Hardware devices that aren’t hot-pluggable require a bit more effort than hot-pluggable devices. Most require that you turn off the computer, connect the device, turn the device on, and then turn the computer back on. You might also need to install some software to get the device to work. It all depends on the device you’re connecting. As always, you have to read the instructions that came with the device for specifics. I can only provide general guidelines and examples here that give you an idea of what to expect. Your computer may have more or fewer such ports. Your ports probably won’t be arranged exactly like that. On a notearticle computer, the ports will likely be on the side of the computer, perhaps hidden under a sliding door. There are also devices you can install inside the computer case. These connect to ports inside the computer case on the motherboard (also called the mainboard). Some of those ports are referred to as expansion slots, or just slots because of their rectangular shape. The motherboard is a circuit board that provides the wiring between all the hardware devices that make up the system, including the CPU, memory (RAM), internal disk drives, and everything else.

Installing more memory (RAM)

Installing more RAM isn’t exactly like installing other devices, because you’re not likely to get any feedback at all on the Windows desktop when you’re done. RAM is such an integral part of the computer that it doesn’t really get “installed.” The processor just detects it as soon as you turn on the power. The only place you’d even see that you have more RAM is on the General tab of the System Properties dialog box. The big trick to adding more RAM is finding the right type of memory. You need to match the type and speed of your existing RAM chip, and you need an available DIMM slot on the motherboard. Also, every motherboard has a limit as to the maximum speed and type of memory it can handle. When you build a PC, you know exactly what’s involved. But when you buy a prebuilt PC, it’s not always easy to find out what you need to know.

Windows Vista  Upgrading the CPU

Every motherboard has a certain maximum CPU speed it can handle. You won’t know what that is unless you can get the specs on your exact motherboard. Rather than try to upgrade just the CPU, you’d probably be better off upgrading the motherboard, CPU, and RAM while you’re at it. That way you can speed up everything, but still use your existing hard drive, CD/DVD drive, mouse, keyboard, monitor, and everything else. A barebones kit might be the best way to go. With a barebones kit you can get a motherboard, CPU, RAM, and power supply already assembled in a new case. You then transfer your existing hard drive, CD drive, mouse, keyboard, monitor, and everything else to that new case. So you get the benefits of a newer, faster computer without the expense of buying an entirely new PC.

Your best bet is to go to the computer manufacturer’s Web site and find the main Web page for your exact model of computer. You can often find out exactly what type and speed of RAM chip is currently installed using that method. PNY (a company that sells RAM chips) has a Memory Configurator link on its home page (www.pny.com). When you click that link, it asks some basic questions about your system and then tells you which RAM chips will work with that system.

The PNY site also has a How To Install link, which might help you get the feel for what you’ll be doing when you purchase more RAM. Remember, you have to look inside the computer and see if you even have an available slot for adding more RAM first.

Even so, installing more RAM isn’t really something for the technologically timid to undertake. Even the slightest mistake could prevent the computer from starting at all. If the speed of the new chip doesn’t exactly match the speed of the existing chip, the computer will start but you’re likely to end up with endless error messages when you try to do just about anything.

People will tell you that you can mix RAM chip speeds. Rather than argue the issue, let me just give you some general advice. If you want your computer to work right, don’t mix RAM speeds.

Installing a second hard drive

If you need more hard disk space, installing a second hard drive is the only way to go. Hard disk space is cheap, and it’s a lot easier to just toss another 100-GB or 200-GB drive in there than it is to try to pinch a few more bytes out of a single drive by compressing files and moving things out to removable disks. However, internal hard drive installations can be very difficult. Personally I think that sort of thing is best left to the pros. You need to know how to get to and change settings in your computer’s BIOS. You need to know what kind of drives the motherboard can handle, and a whole lot more. These are topics that go well beyond the scope of a Windows article like this. I offer this information mainly for IT pros who are already familiar with hardware topics, and just need to know how to configure things in Vista. External hard drives are relatively simple to install. Basically you just connect the drive to a USB or FireWire port. If you already bought an internal hard drive but haven’t connected it yet, you can convert it to an external drive just by putting it in an external drive enclosure. Just make sure you get an enclosure that has the right internal connectors (IDE or SATA) for your drive.

To see examples of hard drive enclosures, search an online retailer like www.newegg. com, www.tigerdirect.com, or even froogle.google.com for external drive enclosure. Drives that connect via USB 2.0 can move data at 480 Mbps, which is plenty fast for a hard drive and won’t be a performance bottleneck.

Hard drives fall into two main categories, SATA (Serial ATA) and PATA (Parallel ATA), more commonly referred to as IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) drives. (The ATA stands for Advanced Technology Attachment.) SATA is the newer, faster, and easier technology. The original SATA drives moved data at a good 150 Mbps (150 million bits per second). The newer SATA II drives move data at a walloping 300 Mbps. Before adding a second SATA drive, you’ll need to make sure your motherboard has SATA connectors, and whether they’re regular SATA or SATA II connectors. IDE drives come in multiple speeds too, ranging from 33 Mbps to 133 Mbps. The maximum speed your PC can use depends on the speed of the IDE connectors on the motherboard.

IDE drives have an unusual configuration where you can connect two drives to a single IDE port. One drive is called the master drive, the other the slave drive. You have to physically set a jumper on the drive to make the drive either master or slave. Then you have to connect the drive to the right place on the cable. The master goes at the end of the cable. Again, your best bet before installing any hardware device is to follow the instructions that came with the device—to a tee—before you even turn the computer back on and use Windows to configure the device. If in doubt, have a pro install the hardware for you. But, assuming you’ve installed the drive, either internally or externally, you can then use Windows Vista to partition and format the drive.

Primary and extended partitions

You can divide a basic disk into multiple partitions. Each partition looks like a separate item in your Computer folder. The drive can be divided into a maximum of four primary partitions, or three primary partitions and one extended partition. The difference is that a primary partition can be used as a system partition, meaning you can install an operating system on it and boot the computer from it. An extended partition can’t be a boot disk and can’t contain an operating system. However, you can divide an extended partition into multiple logical drives, where each logical drive has its own drive letter and icon in My Computer, and looks like a separate drive.

Partitioning and formatting the disk Repartitioning and/or reformatting a disk that already contains files will result in the permanent loss of all files on that disk. You should not attempt to repartition or reformat an existing disk unless you fully understand the consequences, and are fully prepared to recover any lost files. Again, if you don’t have any formal training and experience in technical matters, it’s best to leave this sort of thing to the pros. An in-depth treatment of these more technical hardware matters is beyond the scope of this article.

After you have a new hard drive installed, you can restart Windows Vista and use the Disk Management tool to partition and format the drive. You might as well log in to an account with administrative privileges for this task. If the Computer Management tool doesn’t start automatically after you’ve logged in, you can get to it by following these steps:

1. Click the Start button and choose Control Panel.

2. Click System and Maintenance  ->  Administrative Tools.

3. Click Computer Management and then click Disk Management in the left column.

Optionally, Tap the Windows key, type comp, and click Computer Management. Then choose Disk Management in the Computer Management tool that opens.

The new drive appears at the bottom of the display, most likely as Disk 1 (assuming the system has one other disk drive, which will show as Disk 0). The drive’s space is indicated by a striped bar showing Unallocated in the lower-left corner. To partition the drive:

1. Right-click within the unallocated space of the new drive and choose New Partition.

2. On the first page of the New Partition Wizard that opens, click Next>.

3. The next page asks whether you want to create a Primary or Extended partition. If this is the first partition, choose Primary, and then click Next. (If you choose Extended, the wizard will end and you’ll need to create logical drives before you can proceed with formatting the disk.)

4. The next wizard page asks what size you want to make the partition, and suggests the full capacity of the disk. In my case, where this is a second drive, I would just click Next> to use the suggested size, equal to the capacity of the disk. You can choose a smaller size if you intend to divide the disk into multiple partitions.

5. The next wizard page asks you to assign a drive letter to the drive. It suggests the next available drive letter, which is a good choice. Click Next>.

6. The next wizard page asks how you want to format and label the disk. Your options are as follows:

- Do not format this partition: If you choose this option, you’ll have to format the partition later. I suggest that you not choose this option.

- File system: Your choices here are NTFS or FAT32. In Windows Vista, NTFS is the only way to go.

- Allocation unit size: This defines the cluster size. Larger clusters mean faster performance but more wasted space. The Default option automatically chooses the best allocation unit size given the type and capacity of the disk, so that would be your best choice.

- Volume label: This is the name that appears with the drive’s icon in My Computer. You can enter any name you want up to 12 characters in length (including spaces). You can also change that name at any time in the future.

- Perform a quick format: If you choose this option, formatting will go quickly, but the drive won’t be checked for errors. Better to leave this option unselected.

- Enable file and folder compression: Only available if you chose NTFS as the file system, this option automatically compresses all files and folders on the drive. This conserves disk space, but you pay for it in time, because it takes longer to open and save files when they’re always compressed. You can still compress individual files and folders if you leave this option unselected. So, I suggest you leave this unselected.

7. Click Next> after making your selections.

8. The last wizard page summarizes your selections. Click Finish.

Now you get to wait for the disk to be formatted. This could take a long, long time. You can continue to use your computer while that’s going on. Or you can just let the computer run and go out to lunch or something. It’s up to you. But you’ll have to be patient. If you set up the drive as one large partition, you’re done when the Formatting . . . indicator reaches 100%. You can close the Computer Management tool and Control Panel, and go to the section titled “Viewing the new drive’s icon.” If you are partitioning the disk into smaller units, you can repeat steps 1 to 8 for each partition. Just make sure that you right-click an unpartitioned portion of the disk in step 1. If you create an extended partition, the wizard will end as soon as you do. You’ll then need to right-click the extended partition, choose New Logical Drive, and follow the instructions presented by the wizard. When all the partitioning and formatting is complete, exit the Computer Management tool. Access the drive as you would any other—through the Computer folder. By the way, I set up all these drives and partitions long before writing this article. So that’s why most of them already contain a considerable amount of data. The important point to glean from all of this is the fact that each formatted partition on a physical hard drive appears as a single drive icon in your Computer folder.

Other hard drive operations

In this section, I’ll cover some general issues concerning hard disks. All of these operations pose some risk of data loss, and should only be attempted by people who understand the risks and are confident they have backups of all important data.

Converting a FAT disk to NTFS

Windows offers three different file systems for formatting a hard drive. The earliest file system, FAT (File Allocation Table), was used in DOS, and the earliest versions of Windows. FAT32 was introduced with Windows 95. NTFS (New Technology File System) was introduced in Windows NT 4.0, largely to support user access control required in domain networking. When you divide a hard drive into multiple volumes, you can format each independently of the other. (A volume is any partition or logical drive that has its own drive letter and icon in My Computer.) NTFS is the preferred file system for Windows Vista. There’s no reason to use FAT32 or FAT unless you have multiple operating systems installed and can choose one or the other at startup. For example, if you can boot to Windows Vista, XP, and 98, the Windows 98 operating system will not be able to access files on a local NTFS volume. On a network, a Windows 98 computer can access files on an NTFS volume from a remote computer in the network.