wizard to walk you thru the process. Just remember the same two notes,. choose NTFS instead of FAT32 and tick the "perform a quick format"

robbie c


Joined: 07/07/2008
Posts: 176

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 11:05

susief



Bought it from PC World when I was in the UK last month.



Thanks tugishlove. Will have a go with that shortly when I've worked up to it as not very computer literate. Will let you know how I get on.

susief


Joined: 06/11/2008
Posts: 529

Message Posted:
12/03/2009 17:23

Thanks for your help tugishlove and robbiec. Amazingly when I plugged it in to have a go at your suggestion it decided to work - spooky but am mightily relieved to have everything backed up.

helper


Joined: 16/01/2009
Posts: 235

Message Posted:
16/03/2009 20:24

lookin to buy an external hardrive if any one sellin one at a good price.

croft



Joined: 09/02/2009
Posts: 65

Message Posted:
17/03/2009 02:26

Just a couple of additional comments that may help anyone putting extra drives into their computer - and they're both hardware related.



First off: don't ignore the manufacturer instructions about how the little 'jumper' plugs need to be set on the back of the drive. They can be quite fiddly but you need to pull them out and set them to 'slave', so that the BIOS doesn't go looking for the operating system on the new drive.



Secondly: just because your new drive works doesn't mean you have a sustainable computer system! I trashed two perfectly good hard drives before I learned how important thermal management (read: seriously powerful fans) is to the life of a computer. If you're not sure how much cooling is 'enough', I seriously advise spending a small amount more to get a custom shop to sort you out (assuming there's one near you) or read all the online information first.



Learn from my mistake and don't use 16-year-olds who only work in the shop on Saturday as your main guide!

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
17/03/2009 04:30

Croft msg 9



Small correction re point 1 above - sorry.



Setting jumpers on added internal drives , hard drives or CD drives, relates only to the older type of drives know as PATA or parallel ATA. Newer SATA (serial ATA) drives do not have these jumpers. PATA drive controllers that are found most commonly on your motherboard support up to 2 devices per controller and most motherboards have 2 such controllers , supporting upto 4 PATA devices. For each controller that supports 2 drvies the drives are set as either 'slave' or 'master'. There is no functional difference between a drive set as 'slave' and one set as 'master'. Either can hold your operating system. What DOES matter is making sure that you do not have two devices both set as 'slave' or both set as 'master'. If you connect two drives to a given PATA controller and both the drives are set via their jumpers to the same (slave or master) you will get errors that will stop the system from working



[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
17/03/2009 04:37

To complicate matters more PATA drives have a third setting called 'CS' or 'cable select'. A typical PATA cable will have one connector at the end of the cable , that runs to the motherboard connector and 2 more connectors near the other end that run to each of the two devices the controller supports. As an alternative to setting these two devices explicitly to master on one and slave on the other you can set BOTH to 'cs' and then slave and master settings are determined by which of the two connectors you use on which device. What you can not and should not do is have one device set to 'CS' and the other set to either master or slave.



In summary if you are adding a PATA device to an existing machine.



First check what is already connected to the the controller you intend to connect the device to. Do this by following the cable from the mother board to existing devices. If there are no existing devivces on that controller then it does not matter if the new drive



[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
17/03/2009 04:44

is set to 'master' , 'slave' or 'cs' via the jumpers on the back of the drive as there is nothing that it could conflict with , being the only device on that controller. If however there is already a device on the controller then you have to see how that existing devices jumper is set. If it is set to 'cs' then set the jumper on the new device to 'cs' as well. If it is set to 'master' set the jumper on the new device to 'slave'. If it is set to 'slave' then set the jumper on the new device to 'master'. Basically when yopu have two devices on a single PATA controller they either must both be set to 'CS' or they must be set one to 'master' and one to 'slave'. Any other combination of settings will cause errors.



Sorry to 'correct' you crofts and I hope this additional information to your is taken in the right spirit.



re you warning about 'thermal managment' this is very important to a systems stability and lifespan and you are entirely right to



[cont]

erolz


Joined: 17/11/2008
Posts: 3456

Message Posted:
17/03/2009 04:52

flag this up. This is even more of an issue in Cyprus given high ambient tempratures here and the high dust levels that clog up and impair the functioing of fans.



There third party freeware programms available that can be used to monitor various temperatures in a PC system and some also allow for monitoring of Hard Drives that support S.M.A.R.T technologies.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.



I personally monitor my PC's temperatures constanly and have programms running at start up that do this for me, displaying temperatures in the sys tray and giving audiable warnings if the temps go outside of certain ranges.



If people would like some suggestions as to how to do this I would be more than happy to offer some.