Adding a second hard drive

Question

Hello,   I'm a newbie to the forum, and I know enough about computers to be dangerous.  I have a Dell 8400 that I just purchased 2 months ago.  I'd like to add a second hard drive (internal).  I noticed when I took my old hard drive (other computer) and went to transfer the data to the new drive, that the connection to the new hard drive appears different, something I've never seen before.  In order to plug the old hard drive in, I had to disconnect the Cd-rom's (temporarily) IDE connection and the new computer recognized both drives.   My Invoice summary page says: Module Hard Drive 160 GB, NCQ #1, Generic, Dimension.  When Dell examined my system online it said:  NTFS, 144.3 GB, etc, etc.   I can't find out for the life of me what kind of internal drive to buy?  Can someone help me and what is the odd connection that is connecting to the current new hard drive.  It doesn't look SCSI or IDE?   Thanks

jgpalmerdds · Answer

Thanks EJN 63,

I was posting my second post as you were replying to the first.

So,

If I don't get a second SATA drive and cable, how can I connect my old existing IDE drives when the IDE connection is taken up by the 2 DVD drives. Thanks

ejn63 · Answer

The drive is Serial ATA (SATA). Seagate, WD, Samsung and Hitachi all make good, reliable SATA drives. You will need a data cable for the new drive as well.

jgpalmerdds · Answer

OK,

I've sone some searching on other threads and I'm going to guess that my hard new drive is Serial ATA or SATA, right? Now, I already have two rather large old IDE hard drives. Right now, my IDE connection is connecting my DVD-Rom and DVD-RW. What are my options with connecting one of the current 2 IDE drives as the second drive vs. buying a new SATA (I believe) drive.

Thanks

ejn63 · Answer

You'll either need to add a PCI EIDE controller, or buy an EIDE to SATA converter.

jgpalmerdds · Answer

What do you think works better, faster, easier to install, in your opinion between those two options? Thanks for the help.

rickmktg · Answer

@jgpalmerdds wrote:

What do you think works better, faster, easier to install, in your opinion between those two options?

Thanks for the help.

Promise card is very simple. PATA to SATA converters sometimes have issues.

rickmktg · Answer

@jgpalmerdds wrote:

OK,

I've sone some searching on other threads and I'm going to guess that my hard new drive is Serial ATA or SATA, right? Now, I already have two rather large old IDE hard drives. Right now, my IDE connection is connecting my DVD-Rom and DVD-RW. What are my options with connecting one of the current 2 IDE drives as the second drive vs. buying a new SATA (I believe) drive.

Thanks

Congrats on using the Search successfully to answer part of your questions, few people new to the forum even bother to use Search. The other parts are also answered nearly every day. :smileywink:

jgpalmerdds · Answer

Rick,   What is a promise card?

Flatnose · Answer

I had a promise ultra ide card and a wd120 ide hd I wanted to use in my new 4700. Installed same in the 4700 and had it in for about 3 days all seemed to be ok but two things 1st was at startup you will see a new splash screen for the promise card finding hd. And also my 4700 seemed to run slower and hotter. So I removed ide controler and the ide hd from device mgr. Then turned off and unplugged the 4700 and after about 15min I held in the start button for about 10sec. and then removed the wd120hd and ultra card. Im now waiting for my new wd800jd sata bundel. http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101206-1-316603
My new dim 4700 is such a great computer that why mess it up.
Hope this helps

Message Edited by Flatnose on 06-06-2005 09:36 PM

shesagordie · Answer

jgpalmerdds.   A 'Promise' card is a brand of PCI controller cards, that adds additional IDE/ATA [PATA] controllers to a system, allowing you add up to an addional four IDE/ATA devices   http://www.promise.com/index_eng.asp   Bev.

Storage, Drives & Media

Adding a second hard drive

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