hey is there anyway to add another IDE connection thing? i HAVE to have another one for another drive....im running out of space very quickly! will it be affordable?

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Well, usually a IDE Cable already has two connections avaiable for 2 HDs or 1 HD and 1 CD (not recomendable)...
However, almost all mainboards, nowadays, come with two connections for IDE which would make duplicate (2 HD / 2 CDs and variations)... If your cable does not have another connection for the HD, you should try buying one new (it's very cheap) or if it's already in use (CD, probably) and your mainboard does not have another space, you will have to buy a new mainboard which is not really cheap...

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ok wait....so my cable has this thing in the middle...."pins" are supposed to go in it....i could use this as another IDE connection?

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In short, yes.

Make sure you follow the hard drive's installation guide. You must check to see the one at the end is set to MASTER and the middle one is set to SLAVE. This is explained with your new purchasing hard drive. If not, you can search the internet for quick and simple instruction.

Once you installed SLAVE drive, simple start your computer and use Windows (I'm assuming you run MS WINDOWS) administrator function (Start > Control Panel > Adminstrative Tools > Disk Management) select Disk 1 (because Disk 0 is your c or only drive) right click and format.

That's it.

PS some hard drives require that the first drive is to be set to MASTER with SLAVE setting. I'm talking about the jumper pin settings.

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ok thanks....do you reccomend any brands? or any drives? im open to suggestions!!!

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I have always purchased from my local computer stores. And I have been using Western Digital for past 8 years. I have yet to see them failing on me.

I have had two Maxtor drives and one of them died after making a really loud noise. I sent it back to this manufacture (after 3 years of operation) they sent me a refurbished drive. I didn't like a refurb but hey, free replacement... not bad.

Never tried Seagate, Fuji or IBM drives. I've heard good and bad things. So I personally recommend the Western Digital. Try getting the 8MB cache instead of 16MB. It will save you almost 40% in cost and you can't even notice the difference.

They are all 7200RPM now-a-days. I rather have TWO 120GB drives than ONE 250GB drive.. but that's just me.

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If all your IDE ports on your computer are used.

You can add an PCI card with IDE ports (SATA serial ATA or PATA the old IDE port).
On this card you can again some drives.
But you have to watch out for your power supply each drive consumes some power.

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I recommend Seagate. My more-than-5-year-old computer's hard disk is a Seagate and up to now, it still works perfectly fine. Another plus factor of choosing Seagate above others is that Seagate hard drives have a reputation of being very reliable in the sense that they last for at least 5 years. Maybe that justifies the 5-year warranty that Seagate hard drives ship with.

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I wouldn't recommend brands but I would recommend that you pick a drive with low seek time and has a metal casing which is rare nowadays. Common drives now have a plastic (or latex?) cover underneath but some drives are manufactured with metal casing for extra protection.

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