Need more storage on your computer? This article will show you some simple steps to help you add a new hard drive and more storage space to your computer.

Steps

   1. Check if you need the IDE (parallel ATA) or Serial ATA. While older computers support IDE, new may only support Serial ATA. If you are not sure, open the computer case and try to determine the type of the used drives from the view. It is safer to use the same type that is already installed, even if the sockets for another type also appear to be present.
   2. Make sure you have room for an extra hard drive, here’s one way to do this:
         1. Restart your computer and go into the BIOS menu.
         2. Go to the “Standard CMOS Settings.”
         3. In this menu, you will find four settings labeled as follows: PRIMARY MASTER:, AUTO/PRIMARY SLAVE:, SECONDARY MASTER:, SECONDARY SLAVE:. Change all fields to auto detection.
         4. Reboot your computer
         5. On the first or second screen, you will see something like the screen above and it will say detecting (drive(prim/sec)) : (name of the drive if present). If any of them say none, remember which drive it is. If all of them have a drive name, all your bays are filled and you can’t add a new hard drive without removing a disk drive or hard drive. Consider mak