Adding additional HD Problem

Question

hi guys, i have a 4700 Dell Dimension and i tried opening it because i have this old HD that i have in school and was planning to add it on my system.   so when i opened up my dimension, i was surprised that there is no IDE cable connected to my HD, instead its a blue wire connected to it and the power chord thats it.   so the problem now is, how can i add an additional HD if there are no IDE cables connected to my dimension HD, instead its a blue cable directly connected from the MoBo to the HD. there is an IDE cable inside the system but its for my DVD ROM and CD RW. thats it, can someone please tell me how to fix this one out? thanks!

soushi8 · Answer

holy craap. i don't want to give up either one of those devices, if i could just find out whats the name of the blue strip they have onto my current hd, they should have put an IDE instead of that blue strip.   basically they weren't thinking of scalability and expadability of my system. why is dell getting all cheap lately? i mean i was impressed by their CS last 2003 when i bought my first PC from them. now, im having lots of problem regarding CS on my software because it was incomplete, not to mention this one too.

soushi8 · Answer

geez, i got confused all of a sudden. whats these SATA and PATA all about? and how do i know which connection does my HD have? and why are they moving to SATA? whats the advantage over the PATA?

ejn63 · Answer

The industry is shifting from parallel ATA (EIDE) to serial ATA (SATA). Before very long, most new drives will be SATA.

You can add an inexpensive ($30 or less) ATA controller to run the drive, or try a PATA drive to SATA controller converter.

shesagordie · Answer

soushi8. If you have a spare PCI slot, then you could install a IDE PCI controller card for the IDE HD.  Or, you could use a adaptor as shown here http://www.cybercpu.net/review/sata/ Bev.

MrTejas · Answer

I just did this with an 8400. I had a 250gb ide drive. The computer only supports 2 ide devices. I only have a DVD writer so I used the spare ide connection and it works just fine. I foolishly tried asking tech support about this and wasted several hours talking to idiots in India and didn't get an answer.

I think you are out of luck unless you give up either your CD or DVD drive.

soushi8 · Answer

i see the advancement. so if my HD is SATA, is there a SATA cable like the IDE cable wherein you can plug one more? the SATA cable that i have only has one and thats for one hard drive, how about my other HD?

shesagordie · Answer

soushl8.

SATA = Serial Advanced Technology Attachment, these are newer technology hard drives than the PATA = Parallel Advanced Techology Attachment drives.

For more information , read the following http://www6.tomshardware.com/storage/20020812/index.html

"whats the advantage over the PATA?" At this time, there's very little advantage.

Bev.

soushi8 · Answer

the reason why im not letting go because my CD RW (52x24x52) is fast in writting CD's and the DVD i have is just for reading DVD's but nice idea though.

MrTejas · Answer

The SATA connector is about 1/2' wide and the ide connector is about 1.5' wide. The 8400 supports 4 serial HDs and 2 IDE devices. Why not replace your DVD-ROM and CDRW with a DVD writer for $65 delivered? This would free up an IDE connector. I just replaced the CD it came with a DVD writer . The DVD writer writes both DVD and CD. I bought my 8400 reconditioned and took what I could get paying $604.

shesagordie · Answer

soushi8.

The D4700 motherboard has two SATA connectors for two HDs, you use a separate cable for each drive [SATA 0) & SATA 2] and there's one IDE connector [J6J1 for two IDE devices.

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim4700/sm/techov.htm#wp1052362

Bev.

soushi8 · Answer

nice illustration. makes figuring out easier. i saw these slot beside the STA connector conneted to my mobo so that must be it. are there any official names for those SATA connector so that i can look one up on ebay? thanks.

Storage, Drives & Media

Adding additional HD Problem

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