Adding second drive

Question

I have a Dimension 4700 that I would like to add an second hard drive to. It is a slightly older drive but works fine. I went to plug in the IDE ribbon onto the motherboard, but the IDE port has a different arrangement of pins. The ribbon has 20 holes on the top row and 19 on the bottom row. The IDE port on the motherboard has 2 rows of 20. The hard drive that is installed now doesn't have an IDE connection it's a different type, a new type I'm assuming. How can I install this drive? Is there an adapter for this or a different IDE ribbon that I need.

Thanks for your help,

Nick

shesagordie · Answer

guitarnick.

The D-4700 motherboard has only one IDE connector for two IDE devices, If you wish to install a IDE hard drive and have two IDE devices already installed and there's a spare PCI slot, then you could buy a IDE PCI controller card [cost $30-$50] that has two IDE ports, You could buy a converter kit to convert IDE drive to SATA.
Personally I would prefer to use the PCI controller card, but if you don't have a spare PCI slot, then you will have use the convertor.

http://www.addonics.com/products/io/ide_sata.asp

Bev

guitarnick · Answer

Thanks for the tip! My DVD drive/ burner is on an IDE ribbon the does have an extra connector on it. I didn't even look to see its hole configuration. Can I attach it there? I would set the DVD drive on master and hardrive on slave right?   So when then why does the IDE slot on the motherboard have a different configuration than my IDE ribbon?   Thanks!!   Nick

shesagordie · Answer

guitarnick.

Yes, connect the HD to the middle ribbon connector, set the HD's jumpers to "Cable Select" and check in the BIOS setup that the drive is set to auto [on].

If you wish to partition and format the second hard drive, you can use XP's disk management. These are generic instructions for installing an additional hard drive using Windows XP Disk Management, they are by Seagate, but apply to all brands.

http://www.seagate.com/support/kb/disc/howto/install_xp_disk_mgmt.html

The other connector on the motherboard is for the floppy drive

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

Bev.

guitarnick · Answer

Thanks Bev!!

shesagordie · Answer

guitarnick.   Pleased to have helped.   Bev.

Storage, Drives & Media

Adding second drive

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