Can this work as a extra HD?

Mastersaofan

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Jun 22, 2010
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I just bought a 1TB Hitachi HD and i was wondering can i use my old 320GB WD as a 2nd HD? but not in raid?

I upgraded my rig including my motherboard..so i had to reformat my pc. My old files were in my 320GB so i was planning to format the 1TB as my maid HD device then plug in the 320GB to transfer some data ( is this possible ) then after that im hoping to leave the 320GB plugged in as a 2nd HD.

Will this cause problems?
Is it possible?
Will it be compatible even when not in RAID?
And do i have to reformat my 320GB to used as a 2nd HD?

Thanks a million guys.
 
Solution
yes no problem to do that--just need to make the 1tb boot before the 320gb--you dont have to format the 320gb unless you want to put files over 4gb on it and its been formatted in fat instead of ntfs

Mastersaofan

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actually yes i am planning to put over 4GB on it prolly even reach up to 40GB of movies and music...so what do i need to do? make it FAT? or NTFS? is there a way to find out which format its in? also, is it going to work just like a USB? or external drive? but just inside my case?

thanks for the reply btw
 

yasir siddiqui

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yes it is possible,

you should follow these steps;

1-attach both hard disks
2-start the comuter
3-go to bios setup
4-go to boot menu and find hard disk boot configuration
5-set 1tb hd for first boot and 320gb for second boot
5-save and exit, now you have 1tb as a master and 320gb as a slave
6-Install new window on 1tb
7-start windows and copy your files easily, enjoy ;)
 



when i say over 4gb thats for individual files not the total amount--fat has a 4gb limit on one file so if you had say a blue ray movie it wouldnt take it but if you had 20 x 3gb files totalling 60gb thats fine

yes it will work like an external drive just inside the case

select the drive then right click the drive in windows then click properties it will say ntfs or fat
 

Mastersaofan

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my whole rig is still apart im still waiting for my processor :( well incase i do need to transfer more than 4GB per file what do i need to do? like ISO's of games and stuff which is 7GB up.
 
(1) yasir siddiqui wrote "attach both drives" - NO

With your new setup:
(1) Connect only your new 1 TB drive.
(2) Install operating system, BUT SELECT Custom Install.
.. On page that ask where to install, select create partition and create a partition for your OS Plus programs (200->400 gigs is plenty)- NOTE Size to enter will be Mb so add 3 zeros, will be your "C" drive. Just leave the rest of the HDD unpartitioned, Will become "D" drive for all your data/files.
(3) Select the 200->400 G partition, complete windows installation (NOTE windows will default (Use) NTFS for OS + programs.
(4) once you have windows installed and running, then go into disk manager:
... Change drive letter of DVD drive to say "F". Windows will give warning - IGNORE.
.. Format the remainder of the 1 TB drive. At this time you will have the option to us Fat32 or NTFS - Use NTFS to allow single files > 4 Gigs. This will then be your "D" drive

Happy with New drive and Windows is working great, THEN attach old 320 gig HDD, should show up as "E" drive.

Note: If old HDD was Fat32 and you want to change to NTFS, you can copy all the files from old 320 HDD onto your New D drive and reformat it to NTFS. (If old HDD had an operating system on it, Coping YOUR data to new HDD and reformating will get rid of what you do NOT want on old Drive.