Dell Dimension 9100 and Pioneer DVR-218L

Hi, Anthony:

The 9100 was designed with only IDE optical drives in mind, so you've actually done pretty well to get an SATA optical drive to work. I'm a big Pioneer fan, but I'll be the first to admit they have had more than their share of incompatibility issues.

Good luck!

I have a 9100 and just purchased a samsung SH-S223L sata optical drive, not knowing i couldnt just pop out my old drive and pop this one in.  I have two sata hdd now.  I see where there is a sata port available (I think) but don't see any power connectors.  The converter you mentioned, will I be able to get that and then somehow plug it into the white ide (?) plug and then attach the sata cable to one of the unused ports?  i would like to keep both hdd's if possible.  THANKS :)

Thanks for such a quick and helpful reply.  I already have a sata cable so I need to get the power adapter.  I did unplug my extra hdd and hooked up the od just to see and it worked perfectly without doing a thing! (I have windows 7) but as you said, is in the wrong place.  so i will follow your steps and hook it up the right way when i get the adapter.  THANKS AGAIN

Hi - I think this gives you all the necessary information.

The Dimension 9100 BIOS does not correctly recognise SATA optical (CD/DVD) drives, but Windows (Home XP) does. Here is what I discovered you need to do when installing a SATA optical drive in the Dimension 9100.

1.  In addition to purchasing your SATA optical drive you will need to purchase a SATA data cable and a SATA power adaptor to convert from from the usual white 4-socket power plug to the SATA sort.  Both these items are readily available on the Internet or in local computer shops. There is a SATA power cable for a second hard drive in the 9100, but it is a lot easier to buy an adaptor because the installed power cable is in the wrong place for the optical drive.

2.  Plug the SATA data cable in beside the existing disc drive (0) cable, which will make it SATA Drive 2 (the SATA sockets are numbered down then across and down).  This leaves SATA Drive 1 free for an additional disc drive (which may of course already be installed) - your primary installed disc should be SATA Drive 0.

3.  Enable SATA Drive 2 in the BIOS.

3.  On a cold 'power-up' boot with a CD or DVD in the drive, the drive is correctly recognised and the boot continues without interruption.

4.  On a cold boot without a disc in the drive, or any warm 'restart' boot, the drive is not recognised and the boot suspends awaiting an 'F1' continue action or the running of the BIOS setup utility.

In all cases, continuing with the boot results in Windows (Home XP) recognising the drive and everything working fine.  All CD/DVD reading and writing works correctly - I was using Nero Essentials 9, which comes with the Pioneer drive, and CD Burner Pro3.

I got my adapter today and installed the drive in the right place.. enabled it in the bios as you instructed and windows 7 automatically recognized it and installed the drivers.. works perfectly.. thank you SOOO much :)