Solve : Adding more harddrives?

1.	Solve : Adding more harddrives?
Answer» I have 2 hard drives from my wife's business and wanted to KNOW if adding them to my computer would cause problems. They're both WD and the same speed as the one in my PC. They probably have Vista or 7 on them. Would the computer just recognize them as ANOTHER drive like a flash drive? Yes, you can add them. Having a different OS on them won't hurt anything but the Windows folder and other system files will take up hdd storage space which will just be wasted.Thanks. I would probably delete a lot of the folders and such and keep pictures and other things.Note: They need to be connected to SATA port #3 or higher on the MBoard otherwise they may try to boot which won't work on the new PC...Thanks.Instead of deleting a bunch of files trying to recover space, a better way would be to copy all the files you want to keep to another drive, format the drive, then copy the files back.Another good reply, thanks.About this adding another hard drive. I looked in the instruction manual and they make a point of indicating that certain pins that looks like a jumper of some sort are to be selected on the SATA plug-in to make the second HD the slave. Is there a way to change that in the bios?Just use the jumper... You want them as slave til you get Windows disabled/off of them. Slave and master jumpers were used on IDE hard drives. SATA drives don't need to use Jumpers as there is 1 port for each drive. If you don't want to start the computer from any of the drives you would need to remove the active flag off the drives. As shown here https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/kb/remove-active-flag-from-a-partition-in-windows/ He stated his drives have jumper pins which early SATA drives did...pay attention Quote I looked in the instruction manual and they make a point of indicating that certain pins that looks like a jumper of some sort are to be selected on the SATA plug-in to make the second HD the slave. I'm with Lisa on this one. This doesn't make any sense. SATA has no concept of Primary/Secondary channels, SINCE each SATA device gets it's own dedicated connection/port, it's literally not even possible for a SATA drive to have a "slave" jumper setting. Jumpers can be FOUND on some SATA drives but they are cylinder reduction jumpers or jumpers that limit the SATA speed for compatibility (And a few other arbitrary settings, like spread spectrum clocking and Power management modes) So either the drives don't have a slave jumper or they are not SATA. I'm leaning towards the latter, based on the quote. Probably best to get some clarification from OP on this.Thanks to all for the responses, I guess I'll find out when I plug it in. Quote from: jbubb on NOVEMBER 11, 2020, 07:41:45 PM I have 2 hard drives from my wife's business and wanted to know if adding them to my computer would cause problems. They're both WD and the same speed as the one in my PC. They probably have Vista or 7 on them. Would the computer just recognize them as another drive like a flash drive? What are the model of WD drives you have ? Quote from: jbubb on November 14, 2020, 08:55:39 AM About this adding another hard drive. I looked in the instruction manual and they make a point of indicating that certain pins that looks like a jumper of some sort are to be selected on the SATA plug-in to make the second HD the slave. Is there a way to change that in the bios? Please share the link to the manual you are looking at. Or if you could give the model of motherboard that would help ? Thanks

Answer»

I have 2 hard drives from my wife's business and wanted to KNOW if adding them to my computer would cause problems. They're both WD and the same speed as the one in my PC. They probably have Vista or 7 on them. Would the computer just recognize them as ANOTHER drive like a flash drive? Yes, you can add them. Having a different OS on them won't hurt anything but the Windows folder and other system files will take up hdd storage space which will just be wasted.Thanks. I would probably delete a lot of the folders and such and keep pictures and other things.Note: They need to be connected to SATA port #3 or higher on the MBoard otherwise they may try to boot which won't work on the new PC...Thanks.Instead of deleting a bunch of files trying to recover space, a better way would be to copy all the files you want to keep to another drive, format the drive, then copy the files back.Another good reply, thanks.About this adding another hard drive. I looked in the instruction manual and they make a point of indicating that certain pins that looks like a jumper of some sort are to be selected on the SATA plug-in to make the second HD the slave. Is there a way to change that in the bios?Just use the jumper...
You want them as slave til you get Windows disabled/off of them.
Slave and master jumpers were used on IDE hard drives. SATA drives don't need to use Jumpers as there is 1 port for each drive. If you don't want to start the computer from any of the drives you would need to remove the active flag off the drives.
As shown here

https://www.seagate.com/au/en/support/kb/remove-active-flag-from-a-partition-in-windows/

He stated his drives have jumper pins which early SATA drives did...pay attention Quote

I looked in the instruction manual and they make a point of indicating that certain pins that looks like a jumper of some sort are to be selected on the SATA plug-in to make the second HD the slave.

I'm with Lisa on this one. This doesn't make any sense. SATA has no concept of Primary/Secondary channels, SINCE each SATA device gets it's own dedicated connection/port, it's literally not even possible for a SATA drive to have a "slave" jumper setting. Jumpers can be FOUND on some SATA drives but they are cylinder reduction jumpers or jumpers that limit the SATA speed for compatibility (And a few other arbitrary settings, like spread spectrum clocking and Power management modes)

So either the drives don't have a slave jumper or they are not SATA. I'm leaning towards the latter, based on the quote. Probably best to get some clarification from OP on this.Thanks to all for the responses, I guess I'll find out when I plug it in. Quote from: jbubb on NOVEMBER 11, 2020, 07:41:45 PM

I have 2 hard drives from my wife's business and wanted to know if adding them to my computer would cause problems. They're both WD and the same speed as the one in my PC. They probably have Vista or 7 on them. Would the computer just recognize them as another drive like a flash drive?

What are the model of WD drives you have ?

Quote from: jbubb on November 14, 2020, 08:55:39 AM

About this adding another hard drive. I looked in the instruction manual and they make a point of indicating that certain pins that looks like a jumper of some sort are to be selected on the SATA plug-in to make the second HD the slave. Is there a way to change that in the bios?

Please share the link to the manual you are looking at. Or if you could give the model of motherboard that would help ?
Thanks

Solve : Adding more harddrives?

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