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March 14th, 2008 16:00
Dell Dimension 2400 & a 500Gig HDD
Hi: A Friend of mine still has the old Dell Dimension 2400
anyhow he get a really Good deal on a Western Digital Caviar SE16 Hard Drive - 500GB
I would to Know if he can use that Hard drive with his Dell Dimension 2400
Thanks...
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shesagordie
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46K Posts
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March 14th, 2008 18:00
Yes, you should be fine, the 2400 has no restriction on hard drive size.
Bev.
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mathause
64 Posts
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March 14th, 2008 21:00
Hi: Thanks a lot for your Kind Cooporation
Are you saying that Dell Dimension 2400 Can support a 500Gig HDD (PaTa & Sata)
Or Just Pata !!!!!
Anyhow there is Some Peoples are having a Trouble with a 500 Gig HDD
Here is one of Them :
Unrecognized hard drive
I am working on a Dell Dimension 2400
with 2 GBytes of RAM and a Celeron 2.4
GHz processor. I was trying to install a
500 GByte Seagate Barracuda hard drive but
it will only be recognized if I set it up
as a slave. I can format it,install Windows
XP Pro and see it in the BIOS or Windows as
long as I have it setup as a slave. If I try
to hook it up as a singe or master drive it
will not recognize it in BIOS. In fact if it
is setup as a master drive neither drive is
recognized in BIOS. I have tried configuring
it as Cable Select and Master but nothing works.
Cheers....
jackshack
6.4K Posts
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March 14th, 2008 22:00
The D2400 drive controller is IDE; ATA-6, parallel only. It should be able to handle the 500 GB drive, however. You might need to reset the NVRAM when you install it to make sure the computer recognizes it since sometimes the stored configuration in NVRAM causes the computer to ignore a change.
I know it's not 500 GB, but I recently helped my son install a 320 GB drive in his Dimension 2400. All you need is a Windows XP installation CD that has Service Pack 1 or later.
:smileysad: Late again. I agree, though, it does appear that the user was trying to install Windows on the slave. Maybe it's only the wording, though.
shesagordie
10 Elder
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46K Posts
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March 14th, 2008 22:00
The 2400 does not support SATA, only PATA [aka IDE/EIDE/ATA] drives.
The latter part of your post does not make sense. Is the 500gb drive being installed as a primary, or as an additional hard drive?
It mentions setting up a 500gb hard drive as a 'Slave' and installing XP Pro, on it, windows is installed on the C:/ primary drive, not the slave.
Bev.
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shesagordie
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46K Posts
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March 14th, 2008 23:00
Don't worry about it. :)
Bev.
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mathause
64 Posts
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March 15th, 2008 00:00
Hello : what do you mean By
"The latter part of your post does not make sense"
As I mentioned B4 I got that post from here:
Cheers...
jackshack
6.4K Posts
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March 15th, 2008 06:00
Dell computers, including the Dimension 2400, are designed to use the cable select method of drive selection. This involves jumpering the drive as cable select and using an 80 conductor, three connector, IDE ribbon cable that omits the drive select wiring on the center connector. The middle and latter part of the quote you provided, in which the author is stating he/she can install Windows on the drive if it is configured as a slave drive, implies that the drive is attached to the middle (usually gray in color) connector of the three-connector IDE ribbon cable. If that is what was done it is possible to install Windows and have it run correctly. The problem is that the only bootable drive on the IDE port is the master. The master in a Dimension 2400 is the drive attached to the end (usually black) connector of the IDE ribbon cable. Installing Windows on the slave still requires a boot section on the master drive. Accordingly, the initial boot sectors wind up on the C drive even though Windows is installed on the D drive, or whatever letter is given to the slave.
The original IDE cable on a D2400 is only a two connector ribbon, so it is not possible to install a slave drive unless you also replace this cable with the three connector version. Moving the drive jumper to the slave position usually results in a non-functional computer.