Adding & Swapping Hard Drive

Question

I have a 160gb SATA in my 8400.  Buying another 320gb SATA.  I have and use Acronis TI 10.   Do I swap the locations of the drives first, boot from the Acronis CD, and clone the old drive?    Or do I just add the new drive in the 2nd SATA location, boot normally, clone, and THEN swap drive locations?    Or does it matter?   And what, precisely, do I need to change in system setup (if anything?) in order for the 8400 to find the new drive?   TIA!

shesagordie · Answer

RapidT

Install Acronis TrueImage 10 on the original hard drive.

Then install the new drive as the secondary, image the exsisting C:/ to it. Shutdown the system, switch the data cable to the new drive, making the new hard drive the master and see if the system boots correctly. Boot the system with only the new hard drive connected.

Don't boot the system with both drives connected, leave the original drive disconnected.

When the new drive is working to your satisfaction, then reconnect the original drive and you can use XP disk management to partition and format it.

Before imaging a hard drive, be certain that existing drive has no corruption or virus on it, as these will be transfered to the new hard drive.

A hint: Read the Acronis 10 manual before imaging the drives.

Bev.

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RapidT · Answer

Hi Bev.  Thanks for the quick response.   Yes, I've gone through the TI manual and it seems that 'cloning' is the way to go.  It also appears that I can resize both my C & D drives (my current partitions) using this method.  So far so good since all I really want is a new drive with 2 larger partitions.   Most of the documentation (unless I missed it) refers to IDE, not SATA, drives hence my confusion about the cabling, drive placement and such.    What about the Dell system setup?  Do I need to change anything in system setup?   Thanks again! Glenn

shesagordie · Answer

RapidT

What is the computer model?

After installing the second hard drive, check the setup [BIOS] that the drive is set to "on" [enabled]

I checked the TI-10 user's manual, refering to cloning and partitioning, pages 70 to 82 and I cannot find any reference to either IDE or SATA, maybe I'm missing something.

Bev.

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RapidT · Answer

Oh... the machine is an 8400 with a WD 160gb SATA drive.

RapidT · Answer

It's in appendix B.   From what I gather after more reading, I need to   1- Install the new HD using the secondary SATA cable. 2- Make sure BIOS settings recognize the new drive. 3- Clone the old drive to the new using TI, adjusting 'C' and 'D' as desired 4- Shutdown, disconnect the old HD and connect the new HD as the primary SATA drive 5- Shutdown and reconnect the old HD as secondary. 6- Re-partition the old drive.   (4) and (5), as I understand it, are necessary so that drive letters are correctly assigned.   Does this look about right?

shesagordie · Answer

RapidT

Yep, you're right about, appendix B, it's about how to install an IDE hard drive, in case anyone does not have an installation guide. Dell's documention about a specific system's hard drive installation would take preference over this.

Yes, the procedures you've listed look right, but on 4, you left out "Boot system using the new hard drive".

Bev.

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shesagordie · Answer

RapidT

I have two D-8400 systems. One cloned and backed up by TI-10 and the other by Casper XP version 3.

Bev.

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RapidT · Answer

Thanks!   That's what I'll try once the drive gets here.  I'll post back if...errr... anything unusual happens!  :)

shesagordie · Answer

RapidT    Good luck and have a happy new year. :)   Bev.         Please don't send me questions about your system by DCF Messenger.Post the issue in the appropriate Board, where they will be answered.

RapidT · Answer

Just a quick note to say that everything worked great and the new drive is up and running.   The only 'issue', if you want to call it that, was correctly identifying the 2nd drive as SATA-2 instead of SATA-1 in BIOS.  Didn't take long to figure out.   Thanks again for all the help!

shesagordie · Answer

RapidT

That's great and I appreciate the feedback. :)

Bev.

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Storage, Drives & Media

Adding & Swapping Hard Drive

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