Installing a new disk drive

The installation of a new additional disk drive in an Antec Nine Hundred case is relatively easy and quick. The steps are:

1. Remove both side panels of the case;
2. Remove the 8 thumb screws on both sides (4 on each side) of the drive cage;
3. Disconnect the SATA and power cables from the disk drives and case fan;
4. Slide the drive cage forward completely out of the case;
5. Install the new disk drive in the drive cage with 4 screws (2 on each side);
6. Reverse the process.

I restarted Nighthawk after installing the new disk drive and went into BIOS to verify that the disk drive was recognized, saved the BIOS settings, and re-booted into Windows XP MCE 2005.

I disabled the new drive using Device Manager in Windows XP MCE 2005. I don't want Windows XP MCE 2005 accessing and using this new drive reserved for Longhorn, just as the RAID0 Volume containing Vista Ultimate x64 is disabled in Windows XP MCE 2005.

To summarize, Nighthawk now has 2 RAID0 Volumes on 2 physical drives (500GB Maxtor SATA) and the non-RAID 500GB Western Digital SATA.) All 3 disk drives are connected to the Intel ICH8R Controller (SATA ports 1-3.)

I then restarted Nighthawk and booted Vista Ultimate x64.

I ran the Intel Matrix Storage Console to verify that the Intel ICH8R Controller recognized the new disk drive. It did recognize the new Western Digital 500GB disk drive as a non-RAID drive.

(I've just noticed while writing this post that my SATA DVD-RW optical drive is missing. I must have forgotten to reconnect its SATA cable!)

Device Manager in Vista Ultimate x64 also shows the new Western Digital disk drive.

Note that Everest Ultimate shows the new Western Digital 500GB disk drive running at a cool 25C/77F due in part to the cooling prowess of the Antec Nine Hundred case. This case has 2 removable disk drive cages which can accommodate 3 disk drives each. Each drive bay has its own 120mm Fan in front to cool the disk drives.

The next step is to install Longhorn in the new disk drive.