Installing second SATA HDD - Help!

Question

I have a Dell Dimension 8400. I just bought a Maxtor SATA HDD which I connected to SATA 1, whereas the original HDD was connected to SATA-0. From BIOS I enable SATA-1. However, after boot-up the system does not recognise the second HDD. Options available were F1 to re-try booting, which I could not do, and F2 to enter set-up. That's where I got lost. I just dis-abled SATA-1 so that I can go onto this forum and ask for help. Your time and feedback will be appreciated.   Thanks.

noobody · Answer

A few things to check. Hardware: You may wish to use SATA-0 and SATA-2 on your motherboard, instead of sata-1. Be sure that you have plugged in the data cable and the power cable to both drives.   BIOS: press F2 to reach the BIOS.  scroll down to drives.  This should list SATA-0, SATA-1,.... PATA-0, PATA-1, Dual config, etc....  highlight the drive that is new and hit enter.  There should be a window to the right that says ON and OFF... and the OFF will be highlighted.  Change that to ON and save your BIOS settings. I'm sure you know, but please be careful not to change things you do not know about in the BIOS, you can damage your system.  Most things can be undone without any harm.   There is also the RAID controller setup.  If you have the controller enabled (not individual drives seen individually) in the BIOS, you will need to set it so the system can see both disks.   A relatively quick way to test your changes is to make a floppy bootdisk(if you have a floppy drive) and boot to the floppy each time to see if your changes worked.(instead of booting to the winXP cd or the hard drive)   gl.

mombodog · Answer

Try this,
To clear the NVRAM, perform the following steps:

Restart your computer.

At the first text on the screen or at the Dell logo, press the F2 key every three seconds until the message Entering Setup appears.
The System Setup screen appears.

Press the Caps Lock key, the Scroll Lock key, and the Num Lock key to light up all three lights on the keyboard.

Press the Alt and E keys at the same time,Then Alt and B keys at same time, Then Alt and F keys at the same time
The system will emit a beep tone to indicate that NVRAM has been cleared.

Press the Esc key, and then press the Enter key, save the changes and reboot the system.

shesagordie · Answer

bayawan.

It would be easier to install, if you buy a SATA hard drive and connect it to SATA port1 on the motherboard, there are no jumpers to set, a spare power connector should be inside the case.

How to install a second hard drive in the D-9100

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim9100/en/SM/parts.htm#wp1060547

After the drive is installed, enter the BIOS setup and enable [ON] the drive, then it will need to be partitioned and formatted using 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

Bev.

bayawan · Answer

Hello, I just bought a new Dimension 9100 with a 160GB Serial ATA Hard Drive and now I want to add a 2nd drive. Is this what you are trying to do?

Maybe someone else can answer my question? I have no experience with this type of drive.
What I want to do is add a 2nd drive so I can clone drive 1.
It is easy with a IDE drive, simply set drive 1 to master, drive 2 to slave or use cable select.
When I ordered the computer I didn't realize it had this Serial-ATA setup.

Thanks for any help,
Bayawan

bayawan · Answer

Thanks Bev, I'll give it a try. I forgot to mention the computer arrives in a few days so I guess I was getting ahead of myself. Bayawan

shesagordie · Answer

bayawan.   The D-9100 sounds like a excellent system, I hope you enjoy it.   Bev.

ispalten · Answer

Check your BOOT SEQUENCE in the BIOS. It might be that you are trying to boot the 2nd drive? I would think in this case you'd get a message like NTLDR not found however.

I assume the F1/F2 message is because you've not properly set-up the BIOS probably most likely, so check back there. On my XPS, if I enable the SATA drive, the BIOS doesn't recognize it immediately. I have to re-boot to see if it did. When you go back into the BIOS after trying to boot, does it show the drive? If not, that would be a clue that it isn't installed properly or broken even.

The drive should have come with a utility as well that you could set it up and possible formatted it for use as well. If the power is applied and cable connected, it should be able to tell you if the drive is working or not?

Just random suggestions, hope they help.

Irv Spalten

suhaina · Answer

Thank you all for your replies. Still no luck. Tried all the suggestions here, but none worked.

I updated the BIOS from DELL Support as well.

The second HDD only seemed to be 'available' when SATA configuration is set to "RAID ON" but when I used Intel Application Accelerator, the HDD is not there. Going to Computer Management --> Storage --> Disk Management, it is not detected either. It is not seen on My Computer too.

RAID Autodetect or Combination configuration will give this error "Error AutoDetect Hard Disk2" where 2 refers to port SATA-2 connection.

Appreciate anyone's comments.

Storage, Drives & Media

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