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XPS 420 maximum hard drive size
I have an XPS 420 with an Intel Core 2 Quad CPU Q9450, a 500 GB hard drive, and one empty bay. Is there a limit to the size of the 2nd HD that I could put in there? I am considering the purchase of a 2 TB internal drive to use as storage. If there is a limit, what is the limiting factor? Motherboard, CPU, or other? Are there other considerations I should know about? Thanks.
shesagordie
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November 19th, 2010 21:00
rturenne
A 2TB Sata hard drive will work fine in the XPS 420.
To install an additional hard drive, you will need a SATA data cable, there should be spare SATA 15-pin power connector inside the case.
You need a 24"+ SATA data cable with a 90* L connector at one end, similar to THIS
Bev.
rturenne
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November 21st, 2010 13:00
Thank you, this was most helpful.
shesagordie
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November 21st, 2010 13:00
rturenne
Happy to have helped.
Bev.
speedstep
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November 22nd, 2010 11:00
There are issues with 3TB drives and some OS so they are currently being
sold with a controller that does some kind of translation and drivers using AHCI interface.
Micro Center - Caviar Green WD30EZRSDTL 3TB SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5 ...
Compatibility
32-bit
64-bit
32-bit
64-bit
32-bit
64-bit
Leopard
Snow Leopard
Supplied HBA
Required
1. Apple Bootcamp is presently not supported. Support is limited to the operating system only.
NOTE: An available PCI-E slot for the Host Bus Adapter, HBA is required. Supported by using the native Windows Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) drivers only.
Internally the drive uses 4K sectors the controller translates to
512-byte sectors. This means to a SATA interface the 3TB drive
looks like a drive with 512-byte sectors
The FreeAgent GoFlex Desk refers to Seagate’s line of external 3.5” drives.
The drives themselves are standard 3.5” hard drives in a plastic enclosure designed to mate with GoFlex Desk adapters
that add USB 2.0, USB 3.0, FireWire 800 or Ethernet connectivity to the drive.
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?sku=A3994307
The 3 TB FreeAgent® GoFlex™ Desk External Drive from Seagate® delivers high-capacity storage and automatic, continuous backup with encryption for all your files with its preloaded software. Use the standard USB 2.0 interface or upgrade to USB 3.0 or FireWire® 800 by pairing the drive with the appropriate GoFlex upgrade adapter to instantly increase file transfer performance by up to 10x. Featuring plug and play USB 2.0 adapter it makes easy to connect to your PC or Mac® computer. Plus, the included NTFS driver for Mac, you can now interchangeably store and access files from PC and Mac computers without reformatting. This NTFS driver is simply installed once on your Mac computer, allowing it to access and store files in a PC compatible format. Offering both vertical and horizontal drive orientation, the drive complements any desktop. Accompanied with these features, you now have the ability to upgrade your connection interface to suit your needs.
Manufacturer Part# : STAC3000100
Dell Part# : A3994307
Hanspuppa
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November 28th, 2010 08:00
Hello, As everyone has suggested, a second hard drive can be added to the XPS 420 system. I have found that on many of these systems, the blue hard drive caddy is not included in the hard drive bay. You will need this caddy to install the second hard drive.
Although many XPS 420 owners and certain other models as well may not be aware, a third had drive can sometimes be added in the flexbay area of the front bezel. This hard drive needs no hard drive caddy, and can be installed with the necessary screws provided inside the case. You will need an additional sata cable and there should be an available power supply connector in the case.
Since the motherboard supports 5 sata ports, 2 optical drives and 3 hard drives can be installed in the XPS 420.
You would need to enter the BIOS and enable any sata ports that will be connected to these newly added drives.
Hope this helps.