Need Help installing Harddrive - Page 2

[Catweazle]

Why not use Windows?

[plehsdeen]

What do you mean?[How?]

[Catweazle]

Have I got this right? You have one drive in your system. You've just added another, and installed it as Slave for data storage. You now want to move files onto it.

Why not just use cut/paste from within Windows to do this?

[plehsdeen]

Is it possible to cut/paste 233mb Divx files?

[Catweazle]

Yes. Of course it is. Didn't you try?

[plehsdeen]

Yeah I tried but when I paste it the file doesn't show up in the drive.

[Catweazle]

Did you try 'Refresh' from the view menu to see if the file is actually there?

[plehsdeen]

I sure did refresh but nothing still.

[Catweazle]

Got me beat, I'm afraid. Copy/Paste and Cut/Paste works for larger files than that on my system!

[bryanhaas]

There are few things that may matter.
First you can fit an extra hardrive by your orignal harddrive, there shoud be a mount at the bottom front of your case inside the computer case of course. You could also stick one below the floppy drive the bay should be the same. I have in the past hooked up a harddrive that is not mounted you just need to have it in a position where it won't bump anything, also some hardrives don't like to be upside down. There is a file size limit of 4 gb on drives formatted in fat32 if the drive is formatted in NTFS you don't have this limitation. As long as the drive is below 80 gb the bios should not give you a problem. If you play any games on that system you may want to get some extra ram, I would be surprised if that thing isn't running really slow. Another note if you are at all technically or mechanically inclined look into building your own PC it really isn't all that hard and the components tend to last longer. Most of what is in your current PC is the cheapest Compaq could find. The first computer I bought was a Compaq I think in the same series as yours.
When you do hook up the extra drive you will probably want to set it as a slave sl you can always do cable select but that doesn't always work that well, You may also need a cable with additional slots for another drive. Keep in mind if one dirve is NTFS set the other one up the same way using two different file systems can give you problems.

Hi I need some help figuring out the specifics to adding a second harddrive or at least geting a larger one.I am unsure though of I what I would need as I am not too experienced.Things like the max size my os would recognize etc...

Here are my PC specs
http://www.mezzy.com/cgi-bin/nph-paidmember.cgi/111010A/http/www.shopping.com/xPF-Intel_Intel_5008US_Celeron_Processor
http://www.mezzy.com/cgi-bin/nph-paidmember.cgi/111010A/http/www.epinions.com/S0619650-Presario_5008US/display_~full_specs
http://www.mezzy.com/cgi-bin/nph-paidmember.cgi/111010A/http/h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericDocument?lc=en&cc=us&docname=c00009344

[bryanhaas]

Try Micro Center cheaper than Best Buy usually and they have tech support that actually help you instead of making things up, sometimes Circuit City is cheaper.

Yeah I was thinking that a local store would be more expensive but might be less of a hassle if anythings goes wrong.[Best Buy etc...]They do make caddys for regular USB rather then 2.0 right?[as most things I see always say 2.0 and don't say if they don't work with just USB] I am in the US also if thats of any help to somebody.

[plehsdeen]

Thanks for your replys bryanhaas.

ot me beat, I'm afraid. Copy/Paste and Cut/Paste works for larger files than that on my system!

Weird things are happening now like when I disabled system restore the data lifeguard files seem to be gone and I can't get any sound.

[Coconut Monkey]

Heavens, this looks terribly confusing!

You installed the drive as a slave and it showed up correctly in the BIOS. Now, did you partition and format the drive? Or did you use some program that was supplied?

I think you should start from the beginning! Remove those tools. What operating system do you have?

[Catweazle]

Oh hell! thanks for jumping in Coconut Monkey. I was getting confused nyself here.

Was the full drive capacity recognised by the Compaq system WITHOUT Data Lifeguard being used? If so, don't use it.

If not, you should use the Windows version of Data Lifeguard to install the drive from within Windows and partition it. Format the resultant partitions, and then use Windows itself to move the files.

If that's not happening successfully, then you've gone wrong somewhere and should go back and start agiai, as suggested. The drive is useless if Windows can't move files onto it, after all.

[plehsdeen]

I took the drive switched the back of it to slave then installed and booted.The drive wasn't seen so I installed the software that came with it.The software gave a couple of options so I picked large storage device and then 111gb was seen but I could only aparently use drive-to-drive data copy to copy files from master to slave and vice versa.

Then I had to disable system restore to rid myself of some adware then I reenabled system restore but the software I installed was gone and Iwhen I play any files there is no sound. The sound issue has come up before but always went away after reboot or shutdown.

[plehsdeen]

Also note that I can now copy and paste files to the slave and the files are there but still no sound :(

[Catweazle]

After you used DataLifeguard to install and partition the drive as additional storage, you should be able to use it as per normal from within Windows. If this is not happening syuccessfully, try again. Run DataLifeguard again and repaeat the install/partition/format of the drive. Ensure that you have no USB devices connected to the PC while you're doing it.

If that fails, copy the DOS version of DataLifeguard to a bootable floppy, boot your system from the floppy and set up the drive using the DOS version.

[plehsdeen]

DataLifeguard has already disappeared.

[Catweazle]

Well install it again. You have a CD, according to your earlier comment. If not, it is downloadable from www.westerndigital.com

[plehsdeen]

So I should install it again before I figure out why there is no sound?The drive seems to be working fine.

[Catweazle]

Oh hell. Sorry again. You're posting quite a few comments in succession, and I've missed that last one about your files now working. I thought we were still trying to resolve that problem!

If your sound was working, and then stopped working correctly after the System Restore, then you need to reinstall the Audio drivers again. It'd be best to first remove (Uninstall) the devices from 'Device Manager', and also remove any related audio driver entry in Add/Remove programs that you might see there.

[plehsdeen]

Already tried reinstalling all the drivers.Sorry for making more posts rather editing.

[Catweazle]

Does sound work normally for other functions than the files you are trying to play? If so, you will most likely just need codecs installed which the audio/video files require. you may have had them installed previously, and the system restore has removed reference to them from your system.

This is a matter which would be specific to the player you are using, and to the particular audio/video files involved, and it's also a matter which should really be raised and followed in a topic of it's own and in the appropriate forum section for it.

If my description there is accurate, that forum section would be either the section for your Windows version, or the windows Software section

[plehsdeen]

There doesn't seem to be any sound at all.When I boot up the short sound of music for windows doesn't play nothing all the codecs seem to be fine also.As I said earlier the sound issue has come up before but always went away after reboot or shutdown.

[plehsdeen]

I went to sounds and multimedia properties and my scheme seems to be missing the small sound icon next to Windows, Windows Explorer, Sound Recorder, Media Player, NetMeeting. Microsoft works etc... and are replaced with the small icion when missing a program.Could this be a cause of the problem?

[plehsdeen]

The drive is working great so thanks ever so much for the help and info that you provided me with on this topic Catweazle and also for helping me learn some on it too. So thanks again Catweazle :D

Also thanks to steveneven bryanhaas Coconut Monkey 22 for your help.