How to Set Up a New Drive
Installing a new hard drive in a system has come a long way since the days of MS/DOS. Once installed in the computer, Windows makes the process of setting up a new hard drive very easy. Using the system's built-in utilities, a hard drive can be properly setup and running on a desktop computer within a matter of minutes.
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Instructions
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Unplug the desktop computer, turn the computer on its side and open the case.
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Mount the new hard drive in an available space of the hard drive bay, using either screws or the casing's quick mount system to attach it to the chassis.
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3
Plug an available hard drive cable and power cable into the hard drive. Close up the casing, and boot the computer.
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4
Open the Windows "Control Panel," and double-click the "Administrative Tools" icon. From there, double-click the "Computer Management" icon, and then the "Disk Management" item from the "Computer Management Dialog."
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Right-click over the new newly installed hard drive and choose "New Partition." Follow the steps in the "New Partition Wizard" to set the partition type, size and drive letter assignment for the new hard drive.
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Select the format type to use for the new hard drive from the "New Partition Wizard." Generally, for a Windows computer, NTFS is the preferred disk format option.
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Click "Finish" after all options have been set. Windows will create the new partition and format the drive. The new drive will appear in the system and be ready to use.
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References
- Photo Credit Rigid computer disk. image by Yuri Bizgaimer from Fotolia.com
