Adding a second HDD...

[Jonny5isalive]

Hi, I hope someone can help. I have a hard drive from a Freeview box which I'm hoping to install into my pc to add more storage space. Inside my pc, I've connected the spare power lead and the other, longer plug (not exactly sure what it's called).

 

I restarted windows and it detected the new drive straight away and says its working correctly. But how do I enable it so I can start saving things to it?

 

Any help is much appreciated. Many thanks, Jon-Paul.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Go into Admin Tools in Control Panel then Disk Management, right click on the drive and click format.

 

Make sure it's the right one and not a recovery partition of any kind and format it in NTFS.

[Jonny5isalive]

Hi, thanks for your help. I've done what you said but theres no option to format when I right click, only to delete partition. The new drive has come up as 'disc 1, basic, online' and has 3 partitions. Each partition says 'healthy (unknown partition)'.

 

What do I need to do next?

 

Thanks, J.P.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Is there any chance of you providing us with a screenshot Jonny so we can be absolutely sure of giving you the right advice.

 

In theory what you would need to do is delete the partitions and create a new one and then format it.

 

How big are the partitions on that new drive?

[Jonny5isalive]

The partition sizes are 133Mb, 126Mb and 148.79Gb.

 

Won't let me paste the screenshot into this box for some reason. I've tried copying it into Word then copying and pasting into here but it seems too big and comes up blank.

 

I don't know the URL of the image either, sorry.

 

What's the best way of doing this? I'm not usually this incompetant, honest.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Go back into Disk management where it shows all drives ok then hit the PrtScr (Print Screen) then open Paint and hit Ctrl + V

 

Save the image as .jpeg or .png and add it in your reply using Manage Attachments.

[Jonny5isalive]

Hi. Right I've done that, you should be able to see it now.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Ok right click on each partition on drive 1 and click delete.

 

Then click format on the 148GB one.

[Jonny5isalive]

Done that. But no option to format when I right click.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Sorry Jonny you must think me a gonk, click new partition then format it.

[Jonny5isalive]

I think I've cracked it! I added a new partition using the Wizard and left the settings as they were. It did a quick format and now it comes up as drive E.

 

So will the drive work as it should now? Can I use it now as I do with my current hard drive?

 

Many thanks for your help. I was really lost!

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Yes you can Jonny.

 

Did you choose NTFS as the file format?

[Jonny5isalive]

The term gonk didn't even come into my head! Lol.

 

Yes it's in NTFS format. If I could buy you a pint I would, haha.

 

Thanks and regards, Jonny.

[Guest Wolfeymole]

Thanks mate :)

 

And the reason why the drive is now E: is simply because your cd/dvdrom drive will be D:

 

Your good to go Jonny.