3 Ways To Add An Extra Hard Drive

You can still install an external hard drive on both Windows and Mac computers.

You’ll generally want to buy a hard drive made by the same company which made your computer (e. g. , HP). Some hard drives aren’t compatible with certain computers. Before buying a hard drive for your computer, search for your computer’s model and the hard drive’s name (e. g. , “HP Pavilion compatible with L3M56AA SATA”) to see if they’ll work together.

Some desktop computers will take a couple of minutes to finish running after unplugging them. If this is the case for your computer, wait until the computer’s fans have stopped running before proceeding.

You’ll usually need a Phillips-head screwdriver for this step.

In some cases, you’ll have to tighten the mounting space with screws.

If the hard drive’s cable resembles a ribbon, your current hard drive is an IDE-type hard drive; you’ll most likely need an adapter to plug the second hard drive into the motherboard.

If your computer’s motherboard only supports IDE connections, the slot on the motherboard will be a couple of inches wide. You can buy a SATA to IDE adapter that plugs into this slot, at which point you can plug your hard drive’s cable into the adapter’s back.

You’ll usually find the power supply at the top of the computer case. The power supply cable resembles a wider SATA cable.

You can also press ⊞ Win+X to open the pop-up menu.

If the “Initialize Disk” window doesn’t appear, click the grey “Refresh” button that’s above the Layout tab near the top of the window.

Once this process completes, you’ll be able to access your second hard drive from the This PC app.

When buying an external hard drive, it’s often not much more expensive to buy a terabyte (TB) hard drive rather than a 500 gigabyte (GB) one. A one-terabyte hard drive will usually run under $100.

The external hard drive’s name will usually contain the name of the manufacturer or the model of hard drive.

NTFS is useful for Windows-only systems, while exFAT can be used on any computer (Macs included).

Once the external hard drive has been formatted for your computer, you’ll be prompted to click OK, at which point you can use the external hard drive as a second hard drive.

Make sure that your selected hard drive has a Thunderbolt connector (also known as USB-C) since modern Macs don’t support USB 3. 0 connectors. When buying an external hard drive, it’s often not much more expensive to buy a terabyte (TB) hard drive rather than a 500 gigabyte (GB) one. A one-terabyte hard drive will usually run under $100.

If you bought an external hard drive that has a USB 3. 0 connector, you can buy a USB 3. 0 to Thunderbolt 4 (or USB-C) adapter.

If you don’t see Go here, click the desktop or open the Finder application to prompt it to appear.

The external hard drive’s name will usually contain the name of the manufacturer or the model of hard drive.

If you plan on using the external hard drive with other non-Mac computers, select ExFAT here instead.