New Hard drive for Inspiron 530 - warning signs?

Garry.

The Inspiron 530 Mini Tower's power supply wiring harness does have four SATA power connectors, one for each of the four drives, see HERE

A SATA data cable only connects directly to the motherboard and to the drive.

Instructions for physically installing a second hard drive in a 530 are HERE.

You need to connect SATA data cable to a open SATA connector on the motherboard, preferably to SATA 1

After installing the drive enter the system setup and check that the hard drive is 'enabled' [on] and recognized. Enter Setup/Advanced Tab/Integrated Peripherals/ Highlight Serial-ATA Configuration/Select the SATA Controller.

SYSTEM SETUP.

For windows to recognize the second hard drive, it must be partitioned and formatted.

Go to Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Storage, Disk Management, right click new drive, select format, then you can assign a drive letter.

Bev.

Ps. I have an Inspiron 530 MT with two internal and one external hard drives and use Arcronis TI daily for backups.

Thanks Bev

I've taken a couple of pics of the inside of my tower

re the SATA cables, i can only see 2, one for my current C drive and the other connected to my dvd drive,

as per pic, blue cable for c drive, orange cable for dvd drive

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q239/untamac/P1140003.jpg

also have a picture for the connection into the current drive

http://i137.photobucket.com/albums/q239/untamac/P1140005.jpg

alongside the blue sata cable, i believe the next multi coloured cable is the power cable? but i cant find another cable the same as this available on the loom, something slightly similar but with a wire less on the dvd drive??? would this work?

If not, i cant see where i would plug this in if i have to get a new cable, would i just need a converter/connector?

Thanks again :emotion-1:

Garry.

The Inspiron 530 Mini Tower has five different versions and nomenclature

Go to the first link I posted and check the graphics of the different Inspiron 530 motherboards versions used and post back with model you have.

The 530, 530a and 530c motherboards have 4 X SATA connectors and 4 x Memory slots, the 530b and 530d versions have 2 x SATA connectors and 2 x Memory slots.

Bev.

Garry

All the four drives supported in the 530, use a standard 15-pin SATA power connector, so they should be interchangable.

Could you please post a picture of the DVD power connector.

Bev.

Hi Bev

Ive got a 530, i can see that there are 4 sata slots on the motherboard - but the SATA cable isn't really a problem because i can use the sata cable currently connected to my dvd drive,

But i cant see what to use for power, as the power cable for the dvd drive looks different to the cable connected to the original drive?

Many thanks

Garry

Garry.

The connector on the left, is a 15-pin SATA power connector and the connector on the right, is a SATA data cable connector.

There's no need to be concerned about the wiring to the SATA power connectors, some connectors have five wires and others have four, but this makes no difference, as they will all work the same.

Bev.

Hi Bev

Pic below

Must admit, im getting a little confused as to what is a SATA cable, the drives have 2 cables, (as below) a thin flat cable and a mutli cable

The thin flat cable from the dvd fits the new secondary drive perfect, but the multi cable seems to have one red cable less than my current drives cable - does that matter? (i belive that's the power cable) and i cant find another cable connector within the pc that is exactly the same as the cable currently used on my C drive???

Many thanks

ah great, thanks Bev

I just reconnected the secondary drive using the dvd drive cables

This is what i did the other day but could not see the new drive on my "drive" list

Went to device manager and found it, just used the free seagate software and its now prep'd the drive and i can see it in my drive list in "my computer

Happy days!! :emotion-11:

Will now go ahead with the image backup etc

Thanks a mill Bev, :emotion-1:

Garry

Garry.

:emotion-21:

Bev.

HI Bev

Completed the drive copy, but when i switched the cables and rebooted from the new drive i get the following error message;

NTLDR is missing - Press CTRL+ALT+DELETE to restart

Is there some other setting or adjustment that i need to make?

Many thanks

Garry

Garry.

Sounds like the cloned copy is corrupt and you may need to reimage the drive, but it could also, be possible that the original hard drive is too badly damaged to be cloned and you will need to carry out clean reinstall of windows on the new hard drive, followed by loading all the drivers and applications

Have you read Seagate's DiscWizard instructions for using their software?

Are you using Vista, or XP?

Bev.

HI Bev

As in most of the way ive gone though this process, looks like i spannered the clone

I had another look at the seagate software and i just did and "image" of the drive and not a "clone" Durrrr

The clone is in progress now and seems much more like it, (pc shut down and drive is being copied before the boot)

Thanks for nursing me along! lol

Think im nearly there... finally :emotion-1:

Garry

Garry.

Ain't computers fun.  :emotion-4:

Just think of it as an education in computer repair.

Bev.

Garry.

Congratulations, pleased to hear everything went well.   :emotion-2:

Bev.