New Hard Drive partition problems

No, Dell does nothing to prevent you from using third party hardware in their machines.  You might get a little better help if you would post the model number of the computer.

 

Sorry, The name on the front is Dimension 1100.  The new drive is 120 Gig, as was the old one I think.

 

 

I think it was set to "Master" - is that wrong?

Faranth233

 

Did you set the hard drive's jumper to "Cable Select"?

 

How to reinstall XP on a D-1100/B110 system,

 

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=dim_harddrive&message.id=111978

 

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.

Dells like to have their drives in the "Cable Select" position, but to be honest I'm not sure this is a problem with only one drive.  Have you made sure to put the drive at the end of the ribbon cable opposite the motherboard connector?  Have you looked in the bios setup to see how the drive is being reported?

Thanks, I'll check the jumper positions.  The drive is on the end of the cable.  The BIOS was originally reporting 60 gig. 

Hard drives often have a jumper to limit the size of the drive shown to the os.  Make certain that this jumper is not set.

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Faranth233 wrote:

Hi

 

I could do with a bit of help.  My elderly mother bought a new Dimension early this year.  The hard drive has failed and she has no reciept etc.  So I bought a new Seagate barracuda drive, and OEM Windows XP home. 

 

 The new drive has been installed, but the Windows XP setup cannot partition it, and fails to install.  I have tried the Seagate diagnostic software, and it detects the drive, and it passes the tests.  However, the Seagate software also cannot create a partition.

 

Has Dell done something to the BIOS to prevent me using another hard drive?  Has anyone any suggestions?

 

Thanks

 

It's unfortunate that you went and spent money on a new drive and XP before checking on this site, you can lookup your mother's service tag (on the side of the tower) and see if it's still under warranty for the new drive.  Also, Dell will provide a FREE copy of Windows if you just ask. 

 

I realize that this info is too late to help you, but I'm posting it so that others will see that this option exists.