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Tags: computer software, computer technology, install hard drives yourself
 There are a bunch of technical stuff you can do on your computer yourself because they are just that easy to do and it would just be too much trouble to have a technician do it for you. Installing hardware is one of the things that you have to learn how to do yourself. When you want to upgrade part of your computer and you already spent a hefty some buying the component, you probably don't want to spend more to have someone do it for you. It's just like doing improvements in your home. When you want to do some improvements you should know enough to do them yourself because it's your home and no one else's.
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If you don't feel too confident about tinkering around yourself then by all means, hire someone to do it. But first, let me show you how easy a technical task can be if given the proper instruction. A hard drive is where all the disk space in your computer comes from. External hdds are no trouble to install at all since a lot of them come in portable cases and can be plugged in through a USB port. An internal hard drive needs a certain level of instruction to put in since you'll be putting it inside your tower and attaching it properly.
In light of that, you need to get one that can fit or get a new tower, which will be harder since you need to assemble everything. So, the first rule is to buy one that fits because when you're putting it in, you'll have an easier time making sure it doesn't touch the other components and the chances of igniting a fire will be moot. Then, you need to look for the "jumper". Change it's location to "slave" if you already have a "master". The master is your mine component. Ignore this if you're installing a SATA hard drive. Whether you're putting in a SATA or an IDE hard drive, you'll still have the same number of cables. Connect the data cable to the motherboard before putting it in place. When everything's snug, turn the pc on and install it. Enter BIOS to see if the hard drive was recognized, if it wasn't then you need to do a little more tinkering. Putting in a 120GB hard drive or other drives with a stronger capacity might do that, which is common since this is practically the standard of most computers. This means that your computer probably still uses FAT32. If that's the case then you really should go ask for some help because it needs some technical attention. A Service Pack 2 can resolve this or you can just update your BIOS. If it was automatically recognized, then you should start formatting. When you open up My Computer, you'll see that you have the new hard drive icon, right click on it and go to tools and then click on format. Choose the NTFS option when it asks you to pick a system. After that, click on format and wait for it to finish. It should normally take a long time, so just leave it alone for a bit. When it's done, restart your pc and you're good to go. When nothing seems to be working then you can try repeating the process, restart your computer and then see if BIOS can recognize the device. I don't recommend any other tinkering more than that because this is for beginners and you might dig a deeper hole than you intended to. When things seem too difficult, you can ask someone to help, but if everything seems to be within the proper instruction then you have nothing to worry about. You can install hard drives yourself.
About the author
Jego Goldstein is a successful Computer Analyst who has been testing and developing software for many years. Let Jego teach you how to optimize your computer like a Pro. Watch My PC Tweaks videos and never again pay for a technician to fix your computer.
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