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June 4th, 2009 15:00
Adding (or replacing) HD in a Dimension 4700
My 4-year-old Dimension 4700's hard drive (Maxtor 80GB) makes an occasional clanking sound on boot-up, and it's making me nervous. What I'm thinking about is doing a pre-emptive replacement: Either replacing it before it craps out or adding a second, larger drive alongside it which I can eventually make the main drive when the old one goes.
My questions:
How do I find out what kind of drive I can use in this machine? Can I use something as large as the WD 320 or even 500 GB Caviars, which I understand are pretty decent drives? Will I have to update BIOS (I've never done it in the 4 years I've owned the machine)?
And would it be easier to go the add-on route instead of replacing the old drive? I'm thinking that it would be, because I'd be able to transfer program and data files over to the new hard drive gradually from the old one, instead of having to try to restore everything from the backup on my external HD.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
RobinBredin
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June 5th, 2009 12:00
Hi Billy, Your Dell Dimension 4700 Series Service Manual is HERE, <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>and HERE <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell>on how to replace your hard drive. What I would do is to copy your private data off your main drive onto an CD, put your reinstall disc into the drive and shut down. Follow the instructions on how to remove and replace your hard drive. Your service manual says you have an SATA drive, it does not matter what size of hard drive you put in. Then do this to reinstall your OP HERE for XP and HERE for your drivers and in what order they go on.
Another way to complete the install without first installing the driver is to change the bios setting to ATA. To do this restart the system and press F2 to enter setup. Once there you can TAB down to Onboard Devices and hit Enter. Then tab down to SATA Operation. You will then see at the top of the screen on the right side ATA and AHCI. Change this to ATA. Save the changes and exit out. Once the system restarts you should be able to complete the install. After the install and you have loaded the drivers you will need to go back into the bios and change the setting back to AHCI
shesagordie
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June 5th, 2009 14:00
Billy Thomas
The easiest method, that I prefer, for installing a replacement hard drive, would be to clone the exsisting hard drive to the new one.
You need a imaging utility, similar to either Acronis True Image Home 2009 or Acronis Migrate Easy 7.0
If you buy the retail boxed version of the Seagate/Maxtor hard drive, a copy of Acronis should be included, this can be used only with their drives, or you can download it from Seagate/Maxtor website, you will also find that other hard drive manufacturers have their own free cloning software available.
First, install the new drive as the secondary, image the exsisting C:/ to it.
Immediately shut the system down, switch the data cable [SATA port 0] to the new drive, making the new hard drive the master and see if the system boots correctly. Boot the system with only the new hard drive connected.
Remember to leave the original drive disconnected, until the new hard drive is working to your satisfaction.
A second SATA data cable will be required, there should be a spare SATA power connector inside the case.
Bev.