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2nd hard drive installed in inspiron 531. sata ports not enabled
I recently installed an 2nd drive in my inspiron 531. the is the full size 531. not the 531s. I have amd 2.6ghc dual core, 4 gig ram, 8600gt. the sata ports 2 and 3 are not enabled in the bios and I do not seem to have the option to change them. They are both reading empty and are greyed out. None of the posts I have found anywhere on the internet are matching up with the settings in my bios. Please help. I'm freakin out.
Rick999
2 Posts
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August 18th, 2014 15:00
The answer to go into the bios on the 531 and change the Sata ports to 1 and 2 was exactly the right answer. Worked like a charm. This is something I never would have found anywhere else and didn't seem to be in the owners manual. I am currently involved in a "project" to upgrade a 531 as much as possible with a new larger HDD and DVD writer and installing the max memory to 4gb along with a upgraded Athlon 64 x2 5600 at 65w. Hopefully this won't mean I need a bigger power supply too. If I have a problem, I will look to this community for solutions.
Dell-Brad L
Community Manager
Community Manager
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2.2K Posts
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April 22nd, 2009 13:00
What is the size of the hard drive, and what version of the BIOS is the system running? Does the BIOS allow you to select SATA ports 2 or 3, and if it does can you change the settings by pressing Page Up or Page Down? If the Page Up or Page Down did not help I would recommend unplugging your current hard drive and using the cable from it on the new hard drive. After doing this does it change anything when you enter the BIOS? For example does it identify the new drive where your old one was, or does it state “none” now?
Make sure to have the system turned off before swapping the drives. If you have any questions please let me know.
grizzlebahr
3 Posts
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July 24th, 2009 01:00
I'm having the same problem with my Inspiron 531. I have the latest BIOS from Dell's site. When I put my 2nd drive into port 2, it isn't detected. As of right now I have both my drives in ports 0 and 1 and my DVD-Drive in port 2 and it won't detect either. In BIOS the 2nd and 3rd remain greyed out and won't let me make any changes regardless of what is plugged in them.
ralph_bailey51
6 Posts
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August 2nd, 2009 18:00
Have you ever found a solution to this?
I installed a new 1.5 TB hard drive, but cannot be recognized on Sata 2 or 3 as they are greyed out on the BIOS setup, so they are not activated.
I have gotten the drive to work on Sata1, but that slot was used by the DVD drive and that DVD drive will not work on 2 or 3.
Hopefully you have found a solution by now and can offer me some help.
Thanks.
ralph_bailey51
6 Posts
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August 3rd, 2009 06:00
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You asked these questions for someone else problem in April and since I am having the same problem, could you help me with this?
I am trying to install a 1.5 TB Seagate Barracuda hard drive.
The BIOS that I have is Dell Phoenix 1.0.13.
The factory setup is the hard drive in SATA0 and the DVD drive in SATA1. Since the Dell documentation says to use SATA0 and SATA1 for hard drives, at first I switched the DVD to SATA3, but the DVD wasn't recognized and the additional Seagate drive was plugged into SATA1. The PC recognized the Seagate as present in SATA1. I made several switches among the SATAs and finally realized that SATA2 and 3 were not activated.
I now have the DVD back in SATA1 the way it was. The BIOS setup shows SATA0 and SATA1 present, but the new Seagate drive does not show up. SATA2 and 3 are greyed out, so it appears they are not activated and I don't know how to do that. The SATA information on the setup could not be accessed as they were all greyout, so the Page Up/Page Down could not be applied to the SATA fields.
Another issue is when I did have the new Seagate drive activated in SATA1, I tried to format it and it got stuck twice at 73% formated. Any suggestions for overcoming this problem?
Thanks.
ralph_bailey51
6 Posts
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August 3rd, 2009 09:00
It looks like I do not have a SATA5, only 0,1,2 and 3. It seems like I need to find something other than 2 or 3
Thanks.
RobinBredin
3.7K Posts
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August 3rd, 2009 09:00
Hi, Like you my SATA 2 and 3 are greyed out, so I have my second drive connected to SATA 5, and it works.
RobinBredin
3.7K Posts
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August 3rd, 2009 12:00
Hi, Found this, more HERE. This HERE says you should have SATA 2 + 3. The reason why my SATA 2and 3 are greyed out, is the fact that there are no connectors on the mobo. Also make sure you have the latest BIOS. If your SATA 2 + 3 are greyed out, it might be down to your BIOS or your chipsets. Have you done a reinstall using your disc's, if so, then your drivers were put on in the wrong order.
Recommended Drive Cable Connections
Connecting Drive Cables
When you install a drive, you connect two cables—a DC power cable and a data cable—to the back of the drive.
dhwcaw
1 Message
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September 20th, 2009 09:00
I had the same issue - here is the solution:
Reboot and enter bios setup (F2)
Step 1: HDD SMART: DISABLED
Step 2: Advanced / Integrated Peripherals / Serial-ATA Configuration;
set the SATA controller to SATA 1+2 - this activates the other 2 SATA ports
That should do it - good luck!
ralph_bailey51
6 Posts
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September 20th, 2009 19:00
Thanks, so much. It worked like a charm.
grizzlebahr
3 Posts
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September 20th, 2009 19:00
Worked perfectly. Thank you soooooo much!
schaechter
1 Message
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March 20th, 2012 00:00
SUPERB! You know the machine and gave a perfect answer. We need more folks who are so helpful.
osprey4
4 Operator
4 Operator
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34.2K Posts
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August 19th, 2014 17:00
Hi Rick999,
Glad this old thread was helpful. The upgrades you are planning should not require a bigger power supply.
Good luck with your project!
brunob99
3 Posts
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December 17th, 2014 05:00
Now I have another problem... the 2TB hard drive does not format past 54%... it just stops!
Rick999
2 Posts
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December 17th, 2014 10:00
If you are using Vista operating system, check to see if it permits more than 1TB hard drive