How to migrate XP, Vista, Linux, BSD and Solaris to a bigger or same size hard disk This forum thread gives detailed instructions on the use of the Linux dd command to create bit by bit images of hard drives or partitions, which can be used to migrate your operating system to a new hard disk. It includes several pages of discussion which point out the various intricacies of the imaging process with this free tool.
Ultra DMA (80-Conductor) IDE-ATA Cables A description of UDMA hard drive cables on PC Guide online. The page includes pictures and compares them to the older 40 pin cables.
Ultra DMA (UDMA) Modes A technical description of UDMA modes for hard drives on PC Guide online.
Western Digital The support drop down menu on this site has downloads and installation instructions among other links. Western Digital drives are a popular, affordable brand.
Seagate Store Seagate is another popular brand of hard drive. Their Support link is on the left side of this page, and includes installation instructions, troubleshooting, and downloads.
What is SATA? This Wikepedia article explains the SATA hard drive interface in detail.
IDE vs SATA This CNet forum discusssion points out the differences between IDE and SATA hard drives.
What is IDE? This article defines the IDE hard drive interface. They serve you up an ad page first, so be quick to click the "Skip this Advertisement" link at the top right of the first page so you can get at the article itself.
What is IDE? This article goes more in depth than the above article and does a good job of explaining what the IDE hard drive interface is and some of it's history.
AT Attachment This Wikiepedia article explains in detail the ATA, or IDE and Enhanced IDE, [EIDE] hard drive interface.
SCSI - This Wikepedia article explains the SCSI [Small Computer System Interface] which is used to connect a variety of peripherals to the computer including hard drives.
How SCSI Works - This is a multi page article on How Stuff Works which explains how the older SCSI interface to peripheral devices works.
RAID RAID is the anacronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, and this Wikipedia article explains what it is and how it works. Here is a quote of the first line of the article: "A RAID distributes data across several physical disks which look to the operating system and the user like a single disk."
File Allocation Table Wikipedia entry on the FAT, what it is, who invented it, and details about FAT 16 and FAT 32.
FAT16 Structure Information - Written by Jack Dobiash This is an in depth, very detailed description of the FAT 16 file system which is intended for programmers to learn how to write and read from hard drives.
FAT32 Structure Information - Written by Jack Dobiash This is an in depth, very detailed description of the FAT 32 file system which is intended for programmers to learn how to write and read from hard drives.
How to Read and Write to a Hard Drive - Written by Jack Dobiash This is a very detailed technical explanation of how to read and write to a hard drive.
How to convert a FAT16 volume or a FAT32 volume to an NTFS file system in Windows XP This is a Microsoft Knowledge Base article on how to convert your older FAT to the newer NTFS file system. this article also contains troubleshooting information for when you are having trouble converting your file system.
File System (FAT, FAT 8, FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS) explained This PC Tech Guide article explains the differences between these different file systems and talks about the advantages of NTFS. It includes a chart of the different cluster sizes in the different file systems on different sized drives.
NTFS From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - This article explains the NTFS file system in detail. Wikipedia also lists many references for the file system lower down in the article.
High Performance File System This Wikipedia article explaings the HPFS which was developed for the OS/2 operating system.
Ray's Place This site contains very detailed information about the part of the hard drive called the MBR [master boot record]. This guy and his friends have actually used hex editors and debuggers to extract and de-compile the master boot record from a variety of Windows operating system boot drives, and have recorded the information with explanations of what the code is doing along the way.
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