2 year old Dell. This came with a 40gb hard drive,had problems with it and it was a faulty hard drive. They replaced the hard drive with a used 8gb hard drive to see if that was the problem and it was. Works perfect now but was wondering if I could install an external hard drive. I'm told if I replace the internal hard drive I would lose everything. My thinking is I could buy the external hard drive and use it with the current internal hard drive. Can I do this? Thank's John

The simple awnser is sure you can add an external drive. & unless there is something unique about Dell I see no reason why you can't add a larger internal drive. Most manufacturers offer setup software with the capability of cloning the existing drive onto the new. I've done it several times with Maxtor drives & MaxBlast with no problem.

Also depending on your model you may be able to add an additional internal drive & leave the OS on the 8gb.

What is your Dell model & #?

Also do you know the 8gb hard drives' manufacturer?

Jephree is exactly right - you could replace the hard drive with a bigger one inside your PC and, as it's only 2 years old, your Dell will have come with a recovery CD to re-install Windows. Different Dells had different kinds of CDs though. Some came with a full recovery CD which restores the whole PC to how it was when it left the factory. Some Dell systems came with a Windows installation CD, where you had to go through the install process yourself, then another CD for the drivers, then another CD for bundled applications.

Do bear in mind, though, that you WILL lose your personal data, documents, etc if you replace the 8Gb hard disk and can't back them all up first.

If you're not confident with installing Windows etc, then adding a second internal hard drive is the answer.

If you're not confident about opening up your PC, then adding a USB drive should be very straightforward, as Jephree confirmed

THANK YOU for your reply's! I do appreciate it! I will buy the hard drive and give it a try. Once again,thanks! John

Glad we could assist

If you are going for an external drive, you may be interested to know that I've got Maxtor 160Gb drives for £114.95 plus delivery, if it helps: http://auctions.qxl.co.uk/DJNafey

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