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Run out of room on your hard disk drive? Want to upgrade to a bigger one? Here’s how to do it without the software hassles. Hard Disk Upgrades . . . WITHOUT reinstalling software By GREG SWAIN T HE HARD DISK DRIVE that came with your new PC might have seemed pretty big a couple of years ago but it's surprising how quickly it can fill up. Both applications and operating systems are growing in size all the time, so it doesn’t take long for hard disk space to disappear, particularly if you like downloading huge files off the net or storing music or video files. Not too long ago, a 1.6-2GB drive was the standard but these are now considered modest compared to today’s monsters. And as disk sizes have grown, the prices have come down. A typical 4.3GB drive can be picked up for about $240, while a 6.4GB drive 4  Silicon Chip will set you back around $290. The latter is clearly the better buy if you can afford it. work. As a result, your work grinds to a halt with fre­quent “out of memory” or “disk full” error messages. You need space! Installation options A hard disk that’s almost full not only prevents you from adding extra applications and files but can serious­ ly degrade system performance as well. There are two main reasons for this. First, the space that can be devoted to virtual memory, so that system RAM can be freed for other tasks, shrinks dramatically. Second, you can literally run out of room to store the temporary files that are created by Windows 95/98 applications as you There are several options when it comes to installing a new hard disk drive into your PC. Most people take the easy path and simply add the new drive as drive D. Assuming that the mother­board has at least two IDE ports (primary and secondary), the new drive can either be slaved with the first (ie, connected to the same port) or installed as a secondary drive on the second port. Typically, this involves setting the jumpers on the back of the drive to configure it as a master or slave, according to the drive manufacturer’s instructions. On newer drives, the various jumper configurations are also usually shown on the label attached to the top of the drive. Once the new drive has been recognised by the system BIOS, it is then partitioned and formatted in the usual manner. The big advantage of this scheme is that you don’t have to reinstall any software. After all, it’s a real hassle to reinstall the operating system and all the applications, then download and reapply any patches or upgrades. And that’s before you even move your work files across. It can take many hours of work before your system is up and running again. But what if you simply want to replace your existing C drive with the new drive? There are several reasons why you may want to do this. First, the new drive is likely to be faster than the old drive, so making it the boot disk will give you better performance. Second, you might want to remove the existing drive altogether and use it to beef up capacity in another machine. So is there an easy way to transfer everything, including the operating system, from the existing drive to the new drive and then make the latter the boot drive under Windows 95/98? The answer is “yes” and the method is really quite straightfor­ward. The following procedure has been gleaned from several sources on the net and worked perfectly when tried on a couple of test computers. It assumes the use of EIDE drives and Windows 95/98 and should work in virtually all cases although, as with most things to do with computers, there are no absolute guaran­tees. What you have to do is first install the new drive as drive D, partition and format it, and then copy across all the files from the existing C drive. You then reconfigure the new drive so that it becomes the master (C:) drive, change the CMOS settings so that the drive is recognised and then make the primary partition the active partition. It sounds easy when we say it quickly, doesn’t it? OK, let’s describe the procedure in a little more detail. Installing the new drive The first step, as we’ve said, is to install the new drive as a slave or This hard disk drive has three sets of jumper pins for selecting the type of drive (master or slave) and these are located between the I/O cable socket and the power socket. In this case, the drive is jumpered as a slave (SL); the master (MA) jumper is to its right. The third pair of jumper pins is labelled CS, which is for a special “cable select” IDE connection cable (see panel). secondary drive, so that it becomes drive D. There are a couple of things to watch out for here. First, if you intend connecting the new drive to the same IDE port as the existing C drive, it must be configured as a slave. Second, check the jumper options for the existing C drive. On some drives, you will need to alter the jumpers to change from a single (drive used on its own) configuration to a master con­figuration. On other drives, the two configurations have the same jumper settings. If the new drive is used on its own on the secondary IDE port, it must be set to the single drive (or master) configura­tion. But if there’s already a ZIP drive or CD-ROM drive (or any other drive) on this port, be sure to configure one as a master and the other as a slave. Once the new drive is in, turn the PC on and load the CMOS setup program (on most PCs, press Del as it does its memory check). You now have to load the new drive’s settings into the system BIOS at the Drive D line. In most cases, all you have to do is set the drive type to “Auto” (for auto-detect) and the mode to “LBA” (logical block address­ing), leaving all other fields blank. This will allow the computer to automatically detect the drive and determine its settings. If your system BIOS doesn’t support auto detect and LBA, you will have to manually enter the number of cylinders, heads and sectors per track into the appro­priate fields. BIOS disk limits It’s here that you may run into BIOS limitation problems. Many older BIOSes, particularly on 486 (and lesser) machines, are unable to recognise disk sizes above 528MB, while some BIOSes cannot recognise disk sizes beyond 2.1GB or 3.27GB. In addition, many recent BIOSes cannot recognise disk sizes larger than 8.4GB. One way around this problem is to use a BIOS translation program such as Ontrack’s Disk Manager. Sometimes, this software will be supplied with the new disk drive. If not, it can usually be downloaded from the drive manufacturer’s web site. Western Digital, for example, have a utility called EZ-Drive (available from www.wdc.com/support). This utility allows you to cor­rectly partition and format a Western Digital drive, so that your system BIOS recognises its full capacity. Another way around the problem is to get a BIOS upgrade from the PC’s manufacturer or from the motherboard manufacturer (check their web sites). Yet another option is to upgrade the motherboard. We’ll assume here that your BIOS supports auto detect and LBA, and that the drive is correct­ly recognised. JUNE 1999  5 Table 1: Hard Disk Sizes & BIOS/Operating System Limitations Disk Size BIOS Issues >528MB Ol der BIOSes do not recognise drives bi gger than 528MB. Requi res the use of BIOS transl ati ng software (eg, Ontrack's Disk Manager). >2.1GB >4.3GB >8.4GB Windows 95a Windows 95b/98 Windows NT FAT16 par ti ti ons are Suppor ts FAT32 par ti ti ons. Some BIOSes do not FAT16 par ti ti ons are Large hard disk drives recognise par ti ti ons greater limi ted to 2.1GB. Drives larger than 2.1GB requi re limi ted to 2.1GB. can be par ti ti oned and than 2.1GB. mul ti pl e par ti ti ons. formatted as a si ngl e drive, provi ded there are no FAT16 par ti ti ons are BIOS limi tati ons. FAT16 par ti ti ons are limi ted to 2.1GB. Drives limi ted to 2.1GB. An NTFS larger than 2.1GB requi re boot par ti ti on is limi ted to mul ti pl e par ti ti ons. 4.2GB. NTFS par ti ti ons FAT16 par ti ti ons are other than the boot Most BIOSes don't par ti ti on can be greater recognise par ti ti ons greater limi ted to 2.1GB. Drives larger than 2.1GB requi re than 4.2GB. than 8.4GB. mul ti pl e par ti ti ons. When you enter the information for the new drive (or allow the computer to auto detect it), make a note of the settings for both the existing drive and the new drive (just in case!), then save and exit the CMOS setup. Partitioning & formatting The next step is to partition and format the new drive. To do this, load Windows 95/98, then restart the computer in MS-DOS mode (click Start, Shut Down, select “Restart the computer in MS-DOS mode?” and click Yes). Now, at the DOS prompt, enter fdisk and follow the on-screen menus to partition the new drive. It’s absolutely vital here that you first choose option 5 (Change Current Fixed Disk Drive) and specify the drive that you want to partition (ie, the new drive). If you only previously had one hard disk drive, the new drive becomes drive 2 and this is the one to specify. Don’t attempt to repartition your current drive (drive 1). If you do, you will erase the contents of the disk and that’s just what you don’t want. Having selected the new drive for partitioning, select menu option 1 to create a primary DOS partition. The maximum partition size that can be created depends on your operating system, so you may also have to create extended partitions to access the full capacity of the disk. Windows 95a uses the FAT16 file system, which limits parti­tion sizes to 2.1GB. This means that if you are partitioning a 4.3GB drive, you would have to make two partitions: a primary DOS partition of 2.1GB and an extended DOS partition also of 2.1GB. You can, of course, divide the drive into smaller partitions if you wish but Fig.1: creating a Startup Disk. This is required for making the primary partition on the new drive the active partition. 6  Silicon Chip note that you must create a primary DOS partition, otherwise the drive will not boot. By contrast, Windows 95b and Windows 98 both support the FAT32 file system. This means that you can partition and format even the largest hard disks as a single drive (in theory, up to two terabytes, or 2TB). Another advantage of FAT32 is that it uses much smaller cluster sizes than FAT16 and this saves hard disk space. Provided you have Windows 95b or Windows 98, it’s quite easy to create a FAT32 partition – just type fdisk at the DOS prompt and answer “Y” to the on-screen prompt “Do you wish to enable large disk support? Y or N”. You then select the new fixed disk and create a primary DOS partition in exactly the same manner as for a FAT16 system. Once the new disk has been parti- Fig.2: make sure that you include all switches in your xcopy command when copying across the files from the old drive to the new drive. By the way, the same command works for copying files between floppies or between a CD-ROM and a hard disk drive, ensuring you get all files including the hidden ones. tioned it must be formatted. Reboot the computer (this must be done for the changes to take effect), return to MS-DOS mode and (at the DOS prompt) type: format d:/s This will format the new drive and copy across the system files to the primary DOS partition. If you have one or more extended partitions as well, these will have to be formatted separately (but without the /s switch) to provide the additional logical drives. If the drive is formatted using EZDrive or similar soft­ware, you may have to transfer the system files to the new disk using the sys (system) command. To do this, type: sys d: and press <Enter>. Creating a startup disk You now have to create a Windows 95/98 Startup (boot) Disk. Allow Windows to load, then click Start, Settings, Control Panel and double-click the Add/Remove Programs icon. Next, click the Startup Disk tab, then click the Create Disk button and follow the prompts – see Fig.1. Label the new Startup Disk and put it to one side. It will be used later on to boot the computer, after the drives are swapped. Copying the files Before copying the files across to the new drive, shut down all running applications. It’s also a good idea to shut down (or disable) any utilities in your System Tray (at the righthand end of the Taskbar). You’re now ready to copy everything “CS” or Cable Select Jumpers On most hard disk drives, you will find a pair of jumpers marked “CS”. This stands for Cable Select and is a very handy way of automatically selecting which drive is the master and which the slave. Cable Select uses a special hard disk connecting cable (standard IDE hard disk cables CANNOT be used). It looks similar but has the disk connectors clearly marked, sometimes drive 1 and drive 2; sometimes master and slave. The drives are simply connected to the appropriate connectors. If you want to make your master the slave (and vice versa) you just swap the connectors over. It’s that simple. So why is this simple system not used very much? It could be because CS cables are not easy to obtain. But if you can find one, it makes life easy! across from the C drive to the new D drive and to do this we use the xcopy command with a number of switches. To copy the files, click Start, Run and type: xcopy c:\*.* /e/h/k/r/c d: and click OK. This command instructs your system to copy all the files across, including: (1) all subdirectories, even if they are empty (the /e switch) (2) all files with hidden and system file attributes (/h); and (3) all read-only files with the read-only attribute retained (/k/r). The /c switch instructs the system to ignore errors. Depending on how many files you have on your existing hard disk, this operation could take quite some time. Swapping the drives Now shut down Windows 95/98, turn off the computer and change the jumper settings so that the new drive Variations If you prefer, you can install the new disk as drive C first, then boot from a startup disk and run fdisk to partition it (making the primary active). It can then be formatted, after which you reinstall the old drive as C and configure the new drive as D before copying the files across. The advantage of this method it that you only have to run fdisk once. The disadvantage is that more drive swapping is involved. Another variation is to copy the files across using the Windows Explorer. Before doing this, you must first set the Explorer to show all files (click View, Options, Show all files), otherwise hidden/system files won’t copy across. You must also configure the system so that the swap file is on the new D drive (go Control Panel, System, Performance, Virtual Memory, select “Let me choose my own virtual memory settings” and select the D drive). Reboot so that the changes take effect, then click (C:) in the lefthand pane of the Windows Explorer, click Edit, Select All, Copy and paste it into the D drive. Finally, restore the original swap file setting (ie, “Let windows manage my virtual memory settings”) when you boot from the new drive. becomes the master drive. The old drive can either be removed or con­ figured as the slave/secondary drive. Next, insert the Startup Disk into the floppy drive, turn on the PC and edit the CMOS settings for the hard disk drives to reflect the changes just made. Save these settings, then continue booting with the Startup Disk. If you find your computer fails to boot from the floppy disk, it may be that the CMOS setup has been told to boot from the C drive only. In this case, it will be necessary to edit the CMOS setup so that the system boots from a floppy disk. You will find an option somewhere in the CMOS setup which allows you to select which drive the machine boots from. Making the partition active Once the machine has booted to the A: prompt, type fdisk (this utility will be on the Startup Disk) and select option 2 to make the primary partition on the new hard disk drive the active partition. Whatever you do, don’t change the primary partition size or you will lose all information on the disk. Next, exit fdisk, remove the floppy disk and reboot. Your system should now boot Windows 95/98 from the new hard disk. What’s more, your system should be exactly the same as before, with all settings and applications intact. Finally, if you were previously having problems with your system, the above procedure will copy those same problems to the new drive. If your system is corrupted, the best approach would be to use the new hard disk as an excuse for a fresh SC installation. JUNE 1999  7