I know this sounds rudimentary to many of you experienced tweakers and system builders, but we here at Tweak3D are concerned with the beginners as well, and so several of these How To guides will be aimed at the beginner to intermediate set. Okay, now that I'm done with the mindless corporate babble, which really doesn't make much sense, here's the scoop: Tweaks aren't just done in software. And, as many of you may already realize, it's not just WHAT you install, but how you install it. And when it comes down to hard drives, there are several things that can deliver superior performance without costing you a single penny. These are the tricks that the custom system builders don't want you to know, because they are what give them their edge over the competition.
Overview
Ok, it's pretty obvious that I'm going to be explaining to you how to install a hard drive in this article. But before we continue, I'm going to lie out the other things I will be discussing:
- ATA/33 & ATA/66, and how to get the most out of each
- IDE Channels and the Master/Slave properties of each channel
- Hard Drive Jumper Settings
- Power
- Cooling
- Overclocking
And you thought that hard drive installation was simple...hah!
Basic Installation
The basic installation of a hard drive is simple. Begin by checking the jumpers on the back of the hard drive and make sure they are configured properly for where you are connecting the drive. If you are going to be connecting the drive to the end of the IDE cable (as the Master), make sure the jumper settings are appropriate for the drive to "master" the IDE channel. If you are going to be connecting the drive to the interim connector (it should be closer to the master connector than it is to the other end of the cable), you are connecting the drive as the "slave" and need to configure the jumpers for that setting.
Basic Installation Continued
Now that the jumpers are in place, you need to manually attach the drive onto the chassis (screw the drive into the case). For this, you will need some extra case screws (your local computer shop will usually give them out for free - they're cheap) and an appropriate screwdriver. Your best bet is to fasten the drive using at least four screws, two on each side, or more if you are really hard on your computer (carrying your computer to a LAN party every week would classify as hard).
Now that the drive is attached, you need to attach the power cable. Hard Drives generally use the 12V power cables (they are the big ones with the four holes). You can't really attach it wrong because it only goes in one way, so find one that isn't already plugged into something and plug it in. Don't be afraid to use a little force - those plugs tend to be a little tight and forcing them won't hurt anything (of course, use a little common sense - if you need a hammer to plug it in, you are either a complete weakling or are putting it in wrong). If you don't have a free power plug, you may have to get a Y-splitter from your local computer store - but be warned, if you are running out of power plugs, it's possible that you may be drawing too much power through your power supply.
Lastly comes the IDE cable. Assuming you are connecting this drive as the master, plug the far end of the IDE cable into one of your IDE connectors on your motherboard and then connect the other end of it to the hard drive. If you are connecting the drive to the computer as the slave, take the existing cable and plug it into the interim port on the cable. Note: If you are configuring the drive as the 'slave,' make sure you install it close to the other device on the cable so you can have both plugged in at the same time. Also make sure that pin 1 (indicated by the color stripe along the cable) is plugged into the pin 1 connector on the hard drive. If it's not labled, pin 1 is almost always on the side closest to the power connector.
Now that you've fully installed the hard drive (and before returning the cover on the case), power up the computer and enter the BIOS (be extremely careful not to touch the inside of the computer while it is running, as you may damage some components). Depending on how your BIOS is configured, you may or may not have to detect the drive. If the new drive is already showing up properly, great, if not, run the HDD Auto Detect sequence and detect the drive. Once the computer is recognizing the hard drive, turn the computer off and reattach the cover, and voila, you've installed a new hard drive for yourself. Note: If the hard drive STILL isn't recognized, turn your computer off and go back over the steps again, making sure you did everything properly. If you still have problems, check the troubleshooting section near the end of this document or the manual that came with your new hard drive.
ATA/33 & ATA/66
Those are some funny acronyms, aren't they? And no, I'm not going to bore you with their exact definition - all I'm going to tell you is that they are fast - and fast is good. The number after the slash refers to a hard drive's burst rate, or rate of peak data transmission per clock cycle. This burst rate is measured in Mb's, so an ATA/33 enabled drive has a burst rate of 33 Mbps while an ATA/66 enabled drive has a burst rate of 66 Mbps.
ATA/33 has been around for a long time now (well, a long time in the computer world). Just about any computer you buy supports it, so using it isn't really a conscious decision. It only requires a standard IDE cable, so as long as your computer is using IDE, you're in the clear. ATA/66, however, is something of an emerging standard. Many hard drives are starting to use this feature, but as of right now almost no motherboards (short of the ones using Via's new 133 MHz chipset) do (there are also a few PCI ATA/66 cards out that will handle the job, if you want to spend the extra cash).
If you are lucky enough to have the option, you should have been supplied with an ATA/66 compatible cable with the motherboard (you can tell because the lines on the ribbon are narrower than usual). Then find the special ATA/66 enabled IDE port and connect the hard drive to that port using the special IDE cable. Your access speeds should be much higher after this operation. Note: depending on your setup, you may need to enable ATA/66 in your BIOS.
IDE Channels and the Master/Slave Thing
"Igor," Dr. Frankenstein said to his 'assistant,' "prepare the hard drive for the operation."
"Yes, master," Igor hesitantly replied.
I know that was corny, but that is basically the way that the master/slave relationship of the IDE channel works. The 'master', or drive at the end of the chain, has control over the entire chain, while the slave, or the drive connected to the interim connector on the chain, has to wait for the master to give it access to the data stream. Here's the basic skinny on slave drives, avoid them if at all possible. The only kind of drive you would want in the slave position would be an old backup drive. And by no means should your swap file EVER be on a slave drive.
With most basic computer setups, the CD-ROM drive is going to take up one IDE channel. Depending on your motherboard, you will have a varying number of IDE channels (2 is standard, but 3 and 4 are becoming more common). So, if at all possible, put your hardware as the master of it's own IDE channel, and save the slave spot for your old 1.2 gig backup.
Hard Drive Jumper Settings
The jumper settings on the back of your hard drive are particularly important, because not only to they impact speed, but they also determine if the drive will work at all. Each hard drive is different in this respect, so I can't give you any particulars, but here are some basic rules of thumb:
- Set the drive so it is in the appropriate mode for where it will be on the IDE chain (as either master or slave)
- The more cylinders the better, so if your hard drive gives you the choice (with mine I could choose from 15 and 16), choose the higher number
(And now the copout line...) Consult your hard drive manual for more information on this subject.
Power
More power! *Grunts*... I know, Home Improvement probably wasn't your favorite show while it was on the air (even though it probably should have been... he was the king of all tweakers... I mean, how many people do you know with a riding lawnmower that does 60?), but it does properly illustrate my point well. What point is that, you might ask? Well...hard drives are power hogs. And the more power, the better. You see, when a computer starts to need more juice than its power supply can handle, weird things start to happen, and one of those things is data corruption.
Your standard, 235 watt power supply (that's what comes with most of your OEM deals) can support a normal, single processor configuration with your usual assortment of a CD-ROM drive and a hard drive, along with your video card and all those other nice things. But once you start adding extra stuff (120 cfm. fans, extra hard drives, etc.), you start suffering from power drain. And your hard drive is the most prone piece of equipment to fail because of such a power drain.
So what's the remedy? Get a bigger power supply. I personally recommend a 300 watt power supply (or 350 watt, if you are an extremely avid overclocker...but we'll get to that later). This should cure most of your missed disk write woes (you know the ones I'm talking about... you worked on that report for 12 hours and saved it, and when you came back to it, the whole thing was scrambled) and save you time in the long run.
Cooling
Brrr...cold. Believe it or not, there are now actually hard drive coolers. Some of them work great, some of them suck, and others are just plain there. Unless you're overclocking (there it is again) or you've got a massive SCSI drive, don't even bother. If you're still interested, though, I've heard that 3Dcool has some nice HD coolers available.
Overclocking
If you overclock your system at all, you need to be very wary of your hard drive. Hard drives, even more so than any other part of your system, are open to harm when you overclock, so you need to be extremely careful. If your PCI bus speed isn't a nice 33 MHz, hard drives can miswrite data and even die completely. For more information on this subject, check out page 3 of the Hard Drive / Memory Tweak Guide here at Tweak3D.
After the Installation
Ok, now that we've been over all of your installation options, it's time to get this hard drive working so you can save data to it. First, you are going to need to partition the drive. This can be done with either the Fdisk utility that is included with DOS/Windows or a commercial utility such as Partition Magic. Once you have done this, you will need to format that partition, and you're in business. For specific instructions on Fdisk and format, check out page 2 of the How to Install Windows 98 Guide. After you've done this, you will probably want to enable DMA and other performance enhancing goodies. More information about that kind of stuff can also be found in the Hard Drive / Memory Tweak Guide.
Troubleshooting a Failed Installation
Here are a few troubleshooting tips if you are having trouble getting your new hard drive working:
- Check the jumpers and make sure they are set properly
- Check all the connections on the motherboard and the hard drive to make sure things are connected properly
- Change IDE channels to see if it is a problem with the motherboard
- Switch power connectors to make sure you don't have a faulty connection
- If the new hard drive "grinds" when you start the computer, make sure it is properly enabled in the bios
- Also check to see if the drive is properly partitioned and formatted
If you continue to have problems after you have checked these issues out, there are a few possible culprits. They are as follows:
- Faulty IDE Cable
- Faulty Hard Drive
If it's just the IDE cable, it's a cheap fix - spend $5 at any computer store and you can grab an IDE cable - and if you shop there a lot, they may even give you one for free. However, if it turns out not to be the cable, then you're stuck with calling technical support and getting a replacement drive. Sorry.
Conclusion
I hope you have found this guide enlightening. It's a lot longer than you thought it would be, wasn't it? Oh the joys of writing for a web site... ;) Oh, and while your reading, check out my guide on How to Install or Reinstall Windows. If you are installing a new hard drive anyway, you might as well go for the whole shebang and clean out Windows at the same time.
