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mhaffy

11 Posts

15718

October 1st, 2005 15:00

Adding 2nd SATA Drive to Dimension 8300

The original SATA hard drive shipped with my Dell Dimension 8300 is running out of space so I am going to install a 2nd SATA drive. Would appreciate answers to following questions that I have prior to taking the plung and doing the deed:
 
1) As SATA drives are "auto" select there is no need, presumably, to worry about any jumper settings.
2) As I plan to continue using my current drive for boot purposes etc and new one for additional storage space, presumably I just need to:
a) install 2nd drive in its bay
b) connect 2nd drive to a power supply cable and the mother board via SATA cable.
c) SATA cable presumably slots into the current unsused one on mother board with original drive connections unchanged.
d) format the new drive....
3) Billion dollar question - I run windows XP SP2. How do I go about formating the new hard drive (and avoid formating current one!). Will the new drive be detected and some form of wizard take me through what needs doing etc....
 
Apologies for these somewhat basic questions - just trying to minimise any possible problems/pitfalls when I take the plunge.
 
Many thanks
 
 

1Bowtie

723 Posts

October 1st, 2005 15:00

Just plug the new drive in, boot go strait into bios turn the drive on. #2. a,b,c,d, all yes. #3. everything can be done under control panel, admin tools, comp mgmt, drive mgmt.

mhaffy

11 Posts

October 1st, 2005 15:00

Thanks for swift answers. Sounds pretty straightforward. Fingers crossed - just need hard drive and cable to arrive now.

smiffer

3 Posts

October 5th, 2005 23:00


@mhaffy wrote:
The original SATA hard drive shipped with my Dell Dimension 8300 is running out of space so I am going to install a 2nd SATA drive. Would appreciate answers to following questions that I have prior to taking the plung and doing the deed:
 
1) As SATA drives are "auto" select there is no need, presumably, to worry about any jumper settings.
2) As I plan to continue using my current drive for boot purposes etc and new one for additional storage space, presumably I just need to:
a) install 2nd drive in its bay
b) connect 2nd drive to a power supply cable and the mother board via SATA cable.
c) SATA cable presumably slots into the current unsused one on mother board with original drive connections unchanged.
d) format the new drive....
 
 
Question: I'm sort of in the same boat. I have a Dimension 4700 and have items 1,2,a,b,c completed BUT when I go into Disk Management the second drive is not seen. In the BIOS it's recognized. Any idea why Disk Management isn't seeing the drive??

mhaffy

11 Posts

October 9th, 2005 13:00

Have just got round to connecting up my and SATa drive. Pressed F2 on boot and turned 2nd device on - BIOS now shows:

SATA Primary     Hard drive

SATA secondary Drive     Hard Drive

Went into Control Panel, admin tools, drive mgmt and initialised 2nd drive. Disk 0 is my original drive (C) and Disk 1 is my secondary drive which now has 149gb after initialising. 2nd drive is apparently working properly.

However, in my computer I cannot see the 2nd drive - my original C drive shows up  as do my CD & DVD drives etc..

Advice on how to "locate" and use my new drive would be most appreciated - same prroblem as Smiffer above.....

 

Many thanks

 

Message Edited by mhaffy on 10-09-2005 09:15 AM

mhaffy

11 Posts

October 9th, 2005 18:00

Problem now solved - had to format new drive after changing bios and inititialising. See attached that helped guide me through the process via Windows xp wizard.
 
Good luck

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