Adding additional harddrives

[computernewb]

hi. if i want to add another hard drive, do i have to reformat my computer for it to work properly? or will it work as soon as i plug it in? im asking because i was told that a reformat is necessary whenever you get new hardware.

thanks!

 

[sminlal]

You don't have to format your existing drive, so your computer will continue to work just fine. But you may have to format the new drive as follows:

Click "Start" --> right-click "Computer" and select "Manage".

Click "Disk Management" in the left pane.

Scroll down to the BOTTOM of the MIDDLE pane.

You should see your new disk there with a label such as "Disk 1" or "Disk 2", etc. Right-click on the label in order to create a new volume (which partitions the drive) and then again to format it.

Once it's formatted Windows will assign the next available drive letter to it and then it will appear in Windows Explorer.