Adding IDE hard drive to old Packard Bell iXtreme 1447

[snoozeboy]

I have an old Packard Bell iXtreme that I use to store the family's photos and videos etc.

The 250gb hard drive was almost full, so I thought I'd add another Western Digital 250gb IDE drive.

I think I did everything ok, because when I entered the BIOS setup on starting, it seemed to recognise both drives as master and slave. However, the fan was blowing unusually hard. On continuing to load windows, the fan continued at full pace, until the computer stuttered and then shut down, presumably to avoid overheating.

Does this mean that my computer doesn't have the power to run two hard drives? I connected one power lead with two plugs from the PSU in serial to the two drives. Would it have been better to use 2 separate leads?

Thanks in advance for any advice?

SB

 

[spyder viewer]

It may be an improvement. It depends on the design of the psu.

If you put the second drive in a caddy, it is powered separately.

3.5" IDE HARD DRIVE CADDY USB EXTERNAL HDD ENCLOSURE UK | eBay

Don't forget you need an IDE caddy.

 

[paulktreg]

Hard drives pull very little power and the addition of another will not overload the power supply and using one power lead with two 4 pin peripheral connectors is perfectly acceptable. Have a good look round and make sure you haven't disturbed anything? I presume the fan you're taking about is the processor cooling fan? You haven't disturbed the processor cooler have you?

 

[snoozeboy]

I may have disturbed the processor cooler, because I had to remove and replace it to get the drive in the rack. It's a bit of a squeeze with the drive cables and one of the levers doesn't quite go down properly, because the cables are in the way. I reckon this may be the problem.

I'll go and have another fiddle and report back.

Thanks a lot.

 

[spyder viewer]

Did you clean up the hsf and reapply thermal paste? If you didn't, you're asking for trouble!

 

[snoozeboy]

Outstanding advice paulktreg. The cooler wasn't properly in contact with the processor. I replaced it better this time and now the computer is booting and appears to run normally.

Thanks a million.

 

[snoozeboy]

Did you clean up the hsf and reapply thermal paste? If you didn't, you're asking for trouble!

Er, no. It's running normally now, but I'll get some paste and apply it in a few days. What's an hsf?

 

[snoozeboy]

Aha, it's a heat-sink fan. I cleaned it up a bit, but as mentioned, will get some paste tomorrow.

 

[snoozeboy]

Now I have a new problem I can't find the new drive in My Computer. It seems to be there, marked correctly as a slave in the BIOS and I know I have to format the new disk, but how do I do that if I can't see it in My Computer?

Am I missing something?

 

[snoozeboy]

aha2. I was missing something. I found the solution in Computer Management.