Did you get a new HDD for Christmas, but you don’t have a clue how to install it? This is going to be a guide how to properly install a HDD without help from an IT-expert. I really hope this will help some people! For the more advanced users this guide will also give you background information about disk and allocation sizes as well as GPT disks (GUID Partition Table).

Initialize – partition – format!

Once you connected the hard drive and you boot the PC the HDD should be instantly recognized. Windows Vista will automatically install all the drivers. Now we have to initialize the disk, setup a partition and format it.

1. First of all open up your Explorer (Windows-Key + E)

2. Now on the left side find:

3. Do a right-click on it and click on “Manage”. A new window will open “Computer Management”.

4. Yep, you guessed right, select “Disk Management”:

5. You will see something like this:

A window should automatically come up saying that you first have to initialize the disk. Since Vista you can initialize disks as a GPT, which will be necessary in the near future. Scroll down to (6) if you want to read about the details later.

Ok, hold on! Why does it only show me 931.51GB ?

Some people will already know this, hardware vendors advertise their products with this formula in mind:

1 terabyte = 1000 gigabytes

The reality says:

1 terabyte = 1024 gigabytes

1000 GB = 931 GiB

Does it mean, they ripped me off?

Yes, actually it does! They are advertising it in a wrong way, but they do not intend to change that anytime soon.

So what the bloody hell is GPT ?

Quote from tomshardware.co.uk

GPT disks are new, and are readable only by Windows Server 2003 SP1, Windows Vista (all versions), and Windows XP x64 Edition. The GPT disk itself can support a volume up to 2^64 blocks in length. (For 512-byte blocks, this is 9.44 ZB – zettabytes. 1 ZB is 1 billion terabytes). It can also support theoretically unlimited partitions

I don’t want to imagine what you will need 9.44 ZB for, but hey the sky is the limit.

Because I was kind of curious and didn’t know the exact numbers I looked them up:

Facts

(I hope this is not too boring for you! If it is then skip this part):

- GPT disks support unlimited partitions, although Windows restricts this to 128 partitions

- Windows XP and the original release of Windows Server 2003 have a limit of 2TB per physical disk

- For Windows Server 2003 SP1 Windows XP x64 edition, and later versions, the maximum raw partition of 18 exabytes can be supported.

Limit: Windows file systems currently are limited to 256 terabytes

Source: Microsoft

Conclusion:

GPT disks will be needed soon, because they allow a greater disk space and more partitions.

For now just initialize the disk as MBR!

6. Do a right-click on the initialized disk and select “New Simple Volume”.

That’s how you can setup a new partition!

7. Follow the wizard and define a partition size, e.g. 500.000 MB

8. Define a free partition/drive letter:

9. Assign a drive name and allow file/folder compression. Also don’t forget to check “quick format”.

10. Once you try to access the disk (open the Explorer Windows-key+E and select the drive), it will remind you to format it before you can use it.

Wait, hold on for a minute! What is the allocation size?

Allocation Size:

Allocation size is also known as cluster size. It defines the smallest amount of space of a single file. Therfore a small size means more space and a large size less space:

A large allocation unit size can improve your disk performance, but will give you less available space. A low allocation unit size will give you more disk space, but less disk performance. If you have a lot of large files on your HDD a large cluster size is recommended. This might be the case if you are editing movies (e.g. if you are frapsing stuff regulary) or if you download a lot of big files. Actually, you can waste a lot of disk space if you have a big cluster size, therefore I would recommend a medium size.

11. You are done! Enjoy your new HDD. Little piece of advice: Create a system to save your files in specific folders in advance! It’s very common that one day you will get lost if you save your files in random folders.

Wait, I need help to connect the HDD!

If you need help with this, I suggest you to read this guide (includes pictures).

Overall it’s a very simple thing to do. Brief description: Connect the red S-ATA cable with the S-ATA connectors on your motherboard (read your motherboard manual for help on this) and connect the other end with your HDD. Then there should be a black power-cabel somewhere in your PC (*laughs*), which you will also have to connect with it. If it does not fit, then don’t force it to fit simply try another cable and it should work in the end.