Q&A for How to Add an Extra Hard Drive

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How do I install multiple hard drives?

Spike Baron
Network Engineer & Desktop Support
Spike Baron is the Owner of Spike's Computer Repair based in Los Angeles, California. With over 25 years of working experience in the tech industry, Spike specializes in PC and Mac computer repair, used computer sales, virus removal, data recovery, and hardware and software upgrades. He has his CompTIA A+ certification for computer service technicians and is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert.

Spike Baron

Network Engineer & Desktop Support

Expert Answer

After you open the casing, slide your new drive into one of the empty hard drive bays and screw it in. Then plug in one of the power plugs from the power supply unit. Plug one end of a SATA cable into the drive and the other into an open port on the motherboard and you're done.

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My laptop got stuck on the booting menu. I have tried removing the RAM and putting it back, which didn't work, and now my hard disk cannot be detected. What should I do?

Community Answer

It seems like your hard disk is corrupted. You could try formatting the drive, but this would wipe all your data and remove Windows. You can open CMD from the boot menu and do a clean and format to fix the drive. Your other option would be to get a new drive completely.

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Question

How do I save files to my external USB drive?

Community Answer

As long as the drive is recognized by your system, which it should be through plug and play, you should just be able to plug it in and drag the files to the external drive through your file explorer.

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Question

How do I view data from an extra hard drive after I have connected it to my laptop?

Community Answer

Simply open up file explorer and select the drive. Often when you plug in an external drive, you'll be presented the option to view the files.

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Question

If I want to use the second hard drive as simple extra storage, do I still need to install an OS?

Community Answer

No; only the primary drive needs an operating system. As long as the second one is formatted properly by your preferred OS, it should function as simple storage.

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How can I make a secondary drive from hard drives?

Community Answer

I believe you are asking about partitioning a single drive into multiple partitions. Open disk management by searching "Partitions" in your Windows search bar. Select the drive you wish to partition with a right click and hit "Shrink drive." Then, when it is done (assuming you had the space), you can select the unallocated space and hit "New volume." Name it what you want, and you have a partitioned drive. If you are partitioning to install a second OS, you'll have to use bootstrap or a similar program.

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Question

How do I connect an external hard drive to a laptop?

Community Answer

External hard drives are extremely versatile. Just connect them with a USB cord.

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Question

Everything I've read about adding a hard drive involves a new hard drive. I want to put the hard drive from my previous computer into my new one. Will formatting erase the contents?

Community Answer

Do everything exactly the same except formatting, because (assuming it was being used in a Windows PC) it was already formatted, and doing it again would only delete everything on it.

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Question

My new hard drive isn't being detected by my computer. I've unplugged it and plugged it back into a different port and I know that it is getting power. The cable and hard drive are new. What should I do?

Community Answer

Check to see if it's recognized within BIOS, and if so, try to assign the drive a partition in Disk Management in Windows. If it's not recognized in BIOS, there could be a limit on the number of drives, the drive is incompatible or the port could be defective on the motherboard.

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