# Installing Two Harddrives on One Computer



## Tehgame (Aug 23, 2007)

I got a small problem. I connect one hard drive, the other disappears, and vice versa making it impossible for me to transfer files... any help please?


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## MaverickUK (Nov 30, 2006)

Hola,

Do you have it connected (or them) via IDE (ribbon cable) or via SATA (flat-head connection)? If it is IDE and you are connecting it via only *one channel* then make sure you have one drive set up as *master* and the second drive set-up to be on *slave* - if all else fails, just set-up both drives to be cable select.

You can see how to set-up your drives into these configurations by looking on the top or bottom of the drive, it will display instructions on how you get them in to these specific modes.

Nick.


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## Tehgame (Aug 23, 2007)

They are both USB? Not sure what IDE or Sata is.


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## telegramsam (Jul 7, 2006)

Are the model numbers printed on top of the hard drives? If so, please post them.


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## Tehgame (Aug 23, 2007)

1) WD7500CO32-002 - Western Digital Essential 750GB
The other model number isn't printed but it's some other 250gb hard drive.


Ohh, and one more thing. Why is it that when I connect my 750gb hard drive, it actually has only 698.

Thanks


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Tehgame said:


> They are both USB? Not sure what IDE or Sata is.


IDE is ATA
SATA is (Serial) ATA .. and newer technology.


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## Tehgame (Aug 23, 2007)

Okay, Just started to work. 

My Solution:
One hard drive connected to PC's USB Slots
Second hard drive connected via USB Hub. 

But can someone still answer the "GB Size" issue and maybe provide a reasoning why two hard drives can't work if both connected to onboard USB Slots


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## mattyc (Aug 22, 2007)

Tehgame said:


> 1) WD7500CO32-002 - Western Digital Essential 750GB
> The other model number isn't printed but it's some other 250gb hard drive.
> 
> Ohh, and one more thing. Why is it that when I connect my 750gb hard drive, it actually has only 698.
> ...


Western Digital is using GiB and Windows is showing you GB
750 GiB * (1000^3) / (1024^3) = 698 GB
Windows is saying 1024 bytes make a kilobyte (KB)
WD is saying 1000 bytes make a kiolbyte (KiB)


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

The drives should work connected to any USB port.

Depends on if you're looking at Total space or Available space.
Some of the drive space is use for file management.


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## Tehgame (Aug 23, 2007)

Well When I was buying that it said GB... nothing about GIB


Total space says 698.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Tehgame said:


> Well When I was buying that it said GB... nothing about GIB
> 
> Total space says 698.


That is normal. The drive makers uses 1Kb=1000 however your computer uses binary; 1KB=1024.


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## Tehgame (Aug 23, 2007)

that's such bs though... False advertising if anything.


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