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67537
September 18th, 2010 14:00
Dell Dimension 4600 + adding hard drive
I have a 2003 Dell Dimension 4600. Hard drive has crashed. Just got a second that is a SATA drive. I was not told by Dell that the cables would not fit with my existing computer - so, now I am wondering what cables I should use. Computer currently uses a 4 pin power cable for the drive so I can get a converter for that. But what about the data connection? The current data connection is a very long gray bar that has 20 rows of holes for pins to fit into. There is nothing that I can see what would fit this new drive that I have (which is a Western Digital 250GB SATA 8MB Cache)
On the label there is a picture that shows a serial data port with S7 - S1. Any ideas about what cable or adaptor I would need for this?
Also, Dell rep told me that this would be plug and play when I purchased it. Anyone know if this is actually true - or if I will have to do other work on it? (I am not very knowledgable about this stuff.
Thanks in advance for the help!
- Ed
shesagordie
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September 18th, 2010 15:00
EdwardFeather
You need a SATA data cable similar to THIS and a molex 4-pin to SATA power adaptor similar to THIS
The SATA data cable is connected to the motherboard's SATA J8G1 connector, see HERE <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
Installing a SATA hard drive in a Dimension 4600, is not 'plug and play'.
If this is an additional drive to a IDE primary hard drive, you need to make the SATA the primary, reinstall XP and load the drivers, including the SATA driver.
You would find it easier to install another IDE hard drive as the secondary.
Bev.
EdwardFeather
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September 19th, 2010 21:00
Thanks - that was very helpful.
That was my original plan. Get a similar drive to original, but the Dell rep said the SATA was the way to go. So here I am.
I have the cables now. Tried to get the computer to recognize it. Can you give me a few hints about making the SATA the primary drive? How do I know if the computer sees the SATA drive? Once it is there and it is primary, I should be good to go getting the operating system onto it.
Thanks again for the help.
shesagordie
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September 20th, 2010 09:00
EdwardFeather
To install a 250gb hard drive you need a XP SP1, or higher reinstallation disc, not XP with a SP1, or higher upgrade.
Dell does not have the procedure for installing a SATA drive in the Dimension 4600 service manual.
The details for replacing the hard drive, are HERE
<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
After installing the SATA hard drive, connect the SATA data cable to the drive and to the SATA port J8G1 on the motherboard, connect the power cable to the drive.
See HERE
Start the system, enter the system setup [BIOS] and disable Primary Drive 0 and check that the SATA Primary Drive is set to 'Auto' [on] and that the SATA hard drive is recognized in the setup.
See HERE
As the Dimension 4700 has the same chassis as the 4600, the details for the physical SATA drive installation, may help, go HERE
Bev.
EdwardFeather
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September 20th, 2010 10:00
Thank you. Very helpful. One last question (I hope). If I want to old drive to still function, but as a back up drive (there is data I want that is on it), can I rename the drive or make it a secondary drive?
If I am disabling it, will it still work as a secondary drive after the SATA drive is installed and running?
shesagordie
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September 20th, 2010 11:00
EdwardFeather
After you have installed the SATA hard drive as the primary C: / boot drive and have installed XP, loaded the drivers and it's working to your satisfaction, install the IDE drive as the secondary, I believe that you set the jumpers to 'Master', as it's a secondary to a SATA primary and check the system setup to see if it's enabled and recognized.
Bev.
shesagordie
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October 29th, 2010 09:00
EdwardFeather
Happy to have helped.
You can use XP disk management to partition and format the old hard drive to use as addititional storage, the details are HERE <ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed from this post by Dell>
Bev.
otisalex2
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October 29th, 2010 09:00
Thanks EdwardFeather for this thread, and Bev, it's great to see you're still active on the forums (I just sent you a friend request message- you were very helpful to me years ago under my old username, robnalex).
I too have a 4600, need to replace the 8 year old PATA drives (one is starting to fail) but DO NOT want to do a reinstall of XP. If I go SATA, I want to restore C from a DriveImage on a PATA disc, so I would have to run both until I get the OS on the new one. I'm thinking that even with the new SATA drive as primary I can boot from the DriveImage CD and restore my image of C to the new drive?
Like EdwardFeather, I'm trying to figure out just how much of a "project" converting from PATA to SATA will be. There are more SATA drives available (Want 500-750GB) and I like the Seagate drives. WD makes a 500GB PATA- it's a little more expensive, but might be worth it since I won't have to buy cables and adapters, and certainly installation will be easier.
Thanks to the OP and Bev- don't mean to hijack- similar issue- can start new thread if necessary. Thanks!
Rob
shesagordie
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October 29th, 2010 09:00
otisalex2
If you wish to install a SATA hard drive instead of the IDE, you will need to reinstall XP to load the SATA drivers, using an IDE hard drive as the replacement, would allow you to image the exsisting C:/ to new drive.
Bev.
EdwardFeather
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October 29th, 2010 09:00
Yes - Thank you Bev! My computer is up and running. Everything worked. I do have one last question. I want to reformat my old drive and just use as storage. The new drive is working as the boot drive. Very happy with it all. Once I had all the correct wires, I was able to do all of the updates in one evening. Awesome!
How does one reformat a hard drive so it can start off clean and just use as storage?