How to Install a Hard Drive on Your Windows PC

Every now and then, we all find we need the extra storage. Eventually, we all do. Oh sure, when you first bought your comptuer, you probably figured that it would take you a very long time to fill up the whopping 9 Gigabytes of storage on your computer. Either it did take you very long, or you were quickly mistaken. Either way, you've discovered that that time is probably now. Follow these steps and caveats to help ensure a headache-free installation.

1) Hardware Check: Make sure your existing system can take the new, larger storage unit. Some motherboards and their installed BIOS systems might be too outdated for an upgrade, lacking either enough slots to install the drive, or the motherboard software is just not designed to handle it.
On the other side of hardware, check to see if the converse is true: the bigger drive you buy might not be compatible with your computer as it is. Hard drives now come in two IDE flavors, SATA and PATA, and the motherboard slots for each are almost identical. Ask your computer vendor which one you have, or can accomodate.

2) Software check: I have had this happen too often: we go through the usual hardware installation, and discover that the drive's capacity exceeds the limits of their version of Windows. See if you can get the most recent Service Packs for the operating system, or at least the minimum for running the drive. Don't forget to check the manual, if any is to be found with the new drive. You may want to check the manufacturer's website, just in case.

3) Power Down: Turn off the computer and unplug it from the wall-socket. Not only does this protect your data from power surges, it will protect you from power surges as well. Do not work on a computer's insides while it is running, unless you really know what you're doing! More than once I've had to roll my eyes at a colleague who got their finger scraped by a spinning fan these are trained professionals, and even they forget!).
If you have an ESD strap, it's also a good idea to put it on about now.

4) Now say Ahh: Open the side-panel of the computer case. This might require a screwdriver, or more. I have worked with casees that had those convenient thumbscrews, only to find out that they were twisted on so tightly I had to resort to pliers (and a small cloth on the bolt-head) to muscle those things off. So much for convenient.

5) Now the Other Side: If you have not worked on that specific computer before, it is likely you now see a big, green circuitboard with hundreds of pointy solder-dots that look like miniature silver Hershey's Kisses. This means you disengaged the wrong side of the case. No worries, just leave that side open as you get the panel on the other side. You may need them both off, anyway. If anyone's watching you, try to look like you planned it that way.

6) Locating: On the business-side of the motherboard, you will see some flat ribbon cables connecting one or more hard drives to the motherboard. Find the main hard drive. Usually there is only one.

7) Follow the Red Brick Road: Along the ribbon cable, you will see a place to plug it into the back of your new drive. There is usually a notch on this plug to help you orient it on the drive's pins, so you can only insert it one way. If not, the cable should have a red stripe to indicate which wire aligns to the drive's #1 pin. Usually you can find both these features.

8) Plug in the Power: You should be able to find an available (unused) P6 power cable connector to insert onto the drive's four big pins which are its means to get electricity. Most newbies forget this step before restarting, and wonder why the whole thing doesn't work. If you're not quite sure how to do this part, just check how the existing hard drive has its cables, and that will easily remind you what it should look like.

9) Jump for Joy: This is the part I most frequently overlook. On the back of each hard drive are "jumpers" or little plastic squares smaller than a fingernail. Moving these jumpers around in their pin-array (you may need tweezers for this) tells the motherboard which drive is the "slave" or "master" drive, and doing this part wrong can prevent the computer from booting up at all. Thinking you messed up your (or someone else's) computer makes for a huge panic attack.
Make sure to check both drives for the right jumper setting; usually there is a chart right on the drive itself indicating how you should configure it. Otherwise you get on the internet (on another computer, of course) to look it up on the manufacturer's website.

10) Inhale: Now plug the computer back in and check your work. Do not close the case yet.
See if you can boot up normally and if the hard drive shows up in My Computer--and that it works. If not, quickly recheck steps 1-9 and confirm which step needed to be corrected. If it works, check if you have any software that came with the drive, that you have to install, unless you have already done so in step 2.

11) Exhale: once you have the whole thing working, power down (unplug the wall-socket) and screw the new drive into an available rack-slot. This is where the leaving "wrong-side" panel unattached may come in handy, since you may have to put the screws in on both sides. Close up the panels, and plug the computer back in.

12) Now Rinse: Clean up your surroundings, especially if you're at the client's location. Unclip the ESD strap. Slide the tower to its original location. Restore any peripherals or accessories that you may have had to take out of the way to get to the back of the computer. Make sure you don't leave any tools or toys behind.

Twelve steps to installing the hard drive might look quite a lot, but it's actually quite simple. And thankfully, quick, when you do a thorough, careful job of it.