How To Install An External Hard Drive
Want to have your data files or your entire hard drive portable so you can move files from one computer or another with the greatest of ease?
Then installing an external hard drive is indeed the only way to go.Having your business or important personal files backed up onto an external hard drive assures your files are ready to go should you experience a hard drive failure.
Then installing an external hard drive is indeed the only way to go.Having your business or important personal files backed up onto an external hard drive assures your files are ready to go should you experience a hard drive failure.
With an external hard drive,you add storage space without having to open your computer and installing another hard drive.This is truly the lazy man's way of adding more data storage space to his or her PC.
When it comes to backing up your hard drive,external hard drives backup your data much faster than a tape drive,or cdroms.
TYPES OF USB HARD DRIVES AND PORTS
In some cases when you connect an external hard drive to your computer with the USB port,you may need to load some software drivers that came with the drive.
After you install the software and partition the hard drive,the computer will assign a drive letter to the drive such as Drive E.
We installed a Western Digital 120GB Hard Drive to our Pentium 4 computer with Windows XP.Our new external Drive did not come with software so we simply connected the drive to the computer's USB Port.
USB stands for Universal Serial Bus which comes in the USB 1.1 which has a speed of 12mbs.But we connected our external hard drive to a USB 2.0 port which runs 480 megabits per second.This is over 40 times faster than the usb 1.1
INSTALLING THE USB PORT
Our Pentium 4 computer had 2 USB 1.1 ports but no USB 2.0 ports.We installed the drive on one of our 1.1 ports and it operated.But a snail moves like a jackrabbit compared to the response we got from our external drive.
We then install a USB 2.0 adapter in an empty expansion slot.We opened the system unit case and located a PCI or Peripheral Computer Interface slot to install the card.
After removing the rear retaining cover,we carefully pushed the USB 2.0 Adapter into the PCI Slot.We then checked to be sure it was fully inserted into the slot and secured the card to the case with the retaining screw used to hold the rear plate in place.
With the USB 2.0 Adapter installed,we replaced the PC cover and re-connected all cables and peripherals.Next we plugged in the computer and turned it on.
Windows XP recognized the new device and asked to install the device drivers needed to communicate to the adapter.The adapter came with a cdrom which was used to install the software.
With our new high speed USB 2.0 card in place,we are now ready to install our Western Digital External Hard Drive to the USB port.
INSTALLING THE EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE
After removing the new external hard drive from its wrapper and inspecting it for signs of damage or missing parts,we are ready to connect it to the computer.
The easy part about installing this drive is that we don't have to open the computer.Even though we opened our computer to install the USB 2.0 card,nearly all new PCs today will have a high speed USB port already installed.
Set the drive on a flat surface and plug one end of the power cable into the wall outlet and the other end in the rear of the drive.
Now connect one end of the USB Cable into the USB 2.0 port at the rear of the PC for best performance.Connect the other end to the rear of the drive.
Turn on the computer and Windows will automatically detect the new device and install the drivers.In you are running Windows98,you must install the device drivers before connecting the drive.
The drive came with no software so you would need to go to the Western Digital software library and once you find the drive's model,download the device drivers.
And now you're ready to use your new external hard drive for whatever your heart desire.Its this easy to install and setup any external hard drive.