Adding a slave hard drive

Question

Hi i have just bought a new hard drive that i'm going to use as a slave, it has been detected in the bio's but windows won't reconize it, I was wondering is this because my maste drive is only a 80gb and the slave is 120gb.

It has been a while sincce I have installed a new drive do i need to format it first before windows reconizes it.

rickmktg · Answer

@Alex2x wrote:

Hi i have just bought a new hard drive that i'm going to use as a slave, it has been detected in the bio's but windows won't reconize it, I was wondering is this because my maste drive is only a 80gb and the slave is 120gb.

It has been a while sincce I have installed a new drive do i need to format it first before windows reconizes it.

Using the Advanced Forum Search on the left, you can quite easily find the answer to this often asked question. Yes, you need to partition and format the drive in Drive Management.

Alex2x · Answer

Problems solved thank you.

Izzy07 · Answer

Whats a slave drive? (I'm a newb don't know much)

Alex2x · Answer

On the motherboard you will have 2 or more ide connectors, you can connect 1 drive as the master, and a second drive called the slave on to 1 ide connector. Are you thining of adding another drive to your comp.

Alex2x · Answer

On the motherboard you will have 2 or more ide connectors, you can connect 1 drive as the master, and a second drive called the slave on to 1 ide connector. Are you thinking of adding another drive to your comp.

Alex2x · Answer

Hey ethier or of the drives will be ok , the only thing that i am concered about , is that I don't know what a dell dimension 4500 has got in it already, I presume is has a dvd or cd-rw or maybe both can you tell what it has because they require ide connections as well.

Izzy07 · Answer

Yes I was. My 80GB harddrive that came with my dell is just about full and I wanted to get another one but didnt know if I could add another internal harddrive or get an external one. I have a Dimension 4500 so I should be able to add one and was wondering what to get. I was looking at getting aÂ 200 or 160GB harddrive maybe a Seagate. Any help would be appreciated.

Izzy07 · Answer

Mine has a dvd drive and a cd-rw drive. Would I still be able to put one in? I would prefer an internal harddrive since its cheaper than an external.

Alex2x · Answer

I have been search the dell site for your comp. I presume it is the same as the dell 4600, if it is, it is the same case is as mine I connected the slave drive to the the second ide connector and put it in under the dvd cdr-w rom it sits nicely in there and works fine, but remember you will need to format the drive before windows will reconize it i used partition magic. next time contact me via Alexpatience@aol.com thanks

shesagordie · Answer

izzy07.

The D4500 motherboard can handle up to four IDE devices, more than four will require the use of a Promise PCI controller card.
These are Dell's instructions for install a second HD in the case.

http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4500/replace.htm#1102155

To install a HD larger than 137GB you'll need XP with SP! or higher.
Seagate HDs are excellent, for a few dollars more, you can get a five year warranty for them.

Bev.

Izzy07 · Answer

So if I update my XP and get SP2 I should be alright installing the 200GB harddrive? Thanks for the tip I think I will get the 5 yr warranty.

shesagordie · Answer

Izzy07. You can use either SP1 or SP2. Bev.

Alex2x · Answer

The D4500 motherboard can handle up to four IDE devices, more than four will require the use of a Promise PCI controller card.
These are Dell's instructions for install a second HD in the case.

Yeah it can handle 4 like all motherboards. 4 IDE devices via 2 IDE sockets on the motherboard like I was saying in the first place. The reason you can connect four is because you can use ribbon cables with 2 conections on it, that is why i was asking what hard disks and cd-roms /dvd- roms etc you have on your machine.

Storage, Drives & Media

Adding a slave hard drive

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