Newb Adding a Second hard drive?

I just got a 160GB HD ATA and would like to add it to my system.

Some of my questions may seem stupid, But i'm new to adding hard drives.

I have a 40GB WD in my computer right now & want to add the 160 GB WD as storage & For games. So here goes?

1) Do i have to put the jumpers master-40 GB Slave 160 GB. (I do not have a jumper on my 40 GB right now)

2) Do i just shut off my computer plug it up and let windows detect it or what? ( I feel Retarded asking these questions it's probably simple to do) I didn't see it in the stickys though.

3) I Know i will have to format it, So do i make it 1 big partition?

I know that I'll have a lot more questions, but i want to get started with it.

Any and all replies will be appreciated.

1) If you are attaching it to the same cable, yes, master and slave settings are necessary. However if you use it and the HDD at the same time, then attaching it to the secondary controller may work better for you.

2) Yes, provided your motherboard supports large drives. Depending on OS and service pack level, it may come up as 127GB in Disk Management. If so, then you may need to update the SP and/or edit a registry setting to get the full capacity.

3) Partitioning will be your choice. FAT32 partitions are limited to 32GB using Disk Management to format, NTFS could format the drive as a single partition.

Ok, I should have mentioned that i have Windows Xp with Sp1. I think that accepts bigger drives?

I built this system myself, But i just never put 2 drives in the same system. I just started tinkering with computers about a year ago. I'm still (and probably always will be) Learning about the operating system.(Trial&error)

I also have a DVD player & a CDRW. I guess what i want to do is be able to install games on this drive & play them off it.

BTW, shut your PC off before adding your drive!

If you screw up the jumper setting, the worst thing that will happen is that your PC won't see one or both drives.

Just make sure that you unplug your PC and everything is powered off.

G'luck!

Hey Guys, Thanks for the help! Put it in and it's working great. It was easier than i thought,Just didn't want to mess things up. So thanks again.

You should notice a big performance increase in running games off the second drive as well. Since your OS and paging file are on first drive the second is freed up to put all its resources into apps. Install anything you want to run fast on that second drive. I noticed a big difference when i first got my second drive. My brothers got a single Raptor on his comp so, it beats my drive in benchmarks, but I load maps and levels in games just as fast as he does with my secondary Caviar 160 ATA drive!