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January 30th, 2006 04:00
adding WD Raptor 74GB to XPS Gen 4 problem
Hey Yall,
I recently bought this new hard drive to add to my computer. I do not want to use it as a primary drive, but I want to use it as a secondary drive to store games. However, I have encountered a small problem. First, I am not sure what is the correct method to connect the new hard drive. Here are the two methods that I can attempt:
1) The Serial ATA power connector supplied by Dell that is connected to my Maxtor (bootable drive) has an extra SATA power connector that is free. Should I connect it to my new Raptor? If I do this, then it would seem as though there is no Interface connection for the new drive. Secondly, in this configuration, what system settings in the BIOS do I need for the drivers. Drive 0 is activated, currently. I activated Drive 1, but when Windows loaded, the BIOS found no device for drive 1.
2) The new Raptor came supplied with a Serial ATA cable. Should I use this to connect the new drive to the computers secondary SATA slot? If I do this, then what settings should I set in the Driver section of BIOS?
BTW: WD states that the jumper shunt, by default for desktop users, is fine in the default position, which relates Pin 1 and Pin 2. Additionally, the company says that setting the jumper shunt to relate Pin 3 and Pin 4 is to enable Power Management.
Currently, the drive is happy as a clam just sitting in my computer :smileyvery-happy:, and not being cooperative :smileymad:. Hopefully, you can help me with this basic problem so I can see the Raptor in action.
-puma
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ejn63
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January 30th, 2006 11:00
coolpuma
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January 31st, 2006 00:00
Hey ejn63,
Thanks for your help in this matter. I knew that this task was not difficult, but for some reason, the computer would not recognize the existence of the drive. Determining which route to take, based on your advice, led me discover that the serial ATA cable included with the drive was defective.
Here were the steps to install the WD Raptor 10,000RPM drive on an XPS Gen 4:
1)Using the secondary supplied SATA power connector running from the bootable drive, I connected it to the Raptor. Dell ships the SATA Maxtor drives with a SATA power connector for two drives. One is already connected, and the other is usually just hanging loose. **This supplies power to the new SATA Raptor.
2)I purchased a new SATA interface connection and connected one end to the Raptor and the other end to the SATA slot (labled "2" in white letters) located on the Motherboard. **This provides the serial connection for input and output of data between the board and the Raptor. Like ejn63 noted, the WD drives do not need to be changed to Master/Slave mode. Leave the jumper shunt in the default position.
3)Next, I turned on the computer and pressed "F2" to enter the Setup menu. From here I navigated to "Drivers" and enabled the SATA drive 2, since it is the slot labled on the board. The changes were saved and the computer was rebooted.
4)At this point, I performed the following: Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Disk Management. Highlight the Raptor and initialize and then partition it accordingly. The format, derived from the partition instructions, takes approximately 15 minutes. **This breathes new life into the Raptor.
5)Finally, restart the computer and take the Raptor for a walk.
Thanks ejn63 for your help
Later --------- puma
audiopho
601 Posts
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January 31st, 2006 11:00
The Raptor is a beast when it comes to speed. I just finished a new gaming rig (see my AMD sig) using the Raptor 37gb drive for O/S and other essential apps and two SATA2 drives in RAID0 config. I did a benchmark of two drives over the weekend, to my amazement the Raptor beats a pair of SATA2 in RAID0 by a pretty wide margin or ~50% in seek speed or close to twice as fast in some other operations.
Congrats BTW!
razmig86
180 Posts
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February 2nd, 2006 03:00