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QUESTION

Here's my system:

• Intel Pentium 120 MHz
• 850 MB hard drive
• CD-ROM drive
• 16-bit soundcard
• 33.6 Kbps modem
• 15" monitor
• Windows 95

I recently purchased a Quantum Bigfoot CY 6.4 GB hard drive. I would like to upgrade my current 850 MB Maxtor Hard Drive and have it run as a slave, with the new drive as the master.

Is there a step-by-step process that I can find on the Web?  In a book?  The manual that came with the new hard drive is not easy to understand for this non-Geek.

My questions are:

• How do I get a 40-pin connector and the jumper to enable the new drive?
• Where do they get connected?
• I would like to install Win98 (I bought the full version, not an upgrade) on the new hard drive and then copy my current files onto this drive.  
  What is the best way to accomplish this?

Thanks for your help!

--Chet

ANSWER

The step by step process may vary, but here is the general process you’ll need to follow:

1. Make sure your motherboard BIOS is up to date. Some older machines have trouble recognizing drives over 2 GB in size.
2. Your Bigfoot drive should have a jumper on it that will decide whether your drive is master or slave. If not, you may need to buy one--usually available at any computer store. They may just give one to you if you ask. Your Maxtor drive should have one as well. If you’re not sure of the jumper settings, go to Quantum’s and/or Maxtor’s websites and get the manual for the drive(s) you own. Set the Bigfoot to be master and the Maxtor to be a slave. The master IDE drive on the primary IDE connector is your C: drive, and the slave will be your D: drive. Thus, in this case, the Bigfoot is C: and the Maxtor is D:.
3. The 40-pin connector is a standard IDE cable, also available at any computer store. IDE cables come with three connectors, one for connecting to the motherboard and two other connections for devices. It really doesn’t matter what you plug in where, just make sure you keep the red stripe on the cable connected to pins 1 and 2 for the motherboard IDE connector and both drives. IDE cables max out at about 18" in length.
4. Connect power to both drives. You should have some spare power connectors coming from your power supply. If not, you must buy a “Y” power cable at a computer store and then connect the drives.
5. Once all is connected, turn on your computer and see if your BIOS recognizes the drives properly. If so, put in the Windows 98 boot-disk and install Windows 98 on your new drive. The old drive will still have all your files on it. Copy them over when Windows 98 is done installing. If the drives don’t recognize properly, you may need to do some troubleshooting. Verify that they are connected properly.
6. Assuming all is good, mount both drives in the case. You must have space for your new drive in your case. Since you apparently don’t have a jumper or an IDE cable, you probably won’t have screws to mount your drive either. Quantum Bigfoot drives are 5.25" devices that fit into a full drive bay with some screws. Just get some at your local computer store or take some off of other places in your computer if you are desperate. Just be careful there!

This is if all goes well. If all doesn’t go well, I could write a book for you. I’d suggest that you keep Quantum’s tech support number available. If you want to search for help on the Web, check out the IDE FAQ. It has some good info.

Good luck.

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