How To Add Another Drive To Windows 10

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This wikiHow teaches yous how to install a 2d hard drive in a desktop computer. Keep in mind that installing a second hard drive in modern laptops or Mac computers is not possible, though y'all can supersede the current hard drive at the risk of voiding your figurer'due south warranty. If you don't want to get through the hassle of installing a second internal difficult drive, you can just apply an external difficult bulldoze for whatever Windows or Mac calculator.

i
Make sure that yous have a Windows desktop calculator. Mostly speaking, mod laptops do not have the infinite for a second hard drive. Additionally, modernistic Mac computers—both desktop and laptop versions—don't accept room for a second difficult drive.^[1]
- Y'all can still install an external hard bulldoze on both Windows and Mac computers.
2
Buy a SATA internal hard drive for your computer. If you don't already have a SATA difficult bulldoze that you want to install, buy ane earlier proceeding.
- You'll generally desire to buy a hard drive made by the same visitor which made your figurer (eastward.one thousand., HP).
- Some difficult drives aren't compatible with certain computers. Before buying a hard drive for your computer, search for your computer'due south model and the hard bulldoze'south name (e.g., "HP Pavilion uniform with L3M56AA SATA") to see if they'll work together.
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3
Turn off and unplug your estimator. You lot should never attempt to alter your computer's internal components while the computer is running, as you may seriously harm both yourself and the figurer.
- Some desktop computers will take a couple of minutes to stop running later on unplugging them. If this is the case for your computer, wait until the computer'southward fans take stopped running before proceeding.
4
Open your estimator's case. This process will vary from desktop computer to desktop computer, so consult your computer's manual or online documentation for specific instructions if you don't already know how to open the case.
- You'll commonly need a Phillips-head screwdriver for this step.
5

Ground yourself . This will forbid accidental harm to your computer'due south sensitive internal parts (e.one thousand., the motherboard).
6

Observe an empty mounting infinite. Your primary hard drive will exist mounted in a rack that's somewhere in the reckoner's case; there should be a similar, empty rack near the hard drive. This is where your second hard bulldoze will go.
7
Slide your 2d hard drive into the mounting space. It should fit under or next to the primary hard drive, with the cable side of the difficult drive facing y'all.
- In some cases, yous'll have to tighten the mounting infinite with screws.
viii
Find the hard drive attachment point. Follow the electric current hard drive's cablevision all the style downwardly to where it plugs into the motherboard, which is a green panel with circuits on it.
- If the hard drive'due south cable resembles a ribbon, your current difficult drive is an IDE-type difficult bulldoze; you'll most probable demand an adapter to plug the second hard drive into the motherboard.
9
Attach your second hard bulldoze. Make sure that one end of the second difficult drive's cable is firmly plugged into the 2d difficult drive, so plug the other end of the cable into the motherboard. It should fit into a slot adjacent to the primary difficult drive's cablevision.
- If your computer'south motherboard only supports IDE connections, the slot on the motherboard will exist a couple of inches wide. You lot tin buy a SATA to IDE adapter that plugs into this slot, at which bespeak you can plug your hard drive's cablevision into the adapter's back.
x
Attach the 2d hard drive to the power supply. Plug one end of the second hard drive's power cable into the power supply box, then plug the other end into your second hard drive.
- You'll usually find the power supply at the height of the computer instance.
- The power supply cable resembles a wider SATA cable.
11

Make sure that all of the connections are tight. If your 2nd difficult drive isn't properly plugged in, your reckoner won't be able to recognize it later.
12

Plug in and turn back on the computer. At present that your second hard drive is physically installed, you'll demand to allow Windows to recognize the hard drive.
thirteen
Open the Deejay Management window. Right-click the Start carte

that's in the bottom-left corner of the screen, then click Disk Management in the resulting pop-upwards menu.
- Yous can also press ⊞ Win+X to open up the pop-up menu.
xiv
Look for the "Initialize Disk" window to appear. This window will normally appear within a few seconds of opening Disk Management.
- If the "Initialize Deejay" window doesn't announced, click the grey "Refresh" button that'south in a higher place the Layout tab near the top of the window.
fifteen

Click OK when prompted. This will let Windows to initialize the 2nd hard drive. In one case this process completes, you can go along.
16
Make your 2nd hard drive usable. Correct-click the second difficult bulldoze'south proper noun, click New Uncomplicated Volume... in the resulting menu, and click Adjacent on every page of the window that pops up. Your hard bulldoze will exist gear up up and fabricated readable by Windows.
- Once this process completes, you'll be able to access your 2nd hard drive from the This PC app.

i
Buy an external hard drive. You'll more often than not want to buy an external hard drive that both has plenty infinite for you and comes from a reliable manufacturer such every bit Western Digital or Seagate.^[ii]
- When buying an external hard drive, information technology's often not much more expensive to buy a terabyte (TB) hard drive rather than a 500 gigabyte (GB) 1.
- A ane-terabyte hard bulldoze will usually run nether $100.
2

Attach the external hard drive to your computer. Plug the hard drive's USB cable into i of your reckoner's USB ports.
3

Open Kickoff . Click the Windows logo in the bottom-left corner of the screen. The Start carte will open.
iv

Open up File Explorer . Click the binder-shaped icon in the bottom-left department of the carte. Doing then opens the File Explorer window.
5

Click This PC . It's on the left side of the window.
vi
Select your external hard drive's name. Click your external difficult bulldoze's name below the "Devices and drives" heading in the middle of the This PC window.
- The external hard drive's proper name will ordinarily contain the name of the manufacturer or the model of hard drive.
7

Click Manage . It's a tab in the upper-left corner of the window. A toolbar will announced below this tab.
8

Click Format . This option is on the left side of the Manage toolbar. Doing so prompts a pop-up window.
nine
Select a format. Click the "File System" drop-downward box, then click NTFS or exFAT in the resulting drop-down card.
- NTFS is useful for Windows-only systems, while exFAT can be used on any estimator (Macs included).
10

Click Commencement . Information technology's at the bottom of the window.
11
Click OK when prompted. Doing so confirms your determination and allows Windows to begin formatting the difficult drive.
- Once the external hard bulldoze has been formatted for your computer, you'll be prompted to click OK, at which point you can use the external hard drive as a 2nd hard drive.

1
Purchase an external hard drive. You'll more often than not want to buy an external hard bulldoze that both has plenty infinite for you and comes from a reliable manufacturer such as Western Digital or Seagate.
- Make sure that your selected hard bulldoze has a Thunderbolt connector (also known as USB-C) since modern Macs don't support USB 3.0 connectors.
- When ownership an external hard bulldoze, it's often non much more than expensive to buy a terabyte (TB) difficult drive rather than a 500 gigabyte (GB) one.
- A one-terabyte hard bulldoze will ordinarily run under $100.
2
Adhere the external difficult drive to your computer. Plug the external difficult drive'south Thunderbolt cable into one of your Mac'southward USB-C ports.
- If you bought an external hard drive that has a USB 3.0 connector, you can purchase a USB 3.0 to Thunderbolt 4 (or USB-C) adapter.
3
Click the Get carte item. It'south in the bill of fare bar at the tiptop of your Mac'southward screen. A drop-down menu will appear.
- If you don't see Go here, click the desktop or open the Finder application to prompt information technology to appear.
4

Click Utilities . It'southward in the Go drib-down menu. The Utilities folder will open up.
five

Open Disk Utility. Double-click the Disk Utility app icon, which resembles a difficult drive with a stethoscope on information technology.
6
Select your external difficult drive. Click the name of your external hard drive on the left side of the window.
- The external hard bulldoze's proper name volition usually contain the name of the manufacturer or the model of hard bulldoze.
7

Click Erase . It's a tab near the meridian of the Disk Utility window. A popular-up window will appear.
viii
Select a format. Click the "Format" drop-down box most the top of the window, then click Mac OS Extended (Journaled) in the resulting drib-down card.^[3]
- If yous plan on using the external hard drive with other non-Mac computers, select ExFAT here instead.
9

Click Erase . It's at the bottom of the window.
10

Click Erase when prompted. Doing and so confirms your conclusion and prompts your Mac to begin formatting your hard drive. Once the formatting completes, you lot'll be able to utilise the external difficult drive like any other storage infinite.

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Question

How do I install multiple hard drives?

Spike Baron
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Spike Baron is the Possessor of Fasten'due south Computer Repair based in Los Angeles, California. With over 25 years of working experience in the tech industry, Spike specializes in PC and Mac reckoner repair, used computer sales, virus removal, information recovery, and hardware and software upgrades. He has his CompTIA A+ certification for computer service technicians and is a Microsoft Certified Solutions Proficient.

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After yous open the casing, slide your new drive into one of the empty hard drive trophy and screw information technology in. And so plug in ane of the power plugs from the ability supply unit of measurement. Plug one end of a SATA cable into the drive and the other into an open port on the motherboard and you're done.
Question

My laptop got stuck on the booting carte du jour. I have tried removing the RAM and putting it dorsum, which didn't piece of work, and now my hard disk cannot be detected. What should I do?

It seems similar your hard disk is corrupted. You could try formatting the drive, but this would wipe all your data and remove Windows. You tin can open CMD from the boot menu and do a make clean and format to ready the drive. Your other option would be to get a new drive completely.
Question

How exercise I save files to my external USB drive?

Equally long every bit the bulldoze is recognized past your system, which it should be through plug and play, you lot should just be able to plug it in and drag the files to the external drive through your file explorer.
Question

How exercise I view data from an extra hard drive after I take connected it to my laptop?

Just open up file explorer and select the drive. Often when you plug in an external drive, you'll exist presented the option to view the files.
Question

If I want to utilize the second hard drive as simple extra storage, do I still demand to install an Bone?

No; only the primary drive needs an operating organisation. As long every bit the second i is formatted properly past your preferred OS, it should office as elementary storage.
Question

How can I brand a secondary drive from hard drives?

I believe you are asking about segmentation a single bulldoze into multiple partitions. Open disk direction by searching "Partitions" in your Windows search bar. Select the drive you wish to partition with a right click and hitting "Shrink drive." Then, when information technology is done (assuming yous had the infinite), y'all can select the unallocated space and hitting "New book." Name information technology what you want, and you have a partitioned bulldoze. If you are partitioning to install a second OS, you'll have to utilise bootstrap or a similar program.
Question

How do I connect an external difficult drive to a laptop?

External difficult drives are extremely versatile. Just connect them with a USB cord.
Question

Everything I've read about adding a difficult drive involves a new hard bulldoze. I want to put the hard drive from my previous computer into my new i. Will formatting erase the contents?

Do everything exactly the aforementioned except formatting, because (assuming information technology was existence used in a Windows PC) information technology was already formatted, and doing it again would only delete everything on it.
Question

My new hard bulldoze isn't existence detected by my computer. I've unplugged it and plugged it dorsum into a different port and I know that it is getting power. The cable and hard drive are new. What should I exercise?

Bank check to come across if information technology'southward recognized within BIOS, and if and so, try to assign the drive a partition in Disk Management in Windows. If it'southward not recognized in BIOS, in that location could be a limit on the number of drives, the drive is incompatible or the port could be defective on the motherboard.

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External difficult drives can exist used to house split operating systems. If y'all install a second operating system on your external hard bulldoze, be sure to go on it plugged in at all times.
In addition to being more widely used than IDE drives, SATA drives tend to be faster. Their cables also cake significantly less airflow than practice IDE cables.

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Most difficult drives are sensitive to Electrostatic Belch (ESD), so always remember to ground yourself before touching any of your figurer's internal components.

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Commodity Summary Ten

i. Buy a SATA for your PC.
2. Plow off and unplug the computer.
3. Open the case.
4. Footing yourself.
v. Slide the deejay into an empty mounting space.
half dozen. Attach the bulldoze to the motherboard and power supply.
7. Reassemble and restart the reckoner.
viii. Right-click the Start card and select Disk Management.
nine. Enable the new drive.

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