Hard drive space will always be in constant demand, what with the average game install exceeding a gigabyte of space, and fast Internet and file sharing conspiring to fill our computers with things we can't possibly do without. Fortunately, hard disk space continues to expand affordably. As the average computer can use up to three hard disks in addition to a CD drive, it's easy enough to go out and buy a new drive to add extra storage space to your system. Easy enough until you get around to actually putting the drive in, that is. Few other computer upgrades carry more potential complications and complexities than installing and preparing a newly purchased hard drive for use.

Here at PCSTATS, we'd like to take some time to cover this important procedure in detail, so you won't have to pay your local computer shop $80 to do it for you!

In this Beginners Guide, we'll cover all the necessary steps for installing and preparing a second hard disk drive on both Win9x/ME and Win2K/XP systems, as well as setting up the hard drive for installation on a brand new computer with no operating system. As both IDE and Serial ATA hard drives are used in modern PCs, we'll also investigate the differences between these two types of hard disk.