If your current hard drive is running out of space due to all those downloads, or if you'd like a quick and painless way of doing weekly data backups, you may want to consider installing a second hard drive.
This isn't as scary as it sounds. In fact, you can be up and running with a shiny new hard drive in less than an hour. The process involves opening your computer's case up, designating a master/slave, mounting a new drive, running a partition program, and then formatting the new drive to complete the process.

After deciding that it's the "right thing to do", you have to determine if your system can handle a second hard drive. Can you add a second hard drive to your system? To determine if a second hard drive can be added to your computer, you need to open the case of your computer (with the power off) and verify:

1. There is an unfilled drive bay (either 3.5 inch or 5.25 inch) inside the computer where the hard drive can be mounted. If none exists, you can still add a second hard drive in an external case with a parallel, SCSI, or USB interface.
2. The hard drive ribbon cable can reach both the new drive and the old drive and will not be pulled out of the motherboard. If the cable is too short then you need to buy a hard drive extension cable.
3. An unused large power connector exists for the drive. To add a power cable connector, you need to buy a "Y" splitter to make an additional connection.

Drive Specifications.

Prices on hard drives have fallen dramatically. As such, there is no reason to buy a small capacity or slow hard drive.
The following specifications are what you should look for when buying a new hard drive:

1. 40 GB capacity or higher for Windows 95/98/Me/XP systems, Win 95 users can not use a drive larger than 8.4 GB as the boot drive unless they are using the "full", rather than the upgrade, version of Windows 95.
2. 7200 RPM spindle speed or faster.
3. Ultra DMA 100 or 133 (the drive will still work fine with Ultra DMA 66, and 33 controllers).
4. Less than 9 milliseconds access time.

Retail Kit or OEM bare drive?

Unless you are very sure of yourself, buy a drive kit. A drive kit includes all necessary parts and software to get your drive up and running with the least amount of hassle. OEM (original equipment manufacturer) or bare drives, are typically just the drive itself in an anti-static sleeve with no documentation whatsoever. Buying OEM, you have to know how to use the "fdisk" and "format" DOS commands to get your drive running or you can use Windows XP's hard drive commands.

Create a Windows 95/98/Me/XP Start-up Disk. This is necessary as the drive installation software needs this disk to format and partition your drive (besides, it never hurts to have a new Start-up disk ready to go in case you can't boot Windows). You will also need this disk if you buy an OEM drive and you want to use the new drive as the boot C: drive.

Write down product information from the top of the new drive and put it in a safe place. The only place this information may exist is on the drive's product label, which will be unreadable once the drive is placed in the drive bay.

Know the jumper pin settings for both the new drive and the old drive. Make sure you know the correct jumper pin settings for your old drive. If you do not have this information, visit your hard drive manufacturer's web site. Instructions for setting the jumpers on the new drive come in the box

• Open the Case
• Master or Slave?
• Mount the Drive
• Create a Partition
• Format Your New Drive

Chances are, your new drive is bigger and faster that your old one. The rule of thumb is to make the faster drive the bootable one and have your default operating system in it. If the two are comparable or identical in the aforementioned parameters, you might be better off running your operating system from the drive with less wear-and-tear.
Let's assume your new drive is the faster one, and that you wish to be greeted by Windows XP Professional when you turn your PC on. In this case, you would install your old drive as a "slave" drive. You can then transfer documents and possibly all of your customisations, bookmarks, etc. to your new drive using Windows XP's Files and Settings Transfer Wizard:

Start / All Programs / Accessories / System Tools / Files And Settings Transfer Wizard