How to Install a New Hard Drive

What Do I Need to Install a SATA Hard Drive?

Parts: You'll need one SATA cable per hard drive and screws to attach the drive to the PC's chassis. The wide, flat IDE cables used by PATA drives won't work.

You'll also need a free power lead fitted with a SATA power connector. Most systems that come with SATA ports have at least one SATA power connector. If yours does not, or if you're adding a SATA controller card to an older system with no SATA support, you can buy a SATA connector adapter online or at a local computer store for less than $10. Boxed hard drives usually come with both a data cable and a power connector adapter.

Tools: You'll need an antistatic wrist strap for grounding yourself and a small, nonmagnetic Phillips screwdriver.

How Do I Install a SATA Hard Drive?

1. Unplug your PC and position the case so that you can comfortably work in the interior. Remove the cover.

2. Protect your PC's delicate circuits from static electricity by properly grounding yourself. If you don't have the time to get a grounding strap, at least ground your body by touching a metal faucet, pipe, or even your PC's case before touching the inside of your PC or any component.

3. Prepare your drive. If you're installing a SATA 300 hard drive, check your PC's (or SATA host adapter's) documentation to confirm it supports SATA 300 drives. If it doesn't, you'll have change a jumper setting on the drive--see the drive's manual for instructions. If you have a SATA 150 hard drive, you shouldn't have to change any settings.

4. If you're installing the drive in a 5.25-inch drive bay instead of the standard 3.5-inch internal drive bay, install drive rails in the bay and then slide your hard drive into the bay and secure it with screws.

5. Position the drive with as much space as possible between it and other drives and surfaces in order to maximize cooling. If your case comes with a removable adapter tray for holding hard drives, just remove it, attach the drive, and replace it.

6. Connect the SATA data cable to the motherboard or adapter and to the hard drive and connect the power cable to the drive.

7. Turn on the PC and look for the new drive in the boot-up messages. If you don't see it, enter the PC's CMOS setup program (watch for a prompt during boot up to hit a certain key--often F2 or Delete) and search the BIOS configuration menu for an option there that will let you enable SATA overall or for the ports you're using. Check your motherboard documentation or the motherboard maker's Web site for instructions specific to your BIOS type.

8. If you're adding an additional hard drive to your system, use the configuration software that came with your drive to partition and format it. If you bought an OEM drive with no software, try downloading it from the manufacturer's Web site, or manually configure the drive by using Windows Disk Management tools. Select Start, Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management. Select your new drive, then right-click it to add partitions. Once you're done, format the partitions.

9. If you want the new drive to be a boot drive, you've got some extra work. The manufacturer's configuration software usually offers tools to copy the contents of your old drive with the operating system to the new drive. If you want a fresh install of Windows, just insert the Windows CD and reboot your PC.

Kirk Steers is a PC World contributing editor and the author of PC Upgrading and Troubleshooting QuickSteps from McGraw-Hill, Osborne Press.