I'm adding an external hard drive to my system for extra storage. I'm unfamiliar with adding additional storage so this is a pretty basic question: do I need to install my copy of Windows on the new hard drive in order to get it to operate? Or can I save, retrieve, etc from the new drive with the version of Windows I have on my C drive? Thanks.

I'm adding an external hard drive to my system for extra storage. I'm unfamiliar with adding additional storage so this is a pretty basic question: do I need to install my copy of Windows on the new hard drive in order to get it to operate? Or can I save, retrieve, etc from the new drive with the version of Windows I have on my C drive? Thanks.

Nope, you don't need to install windows to the new drive, unless you want it to replace the drive you currently have.

All you need to do is format the drive with partitions with filesystems that windows can read. It is probably already all set up and ready to go, if not, I'm sure the instructions will offer a step-by-step explanation.

:)
~psi42