[superstar]

I'm recently on vacation in a far off country and noticed that my families primary hdd is running out of space. So I opted to buy them a new one and installed it myself. I basically left the primary drive's jumper set to Master, and the secondary drive without a jumper so it would work as a Slave. According to the Segate website (where both of our hdd's are from), that's the best way to setup a spare drive.

I also followed the instructions on the hdd sticker which said to boot into the Bios Menu as soon as I turned the computer on. In order to select AUTO DETECT, and enable LOGICAL BLOCK ADDRESSING (LBA). Just as a note, the portion of the menu that contained LBA was set to AUTO prior to me changing it.

After that I booted up into WinXp and launched the Disk Management tool. Initiated the hdd, right clicked it, selected to use the Partition Wizard, chose to use the drive as a Primary Partition, Selected the entire space available for use, set a drive letter, left something as ''Predetermined'' (I don't remember what it was, something about choosing 256, 512, or some other kb), and lastly chose NTFS. The hdd formatted and now shows up as a HEALTHY basic hdd.

I just wanted to know if I did this right or if I messed up at any point. All I wanted to do was to use the entire new drive as pretty much a storage for new data. I haven't done this in years so I'm a bit rusty which is why I'm wondering if I messed up on any of the steps.


BTW it's a PATA IDE drive!


THANKS

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i don't think so...you have messed up anywhere..you are on right track..(like the configuration of master to slave and choosing the partition and formatted the drive..and make it healthy etc..)

[Lafayette]

i don't think so...you have messed up anywhere..you are on right track..(like the configuration of master to slave and choosing the partition and formatted the drive..and make it healthy etc..)

[dsenette]

does the drive show up in windows explorer (My computer) as expected? does it show the full space (give or take a bit depending on formatting options)? are you able to move files to/from it? if so then all is well

[superstar]

does the drive show up in windows explorer (My computer) as expected? does it show the full space (give or take a bit depending on formatting options)? are you able to move files to/from it? if so then all is well

Yes it does show up in ''My Computer''. With the full size available give or take a few because of Microsofts 1GB sizing law or whatever. I am able to move files to and from it.

I'm just worried about the steps I took in Window XP's Disk Management, and the LBA setting I selected in their BIOS. I have no idea what LBA is for, and wonder if I should have left that area set to AUTO instead of LBA.

I'm leaving back off vacation (FARRRRRR AWAY!) in two days so I can't leave my parents pc messed up because I won't be back for possibly another year or two.

Edited by superstar, 12 January 2010 - 11:31 AM.

[Lafayette]

okey..that's fine...at ends...all is well..than enjoy..!
don't bother about the steps that you had taken...you are on right way...now you have experience with that (on technical track)...so that's batter than all...!