Preserved Topic: install used hard drive (Page 1 of 1)

Hi everybody

I have an old presario 200 that I want to make into a linux box for my own educational purposes. The original hard drive is shot, so a friend of mine sent me a used one that they didn't need anymore.

Aside from installing some RAM and a nic card I don't know spit about the hardware end of a computer (or much else to do with a computer for that matter) so I could really use either some good links about installing a hard drive or some really big time help.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but I don't plan on having a windows OS on this box at all, and I have Red Hat 7.2 laying here ready to install.

Thanks for any and all help, links, hints, tips, pointers... well you get the idea

Thanks

-Butcher-

This is one of the easier hardware upgrade's

Now this is gonna be the only HD on the system right?
That means you want it to be the master HD look up the HD's manufacturer's hardware manual. If you look on the HD there should be 8 little pins in 2 rows of 4 with 2 little jumpers that connect one pin to another. What you want to do is look at the manufacturer's specs to find the "Master config" and set that on the HD. If you can't find that then use it the way you got it. And last ditch try removing all jumpers, this usually defaults to master.

Now open your case.

You should have one, maybe 2 IDE cables (long ribbon cables) that connect your current HD and or CD-ROM drive to the mobo. Since you already have a HD in there, simply remove it (disconnect power and IDE cables, unscrew and pull out) put the new one in it's place and reconnect the cables.

Now comes the kinda difficult part. Depending on how old the computer is you have a couple of ways things can go. First the HD can be recognized on boot (Watch the boot up screen and see if it says somethng like "Primary Master --> YOUR HD TYPE"

If it does than the BIOS was set to autodetect the HD and all is well. If not you may have to go into the BIOS and set the new HD. I'm no good at this and I haven't had to do it since my first computer years ago so you shouldn't have to.

You may also want to check if the BIOS support booting from CD-ROM. In which case you can just boot from the RH disks and it will give you the options on formatting the drive. (this part of the setup in particular is why I prefer Mandrake distros )

Hope that helps.



.:[ The Tao of Steve ]:.
Be Desireless
Be Excellent
Be Gone
...................................

Thanks Bitdamaged!

I've got the HD connected and running the Linux installation. Is there any reason I shouldn't do a server class installation?

All input for Linux installs will be appreciated

Thanks again Bit

-Butcher-