Adding Second Drive

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@lineville wrote:
Below are excerpts from the web page instructions for adding a second hard drive to a model 8400. Why must you move the original hard drive to the lower bay and add second drive to upper bay? Why can't you leave original drive in upper bay and add second drive to lower bay (which I assume comes empty for the factory)?.

Remove the first hard drive from the upper bay and install it in the lower bay:

Disconnect the power and the data cable from the back of the first hard drive.

Press in the two rail tabs and pull the first hard drive out of the upper bay.

Gently slide the first hard drive into the lower bay until you hear a click.

Reconnect the power and data cable to the back of the first hard drive.

Gently slide the new hard drive into the upper bay until you hear a click.

Connect a power cable to the drive.

Connect the data cable to the drive and to the system board.

Those are directions that are due to the data cable reaching the drives.  In a PATA drive arrangement, the middle connector goes on the secondary drive.  When you put it above the primary drive, the cable bends nicely and hooks into both drives.  Putting them the other way doesn't easily work.

With SATA drives, it may be a non-issue.  In short, if you can hookup all the cables, put them wherever you want to.

I have a related question re adding a second drive.  My 8300 originally was configured with one HDD, located in the top bay of the drive cage.  The routing of the signal cable from the motherboard to that drive was through the green cable guide at the bottom of the drive cage, making a 180, with the end connector connecting to the HDD.

When adding a second HDD, is it OK to flip the original HDD long end for long end (leaving it in the top bay), install the new HDD in the bottom bay (with the same orientation as the flipped original HDD), and then run the signal cable through the green cable guide, the new HDD and finally the original HDD?

This seems to make sense from a cable routing point of view, as long as it's OK to flip the HDD orientation.

I would appreciate any comments on the above plan.

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@BobT78 wrote:

I have a related question re adding a second drive.  My 8300 originally was configured with one HDD, located in the top bay of the drive cage.  The routing of the signal cable from the motherboard to that drive was through the green cable guide at the bottom of the drive cage, making a 180, with the end connector connecting to the HDD.

When adding a second HDD, is it OK to flip the original HDD long end for long end (leaving it in the top bay), install the new HDD in the bottom bay (with the same orientation as the flipped original HDD), and then run the signal cable through the green cable guide, the new HDD and finally the original HDD?

This seems to make sense from a cable routing point of view, as long as it's OK to flip the HDD orientation.

I would appreciate any comments on the above plan.

The directions located online and in your manual tell you to move the primary drive down to the lower bay.  I don't understand flipping long end for long end.  So the cable would come out of the front of the cage?  How would the power reach.  I would do it the way Dell tells you to.

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@BobT78 wrote:
Sorry for the confusion in my description of "flipping".  What I meant to say was changing the orientation of the HDDs so that the side of the drive which was on top (as mounted in the drive cage) is now on the bottom.  The location of the HDD power connectors would then be at the rear, but the power cable will reach them easily. 

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