Install new external hard drive

You could put Windows, Linux or iOS onto an external drive. You can put anything on it. Yes No. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 6.

Do I need to overwrite my external hard drive to make a more current image of my C: drive? Alternatively, you could attempt to specifically overwrite certain parts of the external hard drive only. Not Helpful 1 Helpful 1. They are generally pre-formatted. You can either try copying a file to it or double-clicking on the drive in My Computer; if the drive needs to be formatted, your OS will tell you.

Not Helpful 2 Helpful 5. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. Many non-computer items that allow for external hard drives e. Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0. Always safely eject your external hard drive before removing it from your computer.

This will ensure that your hard drive's files are saved. Not all file systems are compatible with other computers. If you use a proprietary file system e. You Might Also Like How to. How to. Expert Interview. About This Article. Co-authored by:. Co-authors: Updated: June 1, Categories: External Storage Devices.

Nederlands: Een externe harde schijf op je computer aansluiten. Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read , times. Is this article up to date?

Cookies make wikiHow better. By continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Featured Articles How to. These days, your most important choice is between a traditional hard drive or a solid state drive SSD. But there are few other things to think about, too.

Modern SSDs are amazing, and are a worthy upgrade to just about any system. Moving from a regular drive to an SSD improves speed across your system. You PC will start faster, load apps and large files faster, and decrease load times in most games.

The trouble is, once you get past a terabyte of storage space, SSDs start to get prohibitively expensive. Alternately, conventional hard drives are slower, but offer huge amounts of storage relatively cheaply. You can also combine the strengths of SSDs and hard drives. If your desktop can handle more than one drive and most of them can , you can install your operating system on the main SSD for speedy access to programs and essential files, and use a large capacity traditional drive for storing files.

But for most people, a smaller SSD combined with a larger hard drive is a great compromise. Hard drives typically come in two sizes: 2. The 3. The possible exception to this are the super-small form factor PCs that can only handle a 2. Some desktop PCs have built in mounting points for 2. And speaking of SSDs, there is one more form factor to talk about: the M. These drives actually look more like a stick of RAM than a hard drive.

One other note about laptops. If your PC only offers the older 4-pin Molex cables, you can buy adapters that work just fine. Some like the one pictured below have a straight plug on one end and an L-shaped plug on the other end. The L-shaped plug makes it easier to fit into jacks that are closer to other components. One other word on SATA drives. The same goes for the SATA cable you buy.

So you might not want to splurge on the fastest SSD you can get. Getting more storage on an SSD will be more important to most people than getting more speed. It might be worth the small price premium versus a standard hard drive. Your next step is to decide whether you want to transfer your operating system to the new drive or just do a clean installation and start fresh.

There are pros and cons for each. Transferring your operating system and all your data and installed apps means not having to worry about reinstalling Windows, setting it up the way you like it again, and then reinstalling each of your apps.

The bad news is that this is a slow and tedious process. Most new drives come with tools to make it happen. Drives last longer when they stay nice and cool. When mounting drives in a system, try to leave as much space between them as possible to maximize airflow over the tops and bottoms.

Positioning the drives directly in front of an intake fan also helps. SATA uses simple cables that are keyed to fit on the drive and motherboard connector one way. You may find the SATA cables included with your new drive or motherboard feature different connectors: straight ends or right-angle L-shaped. Some may have metal retention clips, while others do not.

The shape of the connector makes no difference in performance. I like to use SATA cables with right-angle connectors on the drive side, provided there is adequate clearance between any drives in the system. Using right-angle connectors on the motherboard side will will result in blocked ports, because the connector may overlap adjacent ports.

Try to find SATA cables with metal retention clips, because they help keep the connectors secured. After this, you can format the new hard drive by right-clicking to format the created partitions. After you install a new hard drive, you may initialize it first in using Disk Management or partition manager software like EaseUS Partition Master recommended here. Gemma is member of EaseUS team and has been committed to creating valuable content in fields about file recovery, partition management, and data backup etc for many years.

She loves to help users solve various types of computer related issues. It makes it way easier to play out what will happen after you've made all the changes. I also think the overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever you're doing with your computer's partitions easy. Partition Master Free can Resize, Move, Merge, Migrate, and Copy disks or partitions; convert to local, change label, defragment, check and explore partition; and much more.

A premium upgrade adds free tech support and the ability to resize dynamic volumes. It won't hot image your drives or align them, but since it's coupled with a partition manager, it allows you do perform many tasks at once, instead of just cloning drives. You can move partitions around, resize them, defragment, and more, along with the other tools you'd expect from a cloning tool. Can I Format the System Partition?

Let it manage your storage drive: resize, format, delete, clone, convert, etc. Screen Recorder. Transfer Products. File Management. More Products.