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39767
June 25th, 2013 14:00
Dell Studio XPS 8100 Max Hard Drive Size
Hello,
Looking to install a second hard drive in my Dell Studio XPS 8100. I'm running Windows 7 64 bit O/S.
Does anyone know what's the maximum hard drive size I can install? I think it's 1.5 TB but it might be 3 or 4 TBS. Does anyone know?
Thanks in advance for your help.
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opdell
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June 25th, 2013 15:00
So any size for a secondary slave drive. Thanks
jackshack
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June 25th, 2013 15:00
There is no practical limit on the capacity of a data drive installed into an XPS 8100. If you need to replace the system drive, the limit on that is 2 TB. The reason for the limit on the boot drive is that the XPS 8100 does not have a UEFI BIOS so far as I know. That means that the boot drive must be partitioned and formatted in accordance with the Master Boot Record scheme assuming you are using Windows. The MBR scheme does not support hard drives larger than 2 TB.
So far as a data drive is concerned, and assuming you are using at least Windows Vista, you can choose to use the GPT partitioning and formatting scheme. The GPT partitioning scheme supports drives so large that it should take a few years to reach that boundary.
ricketts78
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August 3rd, 2015 11:00
Well...I just added a 5 TB hard drive to my wifes XPS 8100 and it will only see 574 GB with it partitioned with the GPT using the manage disk option through the windows start menu.
I have an Identical drive on my XPS 7100 (using AHCI) and it sees the full 4,700 some odd GB.
Also, on the 8100 it seems to use Intel Rapid Storage Technology and it sees the full size however it will only allow me to RAID the drive with the 1 TB Master Boot drive. Which is NOT what I want to do.
I have searched and tried everything that I know how and have not been able to resolve this issue. So I called tech support at Dell and they stated that only a 1.5TB is supported by this machine.
So can anyone please tell me if they have had success with a larger data drive in the 8100? If so please help me with the steps.
I will also add that we have updated the BIOS to A05, and we also entered and viewed the advanced chipsets and found that the hard drive handler ( not sure if right terminology) is set to RAID instead of SATA. We also found that changing this setting is a major NO NO!
On my 7100 machine which is successfully using the identical model (Toshiba) is set to AHCI in the same chipset area of the BIOS (which A06 BTW).
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!