[Rollbar]

I have two old PC's and they both have a 40gig HD and windows '98 is their OS.

1. Can I wipe these out and use them as a second HD for another PC?

2. If so how is that done?

3. When completed do I have to install a OS on that drive or how will it be accessed etc.

Thanks,
Jim

[JeepinIan]

I use older HD as a backup HD. Plug them into the harness, and format the drive. That's all there is to it. Formatting will wipeout the HD and give you a clean HD.

[Rollbar]

Thanks Ian.

I formatted a 80gig; 40gig and a 4.3 gig

Here is how I did it from my LapTop.

So basically you gotta go to the:
control panel
admin tools
computer mgmt
storage
disk drives
right click on drive
click format

Link ---> http://windows.micro...k-partition#EFB

[JeepNWilly]

Yes if you want to go about it the loooooong way

Click Start then right click My Computer select Manage. This will take right to computer Managemet.

If the hard drive is a windows bansed hard drive it will automatically list it with a drive letter when you open My Computer. There is no need to go into computer managment to format it unless the hard drive has no partitions but in your case it came out of a windows 98 pc so you will actuallly be able to see the files and just delete them as you would normally.

Yes is is a simple plug and play but if the jumpers are wrong the drive will not show and what ever else is on the same ribbon cable will also not show.

Per canble you can have 2 devices and most computers have 2 IDE ports with 2 ribbon cables therefore allowing you to have 4 IDE devices (CD, DVD, HD, TapeDrives, etc...)
There is a master, slave or Cable Select jumper setting that the IDE devices have.
If you are connecting the new drive on a ribbon cable that has another HD or a CD you must make sure they both are set to Cable Select (CS) or one as master and the new drive you are putting in there as slave.

You can avould all this by simply buying a USB IDE hard drive enclosure allowing you to plug in the Hard drive as a USB device without taking the computer apart.
Something like this.
http://www.compusa.c...3195&CatId=2779

[Rollbar]

Thanks willy. It will have to go into the cabinet after I find a power supply. I'll check it out.

Thanks,
Jim

[92SquareEye]

Seems like a lot of work for 40GB. You can get 1TB external drives for about $100 now...

-dave

[Rollbar]

Ya Dave I understand-good learning curve and she doesn't need that much so I will dump the stuff on the 40gig to the 80 gig and she can use that and the 40 as a back up.