Replace internal hard drive on Dell Dimension 8100 desktop

You got it right the first time: take the old hard drive out, put the new on in.

From there you'll want to locate your Dell recovery media & put the disc in the drive (should be labeled as Dell Windows 'XP/Vista/7' XX-bit). This will walk you through loading Windows back onto the OS.

Once done, you next need to run your "Drivers & Applications" disc (may say Utilities instead of Apps); should be grey colored. You can see which drivers you need installed by going to Start>right-click My Computer>Manage>Device Manager.

Once done, run updates. Should be good after that.
Let us know if you need further assistance. 

 runorbike

You need to replace the IDE hard drive, followed by reinstalling windows and loading the the drivers.

The procedure for replacing the Dimension 8100 Hard Drive is HERE <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

Note: Set the drive's Jumpers to the Cable Select [CS] setting.

As you did not post the version of windows, being used, I'll assume it is XP.

How to carry out a reinstallation of XP.

First, disconnect all the peripherals from the system, except the keyboard, mouse and monitor.

You can use the Dell's Guide for a Manual Reinstallation of windows HERE 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

and maybe this interactive guide for a clean reinstall of XP HERE 

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>

can help.

While installing, remember to delete all existing partitions when you are prompted, then recreate the partitions and format the hard drive, following by installing XP.

After installing XP, you should install the drivers and applications in the following order,

Desktop System Software [if applicable]
Chipset
Video
Network Interface Card [NIC]
Audio
Modem
Then all other drivers and applications.

Followed by installing the Anti Virus utility, updating the definitions, then all the critical Microsoft updates.

Bev.

Hi there, Many thanks for all the great help.  I am having some trouble here though.  I placed my new hard drive in my pc and then placed the windows xp home edition disk into the cd rom drive and it gave me the screen to reformat the drive which I believe it did after probably 2 hours or so.  I finally got a black screen showing me disk read card error, click control alt delete to restart, after doing that tons of times it just gives me the same ol screen every time.  It also says primary hard drive not found or secondary etc.  I only have the new hard drive installed and cable on cable select.  Im not sure how to get the windows xp disk to even work now.  Your help is greatly appreciated.  Thank you very much

Is your new hard drive on the primary connector? When looking at the ribbon cable (thin, wide & grey) it should be the connector all the way at the end, not the one in the middle. You often see the primary connector as black or blue; the slave connector is often grey.

Hello.  Thanks.  Well I was really careful to make sure I did hook the hard drive back up the way it was originally and the hard drive is hooked up with the connector on the end of the ribbon.  The jumper is on the cs prong, cable select.  I can not get any other screen now except the black one asking me to click control alt delete to restart my machine.  I am just not sure what to do.

Thank you very  much for your continued help. Take care

I have the same issue. In the past I have replaced hdds with no issues. This time I get "HARD DRIVE NOT FOUND". It is NOT listed in the bios, "UNKNOWN DEVICE" "AUTO MODE". The setup process confirms that with a similar message. How to fix it? 8100 Dimension, upgraded to XP PRO, up graded to 512 ram, too much?, 1.3 gig, p4 INTEL 850. I need help please. I need to reload the OS as this drive is empty.

See if your BIOS has the option to set the hard drive to "AHCI" or "EIDE" mode & see if that makes a difference.

I assume you've replaced the hard drive already from your statement: "In the past I have replaced hdds with no issues."