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42316
February 8th, 2009 17:00
Adding extra H/drive to Optillex 170L
Hi Guys
I have purchased a 250Gb Sata 2 western Dig H/drive for my old Optiplex 170L & would prefer just to have it as a second H/drive for storage as present 40Gb too small but cant be bothered just replacing old drive & re installing XP . Can I do this ?
Oziwombat
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Hanspuppa
799 Posts
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February 9th, 2009 06:00
Hello oziwombat, HERE
are the specifications for your system. There seems to be two models of the Optiplex 170L.
The mini tower will support two hard drives while the desktop will support only one hard drive.
The catch is, as you noted, that it supports one IDE and one SATA.
If your system supports two hard drives, they cannot be both SATA.
Sorry for this lack of support for two SATA hard drives.
Hope this helps.
Hanspuppa
799 Posts
1
February 9th, 2009 17:00
Hello oziwombat, That sounds like a great plan. Backup systems are extremely important, much more than most users realize.
It only takes one disaster to realize this. At some point these backups will save your day.
And at some other point, you will find a use for the other hard drive.
I have a closet full of them to use on other's systems that have the IDE drives and now a few with SATA drives.
Good luck and thanks for the update.
Hanspuppa
799 Posts
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February 14th, 2009 18:00
Hello oziwombat, There is no such thing as a dumb question. There are some dumb answers as I offered you and you wisely caught.
You are indeed correct, that your system has only IDE (molex) power connectors. I was looking at the Desktop power supply.
Dumb mistake on my part.
The SATA data cable should just plug into the SATA port on the motherboard.
You may have to enter the BIOS and enable the SATA port to get the system to recognize the new SATA drive.
You will have to acquire the adapter from the IDE (molex) connector to the SATA power connector.
If you want the new SATA drive to be the OS drive, if it is a retail version, it will have a CD that will prepare the drive for the OS install.
If it is an OEM version, it want have the cables or the CD.
The CD can be downloaded from the hard drive supplier's web site. You would have to locate the power adapter however.
HERE
is a link to the manual that shows where the SATA port is located on the motherboard.
It is labled No. 8 and should be in the lower right section of the motherboard.
Please keep us updated on your success.
oziwombat
32 Posts
1
February 20th, 2009 04:00
Hi Hans
Just an update on my h/drive ... My local PC shop will clone my present drive for &40.00 & supply all parts needed for my OEM 250 gb H/drive & fit for $20.00 which I feel is a good deal .
Thanks for all your help ..
Ozi
Hanspuppa
799 Posts
0
February 8th, 2009 18:00
Hello oziwombat, Here
is a link to the Dell site where you can locate the information to add a second hard drive.
You must have Windows SP1 to format and use the full capacity of the 250GB hard drive.
Hope this helps.
oziwombat
32 Posts
0
February 8th, 2009 20:00
Sorry man. Did not think to read the manual :emotion-3: I am up to Sp3 on XP & both drives are Sata & if I am reading manual corectly , one has to be IDE is this corect ?
Ozi
oziwombat
32 Posts
1
February 9th, 2009 17:00
Many thanks Hans .
Mine is the Mini tower & it is my backup PC & I already purchased the Sata & looks like a clean install for me & I will keep old h/d for a spare .
Cheers Ozi
oziwombat
32 Posts
1
February 13th, 2009 03:00
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Hi Hanspuppa .
Went to fit new W/Dig 250gb H/D & *** fittings are different to mine & maybe best to take it to someone who knows what they are doing & I don't muck up my recovery on old drive .
Thanks anyway .
Ozi
Hanspuppa
799 Posts
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February 13th, 2009 07:00
Hello oziwombat, Can you advise what the difference with the fittings are.
You may have and IDE drive, which require the larger ribbon cable or is it a SATA drive, which requires the smaller, usually red cable?
Can you list the model numbers of each drive and I can look them up and see what they are, SATA or IDE?
If your 40Gb drive is a SATA and the new drive is also a SATA, you want be able to use both at the same time.
A 40 GB SATA seems a little unusal to me as I don't recall any SATA drives of that small capacity. I could be wrong as I am quite a bit it seems.
If the 40Gb drive is a SATA, you could acquire a small 40GB IDE drive and install it along with the 40GB SATA drive and copy the data from the 40GB SATA to the 40GB IDE and then remove the 40GB SATA and install the 250GB SATA and copy all the data from the IDE drive to the new SATA drive.
This is quite a bit of trouble but it would seem to work from where I sit.
Hope this helps.
oziwombat
32 Posts
1
February 13th, 2009 20:00
Hi Hans
Is there any way to check without going in & pulling the H/d out ? Old drive is connected by a ribbon type connection & another white four pin connection & I can not recall seeing any red cables .. Can I check with Xp's hardware mgr ? Gee , it would be excellent if it was an IDE drive
.:emotion-19:
Ozi
H/Ware Mgr has this as a ST340014A & is a 40GB SATA150 - 7200 RPM - Hard Drive - Original SEAGATE part . :emotion-39::emotion-40:
Ozi
Hanspuppa
799 Posts
1
February 14th, 2009 07:00
Hello oziwombat, HERE <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell> is a link to the manual for the hard drive you list. It shows the ST340014A to be an IDE type hard drive. Also you mention it is connected with a ribbon cable which indicates it is an IDE hard drive.
If it were a SATA hard drive it would connect with a very much smaller, normally red, cable and a different power supply connector.
The H/Ware Mgr. is apparently showing it as a SATA I, which is incorrect. It is an IDE hard drive.
I believe we have determined that your system will support one IDE drive and One SATA drive.
If this is correct, you could just install the new SATA drive and connect it with the SATA cable.
The power connector is different for a SATA drive and the 4 pin molex connector will not connect to the SATA hard drive.
There are adapters available the converts the 4 pin molex power connector to a SATA power connector.
These should be found at any store that sells hard drive and/or power supplys.
You may have one that comes with the new SATA drive, as some of these do.
With the exception of the power cable issue, I believe you are good to go with your new SATA hard drive, just by a normal install.
I just took a look at the power supply for your system and HERE
it shows that the P2 connector from the power supply is a SATA power supply connector.
This would resolve any issue with the SATA power supply connector.
Hope this helps.
oziwombat
32 Posts
1
February 14th, 2009 17:00
Hi Hans & that has brighten up my day :emotion-2: . My Pc is the mini tower & is you check that power connection you will notice that P2 is a IDE connection .:emotion-6: Does the new Sata connections plug into the mother board ? And is the new H/d plug & play ? Sorry for what be dumb questions , but still have heaps to learn .:emotion-40:
Many thanks for the help .
Ozi
Trafficflow
2 Intern
•
295 Posts
1
February 14th, 2009 18:00
Hello . Can I jump in on this thread? I dropped in the community and saw a listing about a 170L optiplex. I am swapping out a board with a 170L mobo. I have two ide hard drives and when I went to set up it came back wanting me to do a diskchk?. When I was doing that my cpu fan stop working. Any ideas? I guess I could hook up a fan to the psu if I can find the connectors. Thanks
Hanspuppa
799 Posts
1
February 15th, 2009 08:00
Hello Trafficflow, When swapping out a motherboard, you normally would want to do a fresh install of the operating system, drivers, and all the applications, even if it is the same model motherboard. There may be newer revision numbers of the same model number.
The diskcheck attempt would be normal when a drive is disconnected from the system as yours were.
There is only one CPU fan connector and a properly working CPU fan will be required to be connected to this fan connector on the motherboard, or the system probably want boot. If it attempts to boot and senses the fan is not working properly, the system will shut down.
You need to have the correct Dell fan for your system. If the CPU fan is not working properly, you might try to test it to insure that it is a faluty fan and not the motherboard.
Just some thoughts.
Trafficflow
2 Intern
•
295 Posts
1
February 15th, 2009 10:00
Thanks for coming back Hans. I understand about the diskcheck and will try that after I get it going. Let me give some more facts. I think what you are descibring is what might be happening. When i first started after mobo change the fan worked but something was not right. Could not explain though.When the fan stopped running i smelled the heat but I don't think I trashed any parts yet.I tried a different fan same issue. I have no idea about the make of fan. When the puter is booting it acted like the fan was trying then it stopped just like when I took the cpu out and put the meter on.I had 7 volts on terminals also. I think it is shutting down like you said. I have a part no.for a Dell fan. Will check in to it. If I damaged the cpu I have another though. I just do not want to damage mobo. Will take it slow. Will wait to see if you have any more input before I start. Thanks again.