How to add and setup additional drives in your CLX computer

If you ever want to install additional storage into your system, so that you can download more games, or take more photos, it is extremely easy to do so, this guide is going to walk you through the entire process of adding additional storage drives directly into your system.

There are 3 main kinds of storage drives that you can get, that are installed directly into the system. There are normal 3.5” hard drives, 2.5” solid state drives, and then there are M.2 solid state drives. They all have tradeoffs, and each has their own benefit. Hard drives are cheap, and can store a lot of information, but they can be slow when you’re trying to get lots of data off it. 2.5” solid state drives are fast but can be a bit more expensive and faster. M.2 solid state drives are the most expensive drives that are installed into the system currently. They are also the fastest, however some older systems can’t fit any.

If you’re wanting to install a drive into your system, you should check the accessory box that came with your system, to see if any SATA Data cables, or screws were included. If you want to install any drive, you are going to need those cables and screws, and if you don’t see any, you will need to contact our support team for us to send you the correct materials so that you can install them.  

BEFORE YOU INSTALL ANYTHING INTO YOUR MACHINE, PLEASE MAKE SURE IT IS TURNED OFF.

3.5" Hard Drives

Installing Hard Disk Drives (HDDs) into computers is quite simple, as the way to mount them really hasn't changed in the past 15 years. In almost every computer chassis, there is going to be a dedicated section for installing hard drives, into a dedicated drive sled. You would screw the HDD in from either the sides or the bottom, and then you can push the drive sled back into place until it clicks into place.

Once the drive is in place, you would then need to hook up the two cables going into the hard drive. These are going to be the SATA Power and SATA Data connections. The Power is going to be the bigger connector, and the data is going to be the smaller connector. 

The power connector is going to come directly off the power supply, while the data cable is going to come with the motherboard. Usually, the data cable will be plugged into the bottom right side of the motherboard, as there are usually connections either going directly into the board, or onto the right side of the board. 

Once those two connections are in, the drive should be connected properly, and should now be able to be properly set up in Windows.

2.5" Solid State Drives

2.5" Solid State Drives (SSDs), are going to be installed very similarly compared to hard drives, as they can also be installed in the dedicated HDD trays that are in the power supply basement, however, they can also have dedicated SSD trays, that mount to the back of the motherboard tray, or in other sections of the computer. This will change from case to case, so please look at each case you are working with, to see what options are available.

SSDs also use the exact same cables as a standard hard drive, so they will have the exact same connections as hard drives.

M.2 Solid State Drives

M.2s are the newest commercially available SSD, they are small and dense, making it very useful for packing lots of storage onto motherboards while not increasing the cable clutter.

M.2s also have a very unique mounting method, as they are installed directly into the motherboard. To start, you will need to find any open M.2 ports on the motherboard you are working on. These will usually be in the bottom half of the board, around all the PCIe slots.

Once you have found them, you will need to insert the SSD at a 20 degree angle going into the board, This will allow it to slide directly into the M.2 slot, and it is in place when you are unable to see the golden "teeth" at the end of the M.2 drive.

Then, on the other end of the drive, it will need to be screwed, or held in place. There will be a standoff on the motherboard that will line up with the M.2, and screws that should have been included with the motherboard. On certain motherboards, you won't need a screw, as it will come with a retention arm, that will hold the m.2 in place.

SETUP

Now that we have the drives connected to the machine, we need to now set them up in Windows, so that we can start to use them. Luckily for us, this is even easier than plugging them in. If in this process you cannot see the drives you just installed, please contact our support team for assistance.

To start, we will need to right click on the windows icon, and we can open up the "Disk Management" program.

When we open it up, you may have a pop-up asking you to "initialize" the disk, and it would give you two options of either MBR or GPT. You should choose GPT.

Then we will need to set up the new volume on the disk. Within the disk management window, scroll down until you see a drive that has a black progress bar, or where it says "unallocated". you would right click on the unallocated portion, then you would choose the option of "new simple volume".

After you click on "New Simple Volume" you will need to hit the "next" button on the next two popup screens, then you will get to the screen that asks what drive letter you would like to assign to it. If you have a preference, you can choose whichever letter you would like. If you don't want anything special, leave it as the default, and click the "next" button.

Next, we will need to give the storage drive a name. In the box that is labeled "Volume Label" we can put in any name that we would like. We usually recommend something along the lines of "Game Storage" or "Storage", but that is ultimately up to you. Once the drive has a name, we can click "Next".

We can then click the "Finish" button, and the drive should now be showing up in the file explorer!

If you run into issues at any point in this process, please contact our support team for assistance.