Installing an extra HDD

[Phil N]

I'm needing a new laptop and have been checking the Dell/Sony outlet sites.

Quite a few of the laptops come with SSD instead of the usual hard drives but their capacity is below what I'd want.

I've seen that the optical drive can be removed and replaced by a HDD to increase capacity (I'm looking at 1TB).

If I was to do this would Windows automatically recognise the additional HDD or would I have to go into the settings (Bios?) to get the HDD working?

Cheers for any input.

Phil

 

[neil_g]

If you're straight swapping the optical drive you shouldn't have to change anything

 

[Phil N]

OK, cheers Neil.

Many thanks for the quick reply.

 

[Mikesphotaes]

I would have thought it would need a trip to Disk Management with a new hard drive?

 

[neil_g]

I would have thought it would need a trip to Disk Management with a new hard drive?

yup, probably have to do the normal new volume bits.

 

[Phil N]

Mike & Neil,

I'm not very technically minded but I thought the computer would see the additional HDD in the same way it sees an external HDD (which is the way I was going to treat it, SSD for Windows & program files and the HDD for photo files etc).

Is it easy to do the 'new volume bits'? Can how to do this be found on the net?

Cheers again.

 

[Mikesphotaes]

Mike & Neil,

I'm not very technically minded but I thought the computer would see the additional HDD in the same way it sees an external HDD (which is the way I was going to treat it, SSD for Windows & program files and the HDD for photo files etc).

Is it easy to do the 'new volume bits'? Can how to do this be found on the net?

Cheers again.

Here you go......

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-install-a-sata-drive-in-a-windows-7-desktop.html

 

[Phil N]

Mike, cheers for the link.

Laptop gave up the ghost at the weekend so have had to set up an old PC.

I've found a company the custom builds laptops (PC Specialist) and have ordered one with the following spec:

Chassis & Display Genesis IV: 15.6" AUO Matte 95% Gamut LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£79)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3630QM (2.40GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 635M - 1GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 120GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 750GB WD SCORPIO BLUE WD7500BPVT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8MB CACHE (5400

Total cost comes in at £800 which is cheaper than trying to up spec the machines from Dell & Sony.

 

[BarryG]

I've done this with my laptop.

You pull out the CD/DVD drawer and slide in the casing for the new HDD. Windows just picks it up automatically as a 2nd drive in the machine.

It's a pain if you want to burn a disk, I would suggest you pick up a cheap external burner if you plan on burning/using the CD/DVD feature.