New Hard Drive

[golfer]

I just bought a new hard drive for my Dell XPS computer. I know how to physically install and hook up the drive, but have never done the software connection if there is any. Will the computer find the new drive by itself and install it, or do I need to do something to help find and install it?
Best wishes.

[blumesan]

Channces are good that the OS will locate and "install" the drive without your intervention. However you will need to go to All Programs>Administrative Tools>Computer Management and select Storage>Disk Management. There you need to format the drive with the file system of your choice, and partition the drive into logical units if you wish. MS contains help files to assist you with this task.

Call back if you hit a snag.

Cheers/Mike

[brian.austin]

The XPS is a newer model so I'm assuming you have Windows XP Home or Pro on it?

Windows should pick it up during boot up, provided its seen by the BIOS. You'll probably get a wizard prompt to format it. If not, post back with what you see or don't see.

[Phreestyle]

Is this in addition to an existing harddrive or a replacement? What OS are you using?
These will affect how you treat the drive, in terms of partitions, and initial setup, etc.

[Malakor]

The last time I installed a new drive under WinXP, I had to initialize the drive before it would be recognized. This is easily accomplished under 'disk management' by right clicking the drive and selecting from the context menu.

[joecoolsvette]

Generally the new harddrive's have software that comes with them for easy installation. For example, the new 80G Western Digital H.D. I bought for my neice's computer from Wally world. You are installing it in conjunction with the old one, I assume to copy the O.S., and your Document's to it? If you have problems, and it's a Windows O.S.,contact Microsoft. I recently changed my mobo, and had to contact them,(Microsoft), by phone to re-activate my neice's WinXP Home. No problems, were very courteous, and her system was re-activated following their instructions in TT time!

[golfer]

Thanks a lot for your help everyone, was able to install the drive and will be able to use it as a back up or scratch drive for CS.
Another question thought; can I use this as a scratch and backup for my photo files? It appears I should be able to, but thought I would ask.
Also, can/should I reduce the ram memory used by adobe since it has the scratch drive to use?
Best wishes.

[blumesan]

Originally Posted by golfer

Thanks a lot for your help everyone, was able to install the drive and will be able to use it as a back up or scratch drive for CS.
Another question thought; can I use this as a scratch and backup for my photo files? It appears I should be able to, but thought I would ask.
Also, can/should I reduce the ram memory used by adobe since it has the scratch drive to use?
Best wishes.

Glad you were successful. Yes, you can use it both as a scratch disc for PS and as a backup for your photos. However do not reduce the ram memory used by PS. A separate scratch disk will not replace the need for ram memory in order for PS to run at maximum efficiency.

Cheers/Mike