Second Hard Drive Dell Inspiron 3847

I have a 500 gig SATA drive from my former Win.7 Desktop. It contains mostly data. I don't want to format it again. When I purchased this Dell Desktop I told the sales tech. I needed to be able to install my old data drive.  I have physically installed it and on booting I see the message smething like "Completed checking Drive D for errors" 100%" But then it just shows the little dots circling and presumably shuts off.  At least after I seem to need a shave and a haircut and leave and return I find it has turned off.

The 2nd drive was formatted and partitioned by the Windows 7 computer and I don't want to lose that data. Must I return this Desktop since the data is more important to me than this particular model of computer?

I tried to link onto the link in this reply from you and the page showed an error. I too, want to add a 2nd internal harddrive in my new Inspiron 3847. thank you.

www.manualowl.com/.../404712

copy/paste go  how to replace your HD

Link is dead to me too, can't recall what it provided.  Gave up trying to add 2nd hard drive to Inspiron 3847 and added external drive instead.  Tried numerous times calling Dell support, was hung up on twice because I couldn't understand the guy, other calls and attempts failed for one reason or another.  Concluded Dell does not sell the drive for which the computer is clearly capable of installation and will not refer to another vendor for a reason not stated.  Believe there is something about the second drive hook up that is flawed.  The computer is a cheapee and the only part Dell sells for it is extra memory.  Freely admit I have neither the smarts nor patience to deal with this.  My computer and probably yours requires exact configuration because of power cable length and location of bay directly under installed hard drive.  For my purposes the external hard drive works and with USB 3 is fast enough.

Good luck, but I hesitate calling Dell for any support or any thing other than placing an order of a listed product.  Although I will say, in thinking the person I talked to knew what I wanted, I ordered and received a hard drive and brackets, close to $100, which wasn't close to the one needed.  Dell accepted the returned drive, told me to keep the brackets, useless to me, and refunded in full for both drive and brackets.

I tried to link onto the link in this reply from you and the page showed an error. I too, want to add a 2nd internal harddrive in my new Inspiron 3847. thank you.

Awesome reply, worked perfectly, thank you for the easy to follow directions, you are a Rock Star!!! :)

NewDellPCUser

Glad to have helped. 

Bev.

I too am wanting to install a second SATA hard drive, which was the data drive on my Windows 8.1 machine. My problem is not the SATA cable, but the power cable, the wide flat ribbon cable. the 2 connectors on the one cable are close together (<1") that they will not span hard drive connectors in the 2 bays. Anyone been able to do this? Is this an exclusive Dell part? I had also gone to a USB3 external setup to work around the problem,  but my online backup program will not back up an external drive.

I too am wanting to install a second SATA hard drive, which was the data drive on my Windows 8.1 machine. My problem is not the SATA cable, but the power cable, the wide flat ribbon cable. the 2 connectors on the one cable are close together (<1") that they will not span hard drive connectors in the 2 bays. Anyone been able to do this? Is this an exclusive Dell part? I had also gone to a USB3 external setup to work around the problem,  but my online backup program will not back up an external drive.

bobdupuy

Unfortunately, I've never seen a Dell power cable for two installed back to back hard drives with power connectors that does not fit. See pages 10/23 of the owners manual HERE:

http://ftp.dell.com/Manuals/all-products/esuprt_desktop/esuprt_inspiron_desktop/inspiron-3847-desktop_Owner%27s%20Manual_en-us.pdf

You could use a SATA power cable extender similar to THIS:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812198015

Bev.

I had same problem as my old hard drive's connection was on opposite (left) side of the drive.  I reversed the rails and installed the second hard drive upside down.  Remove the connection from the original drive before trying to plug the loose connection to the second drive or it won't stretch enough (tight fit when plugging in but works and not stretched once all is plugged in).  The hard drive operates upside down as well.  All is good. 

I added a BD/DVD/CD drive (in addition to the stock DVD/CD drive that it came with) and a second hard drive.  Here are my observations: 

The power connectors for both the 2nd optical drive and the 2nd hard drive worked for me, though I can see how the power connections would be difficult if the drive you're thinking of adding didn't have the power connection in the expected place.  The power connectors are pretty short. 

The motherboard is extremely picky about where the SATA cables are installed.  Check page 11 of the manual for a pic of the motherboard.  On my machine, the primary HD slot is blue and is labelled "HDD1" on the motherboard (the type is pretty small).  The secondary HD slot is white and labelled "HDD2."  The two other slots are black and labelled "CD/DVD1" and "CD/DVD2."  The first time I attempted to install a secondary HD, I plugged into one of the CD/DVD slots on the motherboard and got an error message on startup.  Got the plugs figured out and after that it worked fine. 

My secondary HD is from an old machine and had photos, music, etc. on it and was recognized by the computer w/o any issues. 

Hope this helps. 

Just added a 3TB HDD on Windows 10 and all works perfectly thanks. The caddy and power cables were already in place. Just needed the second SATA cable and connected to the white socket on the motherboard as advised. Thanks all