Adding A Second Hard Drive

My brother is getting a new computer and tossing out his old one. Since his old hard drive holds 3x more than mine does, I wanted to install it as a second drive on my machine. I think I understand everything involved with the physical connections (hooking up the power cords, designating slave/master, etc.). What I'm not sure about is how to prepare the drives before hand. Both machines are running Windows 98 SE. Both have all of the critical updates and protections (firewalls, anti-virus, security updates) installed. Both are currently disease-free. Really, the only difference between them (other than the storage size) is that his drive is on a Gateway, and mine is on a Dell. To start with, will I have to re-format his drive before I install it? He's got a lot of data on there already that we'd lose by doing this (and no external HD or CD burner to back it up with). Should I delete duplicate programs before installation? Do I have to install the drivers from my machine onto his drive (or, because it will be the slave, is that unneccessary)? What do I have to do regarding BIOS? Any suggestions, links, etc would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

If everything is as you say, cable, master/slave, you should be able to just boot the PC and get the meaasge to run setup or it might automaticly add the HD. If it wants the setup, do a auto detect for the HD. You shouldn't have to delete anything. good luck

Thanks for the response, LD. I have one other question, relating to memory. The Dell uses 128MB of RD RAM (with 1 additional memory slot available). His Gateway is using 384MB of SD RAM (in 3 slots). The two types of RAM are not compatible, are they? Would it be possible to use one of his memory chips on my machine? Could I replace the one RD chip and use two of his SD ones?

The only thing I can tell you there is to look at the chips or go to a memory selling web site and see what information you can find. Memory modules very and some are PC brand specific.

The only thing I can tell you there is to look at the chips or go to a memory selling web site and see what information you can find. Memory modules very and some are PC brand specific.

177744

Okay, thanks again!

You're more then welcome. Glad we were able to help Peace be with you